Technical Stock Market Briefing for Day & Swing Traders
| By Harry Boxer, Technical Market Analyst
Market Mixed as Middle East Tensions Escalate
U.S. stock indexes fell on Friday amid heightened anxiety in the Middle East, sending the market lower. U.S. stock indexes finished the holiday-shortened week narrowly mixed, fluctuating throughout the week amid a slew of headlines regarding escalating tensions in the Middle East. After recording gains the previous two weeks, the S&P and the NASDAQ closed mixed.
Smaller-cap indexes performed best for the week, followed by the Nasdaq Composite, which posted modest gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was relatively flat, while the S&P 500 Index finished modestly lower.
Sector and Stock Highlights
The best-performing sectors were financial services, up 0.89%, and energy, up 0.87%. The worst-performing sectors were healthcare, down 2.43%, and basic materials, down 1.33%. Large-cap stocks lost 0.31%, mid-cap stocks rose 0.54%, and small-cap stocks rose 0.89%.
Top stock gainers included EchoStar (SATS), Coinbase Global (COIN), Reddit (RDDT), Bath & Body Works (BBWI), and Estée Lauder (EL).
Solars were the leading group to the downside after losing solar credits. Sunrun (RUN), Solaredge Technologies (SEDG), Enphase Energy (ENPH), First Solar (FSLR), and Plug Power (PLUG) performed the worst.
Commodities, Crypto, and Technical Picture
The price of U.S. crude oil surged more than 7% on Friday to the highest level in four months after Israeli military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities raised the prospect of oil supply disruptions and renewed inflationary pressures for the broader economy. On Friday afternoon, oil was trading around $73 per barrel, up nearly 12% for the week.
The price of gold resumed its year-to-date climb, rising to new highs that eclipsed earlier records set in late April and early May. The precious metal was trading around $3,450 per ounce on Friday afternoon, up from about $3,320 at the end of the previous week and $2,600 at the end of last year.
Crypto had a relatively quiet week, with Bitcoin briefly dropping outside its prior week’s range before trading back into it. The Senate’s approval of the GENIUS Act (a bill that establishes clear regulations for stablecoins) didn’t seem to impact price.
Technical Setups to Watch
Technically, the indices appear to be coming off KEY overhead resistance and may do some testing of lower levels, but the trend is your friend, and KEY support price and moving averages support below are still holding for now. We may soon see if the indices will make a more directional move, as the indices have been consolidating in relatively narrow ranges for a few weeks now.
In any case, as usual, at thetechtrader.com, we will always “Trade What We See, Not What We Think.”
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