Good morning! It looks like I missed out on some pretty nice trading last week. After sellers flushed out the market the Thursday before last following the tragic bombings in London, the indices have been climbing steadily.  A lot of the daily breakouts took place into that Friday and the following Monday, but most of the market continued higher throughout last week. Both the NASDAQ and SP500 broke the prior pivot highs on the daily charts from June and by the end of the week the Dow Jones Ind. Ave. was also coming into that same price zone.

After gapping up pretty strongly last Thursday, the market fell into a trading range for the remainder of the week. The NASDAQ held up the best, managing to make slightly higher highs on Friday afternoon after basing right at Thursday's highs. The SP500 was the weakest of the three and had pulled back more on Thursday, closing the gap at the noon reversal period on Friday before pulling back up into the afternoon.

The intraday action over the last two trading days was pretty nice. Intraday patterns held and followed through well. Volume was on the light side, however, particularly on Friday. This made for a narrower range and hence a bit more overlap from bar to bar on the 5 minute charts than we usually see. Nevertheless, when the indices moved, the follow through was close to textbook.

On Friday the day began by falling off the prior highs in the NASDAQ and Dow after the market opened into that resistance level. The reversal periods intraday held perfectly and the SP500 and Dow found support right as the 10:15 ET one hit. The correction in these two formed a 15 minute bear flag and both put in slightly lower lows right at the 12:00 ET reversal period before turning back around into the afternoon. The NASDAQ was a bit weaker early on, selling off until the 10:45 ET reversal period. Instead of pulling back lower with the other two at noon though, it held the range and fell into a larger triangle intraday.

All three indices turned over nicely as the day progressed. The NASDAQ formed a bullish triangle as volume dropped off and it began to hug the highs of the trading channel, trying to break out initially with the 13:00 ET reversal period and then continuing out of the 14:00 ET one. The SP500 and Dow followed suit and picked up pace shortly after 14:00 ET. The market rallied very well out of that time zone and continued until the 15:00 ET reversal period hit when the SP500 and Dow came into price resistance from prior intraday highs.

It will probably take me a few days to get back into the groove of things after last week's absence while I attended the expo in Chicago, so I'll be taking things slower as the week begins. We are seeing the market slow down after that strong daily rally, but intraday the overall pace on the upside is still much stronger than on the downside. Despite the strong Dow resistance on the daily charts, I want to see slower upside intraday before really looking to short. At the moment we don't have that turnover, even though the upside is starting to get pretty extended. As in May in the NASDAQ, we do still have a bit of room for more upside, but I would expect such opportunities to be rather limited and confined primarily to daytrading as opposed to a lot of new swingtrades.

Economic Reports and Events
July 18: -
July 19: Building Permits for Jun (8:30 am), Housing Starts for Jun (8:30 am)
July 20: -
July 21: Initial Claims 07/16 (8:30 am), Leading Indicators for Jun (10:00 am), Philadelphia Fed for July (12:00 am), FOMC Minutes (2:00 pm)
July 22: -
July 25: Existing Home Sales for Jun (10:00 am)
July 26: Consumer Confidence for July (10:00 am)

Earnings Announcements of Interest
Only stocks with an average daily volume of 500K+ are listed. List may not be complete so be sure to always check your stocks' earnings dates before holding a position overnight. (A) = Earnings after the close, (B) = Earnings before the open, (?) = Earnings time not specified at the time of this writing
July 18: MMM (B), BAC (B), CCK (A), ETN (?), EV (B), MAT (B), NE (B), PKG (A), PHG (?), STLD (A)
July 19: ADTN (B), ASD (B), AMGN (?), ASO (?), BSX (B), CDWC (?), CHKP (B), F (?), FCX (B), FSL (A), GILD (?), HCBK (?), INTC (A), JNJ (B), JNPR (a), KEY (B), KFT (A), LU (B), MEL (?), MOT (A), BTU (B), PNC (A), RSH (?), STX (A), SOV (A), STT (B), SYK (A), STI (B), TER (A), CAKE (A), SSP (B), TZOO (B), GRA (A), WB (B), WFC (B), YHOO (?)
July 20:ACXM (A), EYE (B), ALGN (B), ADS (?), MO (B), ABK (B), DOX (?), AMR (B), T (A), COF (A), CIT (B), CMA (B), CAL (?), DCN (?), ET (A), EK (?), EBAY (A), FFIV (A), GD (B), GM (08:00 am ET), GNTX (?), GDW (B), HON (B), HMT (B), HBAN (B), RX (B), JPM (B), LRCX (?), MACR (A), NYB (B), NTRS (?), OI (A), PMTC (B), PFE (B), PLCM (A), QLGC (A), QCOM (?), RDN (a), RYL (A), STJ (B), SVU (B), SNV (?), TASR (B), TCB (?), ALL (A), BK (B), TSCO (?), UIS (B), UTX (B), VRSN (4:15 pm ET), WHI (?), WM (A), WYE (07:00 am ET), ZHNE (A)
July 21: AFFX (?), AWA (?), ABC (B), AH (A), BAX (B), BRCM (A), CAT (B), CLS (a), CX (B), CPWR (A), CAM (B), CY (B), DHI (B), DHR (B), DAL (?), DOV (A), DJ (B), LLY (B), EMC (B), ENDP (B), FISV (A), FLIR (B), FDRY (A), GNSS (A), GOOG (?), GDT (?), HLIT (A), HTCH (A), HYSL (A), ITW (B), INFA (A), IR (B), IGT (B), ISIL (A), XXIA (a), JBLU (B), JCI (B), LVLT (?), MCD (B), MEDI (?), MRK (B), MSFT (A), NXTL (B), NOK (?), NCX (B), NUE (?), ODP (B), PKTR (A), PMCS (?), PVN (A), RBK (B), RHI (A), ROH (B), RSAS (A), SNDK (?), SAP (B), SBC (08:00 am ET), SGP (B), SFA (A), SHW (B), SIMG (B), SWKS (A), SLM (B), SDS (A), SY (B), ERICY (01:30 am ET), TPX 8A), TXT (B), KO (B), NYT (B), TMA (A), TQNT (?), UCBH (?), UNP (?), UPS (B), VIGN (07:30 am ET), VTSS (A), WY (B), WHR (06:00 am ET), XLNX (?), ZION (A)
July 22: BDX (B), CMI (B), EXC (B), FO (B), FPL (B), HAL (B), KMB (?), MYG (B), OXY (?), SLB (B), SLAB (B)
July 25: ACE (A), ALTR (4:15 pm ET), APCC (A), ACI (B), ASH (B), AV (A), AVP (?), BLS (08:00 am ET), CD (A), CNET (A), DST (A), ECL (B), LNCR (?), MVK (A), NFLX (A), OMM (A), ONNN (A), PBI (4:00 pm ET), PCL (?), PLAY (A), DGX (B), SII (B), TXN (A), TRI (B), VRSO (A), XRX (B), AFL (A), AGR (?), AAI (B), AKS (B), AKAM (A), AW (A), AMZN (A), ATML (A), ADP (B), BIIB (A), BSTE (A), BJS (B), BDK (B), BYD (?), BP (02:00 am ET), BNI (B), CTX (A), CME (B), CB (A), CTXS (A), GLW (A), CFC (?), DD (B), ELNK (B), ERTS (A), ESV (?), FLEX (A), HMA (B), IMCL (?), N (B), INSP (a), ISSI (?), IP (B), LLL (B), LAB (B), LCAV (B), LXK (B), LLTC (?), LMT (B), MHS (B), MCHP (A), NWAC (B), PKI (A), PNM 8A), PPP (?), RFMD (A), SWY (?), SANM (A), SEBL (A), SGTL (A), SSTI (A), SSCC (B), SO (B), SWN (A), HOT (B), STM (A), STK (?), SUNW (?), TMX (A), MHP (B), TMO (A), TDW (B), TSM (08:00 am ET), X (?), VLO (?), WOOF (A), VZ (B), WAT (B), ZRAN (?)