Markets have entered the week in full holiday mode. Small positive, days have led us higher and the Dow Industrials is knocking, once again at the 20,000 number. With little scheduled news or global news on the books the markets have settled into a slow, low volume pattern.
The S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) remains near highs, adding a fraction of one percent so far this week. Volume is just under average and is likely to stay this way through the rest of the week. Technical traders note the uptrend which has been in control since the election. For the uptrend to remain intact, $225 is the area they would like to see hold.
The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: QQQ) remains in a breakout pattern but thanks to the holiday week has shown no signs of pushing higher. The day it broke to new all time highs was the last real day of excitement. Since then the Nasdaq 100 has held in a perfect sideways pattern. This makes the bulls confident and not fearful of any sort of pullback. For this reason volume has been lower than average and is likely to stay that way for the remainder of the week.
The US Dollar (NYSE: UUP) hit new 2016 highs on Tuesday with trading volume that was slightly above average. Since the election the UUP has been in a strong uptrend adding over 6.5%. Investors seem optimistic in the short term and the uptrend remains smooth and steady.
Due to the strong dollar, as well as investors moving money into stocks Gold (NYSE: GLD) has suffered and continues to suffer this week so far. The GLD ETF is down over 1% and remains near its lows of the year. The pullback has attracted some bulls in the short term but so far there has been no real bounce. GLD remains down over 13% since the November 4th elections.