The markets have found some weakness so far this week as news of a shakeup at the Secretary of State position along with weakness in the technology sector has caused a small downturn. The S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) finds itself slightly lower, mostly coming from Tuesday's decline. Since hitting a low back on February 9th the SPY has bounced exactly 10% before running into resistance.
The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: QQQ) broke to new, all-time highs to close out last week, along with Monday of this week, but has also begun to retreat. Weakness in the Semiconductor (NYSE: SMH) space has caused many of the tech names, along with the index to pullback. Considering the strong rally most tech stocks had last week, many are still content to wait and see if there is more weakness to come, or if this is just a rough start to the week.
The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) started Tuesday this week by pushing up to the all time highs but has been unable to break through it. Technical traders note the obvious resistance at the $160.50 level which is where the Russell started it's decline in January.
REIT's (NYSE: ICF) have continued there move out of the downtrend this week. With a bullish move in the bond market the ICF has moved out of it's technical downtrend. In addition the ICF has finally broken out of it's month long range set at the lows. Since hitting lows back on the 9th of February, the ICF is higher by over 5%.
Oil (NYSE: USO) has been making headlines this week as it was reported that shale production in the states should hit 7 million barrels in April. This increase in supply has weighed on the price of oil in the short term though prices remain near yearly highs. Since hitting lows last summer the price of oil has moved higher by over 40%.