The 24 hours following the report were mighty odd. Last night, some folks were plausibly anticipating a market wipeout on Thursday. On the contrary, the NQ was up triple digits and every single stock futures market was bright green. That didn’t last all day, however, and by day’s end, it was pretty clear the bloom was off the Semiconductor rose.
![](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/slopechart_SMH-1-2-640x338.jpg)
Every single index is showing the potential to fall down hard, as long as some major inflection point doesn’t take place. So far, nothing has “stuck”, not even the Powell Pivot from last Friday. The latest at-risk moment is the PCE coming pre-market on Friday. The market has spent the past seven trading days absolutely stuck below its lifetime high.
![](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/slopechart_SPY-5-640x338.jpg)
One particularly interesting opportunity is represented by the global stock fund EFA, which is rammed up against its resistance trendline. Let me put it this way, in 26 months, the EFA price hasn’t pierced this trendline even ONE time.
![](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/slopechart_EFA-2-640x338.jpg)
Just to make a pause from all the typical equity gloominess, I’ll point out that gold continues to thrive. It doesn’t even look like it necessarily wants to bother re-entering its ascending price channel.
![](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/slopechart_GLD-1-640x338.jpg)
The NASDAQ Composite appears to have formed a second, lower top following its lifetime high in July.
![](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/slopechart_COMPQ-2-640x335.jpg)
So has the S&P 100. It also has very neatly approached, but not penetrated, the price gap represented by that dashed horizontal line. Let’s just say a “down” day Friday would really add power to all these setups, since everything is presented in a state of equilibrium.
![](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/slopechart_OEX-640x335.jpg)
One other argument for a down-move is the Broker/Dealer index, which is absolutely rammed against the apex if its symmetric triangle.
![](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/slopechart_XBD-2-640x335.jpg)
I’ll bid you farewell, as I am meeting Squirrel at his house for a big watch party of the Harris/Walz CNN interview.