So far this week the news has been rather light compared to last week. The S&P 500 has been relatively flat, hovering just below all time highs. For now traders are left to sit and wait as neither the bulls or the bears are ready to make the next move. Earnings continues to be a focus for now as the last of the big names wraps up earnings season with their performance.
The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: QQQ) continues to be the strongest of the markets as it plows ahead to new high after new high. Tech stocks like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are helping fuel this amazing move that is now higher by almost 7% since the start of the year.
Retail stocks (NYSE: XRT) continue to find no areas of support, selling off little by little each day. There are dozens of names in the space that are in real trouble that it leaves the XRT lower by almost 5% on the year. As for this week it is currently trading at its lows for the week with only little support at the $42 area to potentially stop it.
Gold mining stocks (NYSE: GDX) are one of the bright spots in the markets this week as the space is up already more than 3%. Gold itself has been strong helping to fuel the rally in the miners which started just before the beginning of 2016. Just for 2017 already the gold miners are up over 20% with no signs of weakness at this point.
Healthcare (NYSE: XLV) which started a nice rally last week has continued this week with a move back towards its high of the year. Since last week the ETF is up over 3% with above average volume.
Lastly, oil (NYSE: USO) has started this week with some selling pressure. As of the start of the week oil is down 3% which puts it at the low end of the 2 month range. Tuesday traders attempted to buy off this support but so far have seen very little success.