A consolidation day, evidenced by the lack of any selling in the overall market indexes. The NASDAQ is trading slightly lower, the S&P 500 trading relatively flat, the Dow up slightly, but the transportation index is stronger than Bears breath Today.

The markets are showing an indecisive trading nature Today but this has not changed the overall market sentiment. However, the transportation index started out nicely positive today but is now showing decisive bearishness, a bearish engulfing signal.

A Friday in the middle of the summer, not likely going to produce any massive market moves. But these are days that illustrate the relevancy of candlestick charts. Although the market may not be having any great movement, the majority of bullish candlestick charts continue to act bullish because of the sentiment that has already been creating the signals and patterns. Continue to stay predominantly long as long as the indexes continue to trade above the T-line.

The prospects of the indexes testing support levels during a perceived uptrend is making the uptrend more evident with the strong/kicker type signals back to the upside, not actually testing the support levels. The strength seen in the big traders,AMZN , AAPL etc. illustrated yesterday that although the markets are selling off, there was still bullish investor sentiment in the market. Yesterday provided the opportunity to pare down long positions that were not showing great strength and having funds available to put back into strong chart patterns. Obviously, continue to stay long, the T-line remains a strong relevant factor.

The knee-jerk reaction to the additional tariffs made the markets open much lower but now buying is starting to creep in. This is currently indicating the Bulls have not left the market but it will be important to see how much strength the Bulls have going into the close today. Although the indexes are trading above where they opened, they will need to continue up during the day to indicate there has not been a change of investor sentiment, merely a quick selling reaction. A lack of buying from these levels would make the prospects of a pullback to the T-line area a likely scenario, indicating a day or two of pullback consolidation. Stay long but be prepared to lighten up if the markets do not show any more bullish strength going into the close Today.

The candlestick bullish signals over the past two weeks of trading have made it clearly evident that investor sentiment was showing support at obvious technical support levels, the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 showed buy signals off the 50 day moving average, the Dow and transportation index supported at the 200 day moving average.

What should be a relatively low-volume day is still indicating the indexes all trading positive and above the T-line. This indicates the lack of any bearish sentiment, adding additional confirmation the markets have been in a basing period for the past two weeks, using obvious support levels.

With the markets closing early Today, there is not great expectation of any big movement in the markets. Currently the indexes are trading relatively flat, not unexpected. There are still excellent profits being made both on the long side in the short side in today’s trading. There does not need to be any major repositioning today, be ready to head for the golf course.

Although the markets are trading lower, they are trading above where they opened, creating bullish candles. This is an indication there is not dramatic selling occurring at these levels. The transportation index is trading positive, producing a bullish left/right combo after Friday’s inverted hammer signal in the oversold condition. These market conditions continue to produce good bearish charts as well as good bullish charts. Be attentive to each individual stock chart for having both long and short positions in the portfolio.