Appears to be a lethargic trading day in the middle of the summer. The lack of movement in the indexes today does not show any change of investor sentiment, the current trend remains in progress. This continues to allow good charts to perform well.

The indecisive trading of yesterday in the indexes, the Doji/Harami signals in the overbought condition, provided the warning that the recent high of June 1 might be acting as a resistance level. That is being confirmed with the lower trading today. This would have been a stimulus for taking profits on long positions today if the premarket futures were showing a bearish sentiment. The transportation index is selling off very hard while the Dow is selling off, likely back to the T line. It will be important to see where the markets close today. Unfortunately it may be indicating the continuation of a sideways/summer doldrums market trend.

The J-hook patterns continue to work in the indexes. Why is the market heading up with the current political/economic conditions? Who knows, but we do not need to know. Candlestick charts provide the ability to analyze what everybody else’s decisions are as far as buying and selling. Stay predominately long.

Be careful! Fed announcements have a high frequency of whipsaw actions where the initial day has a strong move in one direction but then the next day has a strong move back in the opposite direction. Reality sets in. The feds raised interest rates. Expected. Bullish price move. But then rational thinking realizes they are having to raise interest rates to quell inflation. Market trend? Still relatively indecisive. Any positions should have very strong chart patterns.

Assumption – candlestick signals and patterns reveal price direction with a high degree of probability based upon historic results. They are further enhanced with confirming indicators, such as the T line. This means if the charts are revealing price movement that cannot be clearly analyzed as far as whether the bulls or the bears are in control, that becomes the analysis. The evaluation should be there is no identifiable price movements that are showing consistency, relax and sit in cash until there becomes better visual analysis. There were good strong sell signals over the past few days in the market indexes. However, today’s positive trading put so sell signals in doubt. That all adds up to the market does not have a decisive direction yet.

Walmart is putting a negative perspective in investor sentiment today. The consumer confidence index was also showing a downtrend. The NASDAQ has gapped down to the T line and continue to trade lower. Unless there is a major change of investor sentiment by the end of the day, the bears appear to have control of the market. This is also evident in the number of short positions that are performing very well.

Do the summer doldrums always occur this time of year? Not always and the candlestick charts will illustrate whether that is happening or not. This year, although the indexes are currently trading above the T line, the market conditions still reveal indecisive trading. This is also accentuated by the lack of direction from the feds. The reactive decision-making about interest rates versus a proactive approach continues to put questioning in the investment community.

A consolidation day. Not unexpected after a good uptrending market during the week. A Friday in the summertime is likely to see some profit-taking/consolidation. Continue to stay predominately long as long as there is not any major change of the current uptrend. It would not be unusual to see the Dow doing some consolidation, allowing the T line to catch up.GGR should not be bought until it comes back up through yesterday’s close. HUSA is a good example of why you wait for pattern confirmation.

A consolidation day, the Dow has pulled back to the 50 day moving average, a common movement after breaking up through the 50 day moving average as a resistance level, now testing to see if it will act as support. It will be important to see the Dow stay above the 50 day moving average today. TSLA breakout is helping the electric vehicle/charging station sector.