Friday 10-21

For the past two years, the NASDAQ has generally outperformed the DJI and SP500 indexes.  You can see that by comparing the green line trajectory to the blue and red lines on this Yahoo Finance chart.  Just the reverse is happening this week, though. 

The NASDAQ is now slipping behind the DJI and SP500.  At a detail level, the late day surge took the DJI above the morning high.  The SP500 finish fell less than a point short of the morning high of 1239.03.  The NASDAQ never challenged the morning high. If this is the start of a trend, it would reflect a kind of flight to quality, as the blue chips out-perform their lesser brethren.  In a downturn, outperforming means not doing as bad as.  

The current advance probably has some legs left in it - though the NASDAQ might already have run out of steam.   The .667 retracement level in the SP500 is around 1258 - less than 20 points from today's high.  It might take a few days to get there.

Then, the decline can resume in earnest.