Three-Card Monte Market

At least on some level, the selling we saw throughout yesterday's session now seems to be the market's way of expressing dismay with the new Fed Chair's grilling by Congress. But even if yesterday was a mere shakeout, bulls are answering the bell once again this morning in terms of calming thing down after what was an ugly close. If nothing else, this market is shaking up to be an elusive game of three-card monte, where bulls and bears seemed fooled alike on a daily basis into thinking they own the market. 

As I write this, the indices are now attempting to morph their daily chart patterns into tightening bases above all major moving averages. While the jury is still out as to whether that interpretation will prevail, we do have some intriguing individual price action in a variety of names. 

BKNG, or Booking Holdings, formerly Priceline (PCLN), is gapping free and clear above $2000 after earnings. BKNG remains one of the more illustrious marquee names in the tape, and just as with AMZN NFLX, etc., bears will need to do a better job of slowing down these names if the broad market is going to roll back over anytime soon.

Regarding Square (SQ), an up-and-coming leader in the payment processor segment, the stock is slightly higher after earnings but still must clear $47 and hold over it.

In the meantime, I still favor the more underwetched payment processor plays, like TSS, below on its daily chart. The setup is just as favorable as SQ is, and has far less eyes on it.