Get Some Distance from the Storm

Despite some continued relative strength in up-and-coming software growth issues (e.g. TWLO) this morning, the notable weakness in the large cap banks housed in the XLF ETF remain an unresolved issue for the broad market. And when we factor in the AAPL gap down off the QCOM court decision this morning, too, it is no wonder that an early bounce prospect fizzled out, again. 

On the XLF daily chart, below, we can see that today's gap lower takes the banks below their collective lower Bollinger Band, indicative of fairly oversold conditions. However, prominent banking houses like GS and MS have been weak for a while, and if buyers had an inkling to step in with size to support the, well, they sure have had plenty of time to do just that.

But so far no buyers seem willing or able to place a floor underneath the likes of Goldman, which smells rotten among the ordinarily festive, jubilant, crisp scents of December. 

At a certain point, bulls must buy some time by stabilizing the problem spots in this market: Apple, Goldman, crude oil, among others, to create some distance from this storm at least to salvage Christmas and New Year's.

Until then, we can only look at (and not necessarily touch) names like FEYE TTD TWLO and wonder what might be once the storm passes.