Battling the Elements

On this final day of April we are already getting a potential sneak preview of the "Sell in May and go away" Wall Street phenomenon. Indeed, you can be sure that if we close poorly today many market players and pundits will have that old axiom on the tips of their tongues when the calendar flips tomorrow. 

However, as we see the Nasdaq sell off by more than 1% after an aggressive mid-morning sell program kicked into gear, it is worth noting that GOOGL printed all-time highs during a steep advance before its post-earnings pummeling today. 

On the GOOGL daily timeframe, below, the gap down is nasty, no doubt, but initially tests a rising 50-day moving average and likely serves to shake out some latecomer longs. 

In other words, this is not a case of a sick chart getting worse, but rather one of the "FANG" names which has been on a tear since Christmas and was likely due for a reset. 

Going forward, I am looking to gauge when this GOOGL weakness can truly bring down all of tech beyond a morning selloff. Note NFLX green here, as well as the post-earnings rally in software growth play SHOP, for example. 

Either way, as we head towards May bulls will need to battle various seasonal elements, perceived or actual, on top of some priced-for-perfection earnings selloffs like we are seeing in GOOGL today.