We're All Just One Trade Deal Rumor Away from Humility, Bud

Semiconductors continue to impress this afternoon, as we can see how strong the group is capable of trading when we have positive China trade rumors. Of course, any moment now we could get hit with an abrupt turn of events to the negative side, which would likely hit chips hard given their inherent exposure to China in many instances. 

In these situations, it is easy to get lost in the day-to-day rumors, gaps, chop, and inevitable frustration of what we are seeing with this type of price action. 

However, when we take an objective look at many charts in the SMH, sector ETF for chips, there are indeed quite a few sound charts which have built out various "handles," bases, and assorted other types of generally bullish consolidations the last five week or so in the face of these China headlines. Stocks like AMAT, LRCX, TER are just a few examples of bullish overall charts which seem ripe to eventually lead higher whenever we enter a smoother tape. 

In addition, former leaders-gone-bad like NVIDIA, updated below on its daily chart, have noticeably improved of late. True, if the China news flow heads decidedly south from here again it may very well wreak havoc on even the best semiconductor charts.

But as a general thesis most chips are saying, in the face of tedious price action, that they can take a punch quite well.