Dazed and Confused Stocks

Even with escalations over the weekend between Iran and Israel the "nothing ever happens" mantra/meme on Wall Street seems more relevant than ever with equities rallying today after last Friday's initial selloff. Semiconductors and the Nasdaq, overall, are leading the move, while various rate-sensitive sectors like REITs (IYR), housing, and housing retail are lagging as Treasuries sell this afternoon amid rates pushing back higher. 

On that note, Sherwin-Williams, which of course focuses on paint, below on its daily chart, remains notably weak again after last Friday's big selloff on a downgrade (it reported earnings last month). Note price is below all daily chart moving averages with a declining 200-day moving average above price, the essence of a bear trend. 

In addition to SHW, we have periodically updated Home Depot and Lowe's as examples of multi-year/decade steep uptrends in housing retail which continue to look long in the tooth according to a variety of metrics. 

The take-home message is simple: Stocks and sectors almost never top out all at once--It is a gradual process with some tops more tedious and longer in duration than others. Without question, if this is indeed a major top then this one will be one of the more long and drawn out ones in recent market history.

Hence, while bulls cheer the seemingly inevitable comeback bounce from the war cannons firing, below the surface we have tangible evidence of deterioration in major stocks and sectors.