1. Markets closed at a new high today in the S&P 500 Index and NASDAQ Composite.

2. Earnings reports from JPM, GS, and PEP before are scheduled before the open tomorrow. This is the start of earnings season.

3. Options expiration for July is this Friday. Expect some whipsaw this week in the popular stocks. This is a week of institutional game playing.

4. Bitcoin chart looks weak

5. Gold/Silver trend is looking neutral to down. It has to break 1835 on a weakly close to be bullish. It’s being defended at 1800

6. Sign up for Nick's free webinar tonight. Just go to www.InTheMoneyStocks.com. You'll be happy you did.

1. Big cap tech holds the leadership position.
Yesterday, Amazon (AMZN) broke out to the upside making new all time highs. There was also strength in Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG) and other NASDAQ-100 stocks. The leadership is very thin right now, but this is where the strength is in the market. Hated bull market, but central banks continue to monetize. This is a tired market. When was the last time we saw a 10 percent pull back?

2. Bond yields are falling again.
Yields on the 10-year U.S. treasury note are tumbling again today. They are trading down by 6 basis points to 1.308%. When yields fall it means money is flowing into bonds again. This is certainly helping the tech sector, but hurting the financial stocks. Financials love a steep yield curve.

3. Oil is rolling over. 
Crude recently tested its October 2018 high. This top coincided with a failed OPEC + meeting. Since that resistance level was reached oil has begun to pull back. This is certainly hurting the leading energy stocks. 

4. Gold/Silver still on the weaker side, gold is up $11 in futures trading. Gold has made a stand over the past 5 days. Might be a play soon.

5. Bitcoin/Cryptos cryptos are still hanging in, Bitcoin hanging at 34,700. It’s range bound, but it’s a bear base. Will Ethereum leap ahead of Bitcoin. Both trading on par right now. Bitcoin has the popularity advantage now.

1. Markets are higher ahead of the Independence Day Holiday. 
Earlier today, the BLS released the non-farm payroll report for June. The number came in a little better than expected at 850,000. While this is a little hotter than expectations the market does not seem phased that the Fed will have to taper or even raise rates down the road. Remember, its a Friday and rarely do we see many Friday declines. I call this the Friday Effect. 

The tech heavy NASDAQ is again the strong index as bond yields retreat. Yields have dropped 5 basis points today on the 10-year Treasury Note to 1.43%. As we know, markets love lower yields. 

2. Bitcoin is trading slightly higher, but this pattern looks weak as the equity forms a bearish consolidation pattern on the daily chart. Very interesting pattern. Very weak, bearish consolidation on the daily charts, going back and forth over its 200 day moving average.

3. Gold/Silver still in a weak position and a possibility it will retest its recent lows.

1. ADP report was released at 8:30 a,m ET
The June ADP Employment Change number was 692K. Now we shall look forward to this Fridays non-farm payroll report by the BLS. This could be a market moving event.
* Small businesses: 215,000
* Medium businesses: 236,000
* Large businesses: 240,000
* Goods-producing: 68,000
* Service-providing: 624,000

2. The Delta Variant keeps making the news now.
Every major media outlet keeps talking about the Delta covid variant. This has certainly weighed on the travel and leisure stocks recently. Airline stocks, hotel stocks & travel booking stocks have been selling off lately as technology stocks have rallied. I think the world is done with covid, but like a bad dream it just doesn't go away. Places are still locking down, Australia, etc.

3. Gold/Silver/Bitcoin Gold today is flat, chart looking bad for now. Ugly sell-off yesterday. Nothing encouraging here. Strength in the dollar for now. Bitcoin is pulling back at $34.5k, not very strong at the moment. It’s sitting right on its 200 day MAV. Be careful of gold and bitcoin for now. Going down to $21k and the $6k.

4. Watch for Nick’s free webinar on understanding technical analysis.

1. The Stock markets are mixed again.
This morning, the tech heavy NASDAQ and NAS-100 are the big winners reading up 0.70%. The losers are coming from transports $IYT, energy $XLE and financials $XLF. This is what I call a hot potato market. Money flees one sector and goes into another. This seems to be what is taking place and is continuing today.  We’re seeing travel and leisure get slammed today.

2. Bitcoin and the other crypto currencies are catching a bid today. The pattern is still weak, but it is holding up at the moment as it is sitting right on the 200-day moving average. In other words, it lives to fight another day.  

3. Gold/Silver flat day for gold. Not a great pattern for gold. But it held its June 18 low, could be setting up for a move to the upside. Need a price over 1827 on a weekly close. Silver is flat. $26.20. Similar pattern setups

1. Markets have recovered from last week's selloff. 
All of the major stock indexes have staged a rally this week. The catalyst for the move higher has really been due to the Federal reserve walking back their taper talk. As we know, they are buying $120 billion a month of Mortgage backed securities, U.S. Treasuries and corporate bonds. Volume has been extremely low, the summer doldrums have come early. Favors upside markets.

2. Bitcoin is dipping again this morning. 
The popular crypto currency is once again flirting with its 200-day moving average. This support level is now minor and anyone that watches charts knows that the pattern is weak. It's hanging on by a shoestring if you ask me. 200 moving average is now a minor low. If it pierces it’s 28000+ recent low we’ll see it really.

3. Gold/Silver Nick’s not crazy about the pattern gold has been making. It’s going sideways. It was hammered on back to back days. It’s going to have to break 1826 to set up for a long term

1. Bitcoin got defended yesterday after a big flush under 30,000. 
Bitcoin successfully tested its January 2021 low yesterday. The popular crypto currency traded as low as 28,800 and then snapped back to 32,000. This is why it is so important to watch the daily and weekly closes. Right now, Bitcoin lives to fight another day, but the 21,000 level looms down the road. Confirmed downtrend. Trading below all its moving averages, except for the 200. It’s making lower lows.

2. The Federal Reserve walks back last week's hawkish comments. Markets are rebounding this week as the central bank continues to walk back last week's hawkish talk. This seems to be helping markets right now as money continues to flow into the NASDAQ. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is now the laggard. The game of hot potato continues for now. Unprecedented amounts of capital being created out of thin air.

3. Gold/Silver are bouncing back. The patterns take some time to play out. Decline could have been due to options expiration, a quad witching hour. Silver is having a great bounce today. Beware of the September quarter.

4. We’ve seen pockets of bearishness throughout during the past 2 quarters. Compliments of the central banks. It’s a tired market. Things are stalling and crawling.

1. Bitcoin falls again, tests critical support.
Bitcoin is falling again this morning. The catalyst for the weakness is due to China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. They have now extended the crackdown to the southwestern province of Sichuan. $COIN $MSTR $GBTC $ETHE

2. The major market indexes are rebounding a little to start the week. The close will be important to see as the markets were short term oversold after last week's decline. Pattern is everything going forward. At this time, the S&P 500 INDEX is trading slightly below its 50-day moving average. This is a very important moving average that is followed by most institutional traders. Beware of solstices, they often mark major market turning points.

3. Gold/Silver if it goes lower, it’s a load the boat opportunity. A lot of damage was done last week. It was a very ugly sell-off. Damage was done to the charts. Is it a bearish setup that might test March lows. Copper got hammered last week as well. Today it’s trying to bounce back. It went parabolic and it needs a multi-month correction.

4. Crude oil have been very strong. Now it’s run into a very strong resistance level, it’s 2018 top. Nick is short oil as well. It was starting to look parabolic.

1. Bitcoin falls again, tests critical support.
Bitcoin is falling again this morning. The catalyst for the weakness is due to China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. They have now extended the crackdown to the southwestern province of Sichuan. $COIN $MSTR $GBTC $ETHE

2. The major market indexes are rebounding a little to start the week. The close will be important to see as the markets were short term oversold after last week's decline. Pattern is everything going forward. At this time, the S&P 500 INDEX is trading slightly below its 50-day moving average. This is a very important moving average that is followed by most institutional traders. Beware of solstices, they often mark major market turning points.

3. Gold/Silver if it goes lower, it’s a load the boat opportunity. A lot of damage was done last week. It was a very ugly sell-off. Damage was done to the charts. Is it a bearish setup that might test March lows. Copper got hammered last week as well. Today it’s trying to bounce back. It went parabolic and it needs a multi-month correction.

4. Crude oil have been very strong. Now it’s run into a very strong resistance level, it’s 2018 top. Nick is short oil as well. It was starting to look parabolic.

All markets plunge on a rare Friday decline.
The selloff was broad based as every major stock index finished lower. Technology held up the best as yields declined sharply for the second straight day. Commodities and precious metals were sold off again as the U.S. Dollar strengthened.

This was a quadruple witching options expiration so some of the moves made could be a bit over done. Either way, there was some damage on the charts and this coming week will tell us a lot more.

Was it orchestrated by the Fed? Bullard mentions rising inflation and the start of tapering. Big spike in the dollar and crash in gold and silver. Commodities got slammed. Market is saying the Fed has to do something. Bond yields are falling now. 10 year at 1.45%. Tech is still performing.

Homebuilder stocks weren’t bad. Lennar up big. ITB home construction ETF was up.

Watch out for Nick’s free chart reading webinar.