The bulls tried to nip a win before the shortened week was out, but it was not to be. Wednesday's gains were reversed on Thursday's action, leaving markets to sweat out the long weekend.
The Russell 2000 held up the best of the indices, although the ETF (IWM) finished with net distribution. On the plus side, the index is outperforming its peers - so if there is a leading candidate for a rally, the Russell 2000 is the index to do the legwork.
There wasn't much to split the NASDAQ and S&P 500. Both indices gave back all Wednesday's gains, leaving bulls gasping for air.
The NASDAQ remains technically net bearish, but intermediate stochastics [39,1] have only undercut the mid-line to push it to the bearish side of the fence but left it a long way from becoming oversold.
The S&P is also working a retest of March lows, although it still has around 200 points to lose before it gets there. Unlike the NASDAQ, stochastics remain bullish despite the bearishness elsewhere.
Monday is set up for a gap down, barring some positive news to reverse that. The Russell 2000 has the potential to buck this trend as it's holding up better than the NASDAQ and the S&P 500.