Every weekend, I review hundreds if not thousands of charts across U.S. indices, global markets, breadth, sentiment, and intermarket relationships.
And now I’m opening up my stalk list.
The names that stood out the most from my review.
This Week’s Theme: Lines In The Sand
In markets, confidence comes from knowing where your risk lies, and that’s exactly what “lines in the sand” give us.
These setups are sitting on well-defined support, where they either step up or step aside.
Let’s get into it.
Breadth - "The Market of Stocks"
Breadth is something I keep an eye on every week.
The "Market of Stocks" really shows the health of the underlying market.
The index fails to tell the whole story when it's extremely concentrated within Tech.
Last week I noted Tech was the only area still extended, this week it’s cooling off while breadth expands across the rest of the market, signaling the next phase of the year-end rally: breadth expansion.
The Line(s) In The SAND
Housing - $ITB & $XHB
Nothing really changed here from last week - I continue to stalk housing.
This is where it all starts for me: Housing.
Housing stocks are sitting right at the 200-day SMA (~100 for ITB, ~105 for XHB) that's the line(s) in the sand.
RSI isn’t oversold, and both ETFs are testing clean horizontal support from the spring base.
If housing holds here, it reinforces faith in both the economy and the cyclical rotation beneath the surface.
MAGS - Mag 7 ETF
Roughly one-third of the S&P 500 lives inside this ETF.
The 50-day moving average is the line in the sand for Big Tech as a group.
We’re hammering it now and if that level breaks, the next support zone sits 5–8% lower.
Holding here would mark a healthy reset within a longer-term uptrend and keep the leadership structure intact into year-end.
Financials – XLF
Financials are sitting right on their line in the sand around $50 and still above a rising 200-day MA. That’s “innocent until proven guilty” price action.
As long as this zone holds, the case for broadening leadership and a healthier bull market stays alive.
XRT – S&P Retail ETF
Retail sits right on top of its 200-day MA with a bullish RSI divergence trying to form.
This is a classic line-in-the-sand setup: price pressing lower, momentum pressing higher.
It’s a spot where buyers have to prove it. A successful defense here would say a lot about the consumer and by extension, the broader economy.
Utilities – XLU
I love the look of utilities here, the line in the sand being the 50 day.
CRWD – Crowdstrike
CrowdStrike is pulling back to retest its July breakout zone, that’s the line in the sand.
Stay above that level, and it’s a textbook continuation setup with defined risk and solid relative strength.
Lose it, and the breakout becomes suspect. Simple as that.
NVDA — Nvidia
You can’t draw it much cleaner than this. Nvidia’s $187 zone is the line in the sand for renewed tech strength.
It’s the former breakout level that should now act as support.
If buyers step up here, it confirms this correction was just a reset inside a broader uptrend.
AMZN — Amazon
Amazon’s $243 area where former resistance now turned potential support is the line in the sand for the Discretionary space.
Holding that level would confirm the breakout and give bulls the green light to press higher.
AAPL — Apple
Apple’s consolidating sideways after a clean breakout correcting through time, not price.
The line in the sand is the former highs from earlier this year, where buyers have stepped in repeatedly.
My Two Cents
There’s real construction happening beneath the surface of the market right now but we still need follow-through at these lines in the sand.
If the mega-cap tech names can hold their levels too, this year-end rally could find fresh fuel.
It’s still a time to be opportunistic while respecting the well defined risk.
