Markets still looking hedged and wedged in narrow price channels

Equities in general look still bound in the confines of the price channels and in some cases wedges or push from small triangles in patterns that have played out since the end of May, as I marked and showed on a number of small daily charts across many indices yesterday. I've marked that on a daily chart of the S&P 500 at right.

In other markets, oil was weaker today but it didn't look like USO closed under yesterday's low, so it's a bit early to call that a sell. Gold was down, and the euro and yen didn't exactly show much strength either. Then again, while the dollar was up it wasn't really moving hard. TLT (an ETF for US bonds) did look more positive, so as I remarked at my UBTNB3 site earlier today, maybe it is the start of more to come.

Something else I remarked on was Bank of America (BAC), which had a good day as I posted at UBTNB3. It did not break out to new highs, nor has it yet moved above its 200 day moving average. So it hasn't confirmed that it's going into a new rally leg up; but one must acknowledge its relative strength today. As a whole, the banking index along with many others remained confined within the recent price channel.

Well, it's Friday and the market does have a way of closing a week without really showing its hand. This will set us up for another round of weekend review and analysis, so we'll look forward to that. Meantime, enjoy your Friday evening with those - your family and friends - who make it all worthwhile!