The Weekly Average Momentum Index (AMI) rankings of HSA, SSPP, RSP, SELECT, ETF, iETF, and sETF have been posted on the "Rankings" and "Trading Logs" pages.
Stocks finished a choppy earnings week split between the averages, as doubts about the payoff from artificial intelligence spending gave way to a Friday selloff driven by surging oil prices and Middle East tensions. The week began with a tech bounce and a 500-point Dow gain on Tuesday, but Thursday brought the reckoning: Meta reported third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion, up 26%, yet spent $34.9 billion on data centers and equipment in the quarter, pushing free cash flow to negative $2.1 billion, and raised the low end of its 2026 capital spending forecast to $135 billion — the shares fell about 7% Thursday, their worst day in about three months, dragging the Nasdaq down 2.6% and the S&P 500 down 1.2% while the Dow held flat. Friday broadened the selling rather than relieving it: Houthi drone attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities and reports of U.S.-Israel plans for another strike on Iran sent Brent crude above $116 a barrel, its highest since April, and West Texas Intermediate to about $103, while a hot flash purchasing managers' survey — with the output-price index at its highest since August 2022 — kept alive worries that strong growth and rising energy costs will keep the Federal Reserve on hold at next week's meeting, with rates widely expected to stay at 3.75% to 4.00%. American Express, down about 3.3% Friday after announcing cuts of roughly 5% of its workforce, weighed heavily on the price-weighted Dow, while energy stocks were the week's refuge. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.5% to close at 7,624, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% to finish at 52,215, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped, falling 0.7% to settle at 25,955.
From a technical perspective, the S&P 500's pullback deepened this week, with Friday's close of 7,624 slipping below its 10- and 20-day EMAs and just under its rising 50-day EMA near 7,660, leaving the index testing the 7,600 support zone from above rather than resting comfortably on its moving-average support. The failed breakout from the 7,800 area continues to define the overhead picture: the 7,800 to 7,817 zone — last month's 7,812 record close and the August 14 intraday record of 7,817 — remains the level the bulls must reclaim before our 7,850 target, and ultimately the 8,000 psychological level, come back into play. On the downside, the 7,600 zone is the immediate line in the sand, backed by our primary structural floor at 7,500, a break of which on a weekly closing basis would signal that something more serious is unfolding. With the S&P 500 settling at 7,624, our long-term structural trend-following indicators remain firmly in a "Hold" posture with no sell triggers fired.
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| The weekly chart of the S&P 500 index |
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