Good day! The market managed a higher close on Friday after taking back most of Wednesday's losses on Thursday and the remainder of them ahead of the weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI) rose 59.17 points on the day, while the S&P 500 ($SPX) added 5.05 points, and the Nasdaq Composite ($COMPX) climbed 11.62 points. Despite the unanimously higher highs, the three indices showed a great deal of divergence intraday. The Dow showed the greatest strength out of the open with the largest upside gap, while the Nasdaq Composite underperformed throughout most of the day.

Following the open, all three indices had a difficult time holding up. Congestion into 10:00 ET gave way to a rapid selloff out of 10:00 ET when the Michigan consumer sentiment data came out. The index fell to 85.3 in April, hitting its lowest level since last August. This was quite a drop from the previous month's level of 88.4 and the expectations for a move to 87.0. A significant factor in this move was rising gasoline prices, which are expected to continue to climb, and the continued weakness in housing.

The divergence returned once the 10:15 ET reversal period hit. All three indices bounced off strong 15 minute support. This returned the indices back into the morning trading range, but the continuation of that corrective move varied a great deal from one index to the next. The Nasdaq displayed a greater propensity for weakness, constantly moving to the upper end of the mid-day trading range and then sharply retreating, whereas the S&P 500 and Dow did not have as extreme of a bearish bias. In fact, the Dow even hugged the upper levels of trading with basing action into the uptrend support at the 5 minute 20 sma.







What the three indices did have in common as the day progressed was the high level of choppiness involved in the intraday moves. There was a great deal of overlap from one bar to the next on even the 15 minute time frame. The only exception was when the Nasdaq suddenly decided to play catch-up and popped shortly after 14:30 ET, returning to Wednesday's highs very quickly while the S&Ps and Dow just continued to slowly progress higher. Their moves remained more hesitant, but buying remained strong enough to keep the bears at bay ahead of the close. The indices managed to end the session near the highs of the day, displaying a drive to make it back to the zone of February's highs as discussed last week. The one thing to really watch out for is that if the upside momentum does not increase into Monday morning, it will be much easier for the bears to create strong downside flushes intraday as a result of the slower than average upside in the Dow and S&Ps.

Toni Hansen is President and Co-founder of the Bastiat Group, Inc., and runs the popular Trading From Main Street. She can be reached at Toni@tradingfrommainstreet.com.