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S&P Futures on hourly charts shows the late Thursday surge to test Wednesday's peaks of this week, followed by some minor churning into this morning. However, this pattern is quite positive and likely will allow for upside follow-through as other sectors follow suit to join strength seen in Technology. Today's S&P Leaders are RMD-1.00% , GOOGL-0.93% , SMCI0.12% , NVDA-3.00% , TROW-3.80% , and KLAC-0.46%  all higher by more than 4.5%. Meanwhile, stocks like INTC-3.67% , AON-0.83% , DXCM-2.91% , CINF-4.33% , ODFL-1.77%  are lagging performance, and lower by more than 5%. Transports have been a notable laggard this week, and Financials are underperformers and declines in HON-0.90% , IBM-1.54%  PG-2.18%  are weighing down the DJIA which is just fractionally positive at +0.22%. Keep a close eye on Financials and Transports, the latter which is weighing down the Industrials space. However, despite the lack of broad-based strength today, the ability of "Magnificent 7" to carry markets higher on good earnings is certainly a positive and cannot be dismissed.

PG-2.18%  Procter and Gamble is the best performing Cons Staples stock within XLP today out of 39 and also has led in YTD Trading. Trendlines connecting former highs show why this area near 156 was important in early trading today, and PG's entire base from late 2021 hasn't taken away from tis technical attractiveness within this group. Key for PG bulls will be a daily close over$158.38, the peak from last Summer. This will help the stock extend back to new all-time highs. At present, PG has achieved a minor weekly breakout this week (exceeding a downtrend from last August) but remains quite choppy and range-bound since late 2021. While Staples likely lag SPX performance for 2024, i like PG as one of the better stocks technically within this sector and do expect an eventual breakout back to new all-time highs this year, eventually.

Today's market action is largely defensive in US Stocks, being led by Cons Staples (PG-2.18% ,CHD-1.12% ,EL-0.29% ,KMB-1.82%  leading) while Telecom also making good strides on positive VZ news. Airliner stocks likeUAL3.28% ,LUV0.73% , andAAL4.20%  along withDAL8.91%  are all up more than 3%. SPX is lower by jjust 6 points, but strength is largely only in major groups like Comm Svcs +0.90% and Staples +0.50 while REITS, Discretionary, and Healthcare are all lower by -0.50-0.75%. US Dollar along with Yields are both pushing higher again, and this move looks likely to extend into February before a turn back lower. The chart below is VZ, as Telecom lead strength within the Comm Svcs group- Note that VZ bottomed at nearly exact 50% absolute retracement of its peak in late 2020, and has turned up sharply in recent weeks. VZ target is in the mid-40s where i expect this will encounter resistance before it gets above its own 50% retracement level- Telecom attractive for short-term only given this recent surge in momentum, but both T and VZ, have meaningful intermediate-term downtrends and expect this slows both these stocks over next month. For those sniffing out Telecom, its TMUS that stands out as being most attractive- Below is Verizon -VZ-2.98%