ChartWatchers

Nasdaq 100 Breaks Short-Term Support as 50-Day Averages Give Way

John Murphy

John Murphy

Chief Technical Analyst, StockCharts.com

The daily bars in Chart 1 show the QQQ breaking last week's short-term support and falling further below its 50-day moving average today. The two upper boxes in Chart 1 also show its RSI and MACD lines continuing to decline. That suggests more selling to come. It now appears likely that the QQQ could drop to its next potential support level along its July lows. The green horizontal bars in Chart 1 show that the July lows near 250 coincide with a 38% Fibonacci retracement of its March/September rally.

Chart 2 shows the S&P 500 also falling below its 50-day average and last week's low. Lower prices appear likely there as well. The next level of potential support is its late July low near 3200. The Dow is holding up a little better but is likely to follow the QQQ and SPX lower.

Chart 1

Chart 2


Editor's Note: This is an article that was originally published in John Murphy's Market Message on Friday, September 18th at 1:30pm ET.

John Murphy
About the author: is the Chief Technical Analyst at StockCharts.com, a renowned author in the investment field and a former technical analyst for CNBC, and is considered the father of inter-market technical analysis. With over 40 years of market experience, he is the author of numerous popular works including “Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets” and “Trading with Intermarket Analysis”. Before joining StockCharts, John was the technical analyst for CNBC-TV for seven years on the popular show Tech Talk, and has authored three best-selling books on the subject: Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets, Trading with Intermarket Analysis and The Visual Investor. Learn More