Thursday, November 8, 2007

A Closer Look At the Financial Sector

About a month ago I looked at the various sectors withing the financial sector. In light of yesterday's bank inspired rally, I want to look at the XLF and its largest components.

Here is what got me thinking about this sector:

``More people are going to start nibbling in the financials because they've been in a bear market more or less for the last six months,'' said Joseph Quinlan, chief market strategist for Bank of America Corp.'s Global Wealth & Investment Management unit, which oversees $710 billion. ``The correction has been severe enough that now we've gotten buyers back into the market.''


The XLF



Citigroup



JP Morgan



Wells Fargo



Bank of America



AIG



My commentary to all the charts is the same.

1.) All are below the 200 day simple moving average (SMA). This is bear market territory.

2.) All of their respective SMAs are moving lower.

3.) All of their respective prices are below their SMAs.

4.) All have recently broken key technical support.

5.) Most of their shorter SMAs are below longer term SMAs, indicating further downward price pressure.

6.) Some of the chart have downside price gaps, indicating extreme selling pressure.

The bottom line is simple: this sector says either sell me or stay the hell away. This is not the time to be buying financial shares in any way, shape or form.