Summary:

• US2000 hits new all-time high
• Market looks to break higher after triangle consolidation
• Well Fargo falls after more customer service issues

Small-cap stocks in the US have made a strong push higher today with the US2000 rising to its highest ever level above 1625. Similar to the more widely followed US indices, the US2000 has been in an uptrend for quite some time with a multi-year bull market easy to spot. 

 The US2000 has been in a bull market for pretty much the whole of this decade. Source: xStation

After hitting a record peak back in December the market has been consolidating with a triangle formation seen. This ascending triangle has had progressively higher lows after the initial bottom at 1412 with 1619 providing a ceiling on a couple of occasions.

At the start of the week an attempt to push higher was met with some selling and it looked like a triple top may be forming, but today price has attempted to make a clean break higher. As the saying goes, triple tops build stops and it is possible that several shorts looking for price to fall back lower would have had stop losses above 1619 and this could have contributed to the latest push higher. 

 

 The market has made a break higher today after a consolidation triangle had continued price throughout 2018. Source: xStation

Turning our attention back to some larger cap stocks, its another bad day for Wells Fargo shareholders after another scandal has rocked the bank. The WSJ has reported that some employees of the business unit at Wells Fargo that handles banking, improperly changed information on documents related to corporate customers.

The bank is still smarting from a prolonged sales scandal after in its retail banking business where members of the sales team were opening account using fictitious details in order to hit targets. Whilst several of its peers have enjoyed strong gains in recent years due to the rising rate environment in the US and the deregulation seen from the Trump administration, Wells Fargo is lagging behind with its stock trading almost 20% below its all-time high set back in January.  

 

 Wells Fargo has fallen lower today following the news. Price had recently recaptured the 23.6% fib at 54.01 of the decline seen from the all-time high set back in January, but price is now retesting this level from above. Source: xStation