Midday Situation Check
Bullish regime — 40SMA breadth at 62.79% (up from 59.56% yesterday), 20SMA at 21% (up from 18%). The 4% sentiment gauge flipped from Very Bearish to Bullish overnight, and that flip is the single most important number on the board today.
Market Recap — Session So Far
Index-level data is unavailable this session — SPY, QQQ and IWM prices, SMA20/50/200 levels and 20-day ranges are all showing as unavailable in our feed, so we are calling this one entirely off breadth, sector internals and the live scans.
- No index levels to quote today. We will not guess at SPY or QQQ prints. What we can measure is participation, and participation improved sharply: Bull 4% signals jumped to 278 from 127 yesterday, while Bear 4% collapsed to 134 from 309.
- Breadth is broadening, not narrowing. The 40SMA reading gained 3.2 percentage points to 62.79% and the 20SMA reading gained 3 points to 21%. That gap — nearly two-thirds of names above the 40 but only one-fifth above the 20 — tells you the intermediate trend is intact while the short-term is still repairing.
- Longer-horizon signals are balanced. Bull 20% at 21 versus Bear 20% at 20, and Bull 9M at 28 versus Bear 9M at 20. Slight edge to the bulls, but no thrust yet. Volume pace data is not in today’s feed, so no comparison to the 20-day average.
Momentum Watch — Breakout Continuation & SIP
- PLSE is the tape leader at $32.60, +7.8%, though RVOL of just 0.3 is the caveat — this is a thin move, not an institutional accumulation day. Risk profile is wide at 122.1% with a 3.4 ATR%-M. Respect the size limits.
- LEU $172.52 (+5.3%, RVOL 0.6) and UFPT $248.00 (+4.5%, RVOL 0.7) are the cleaner continuation candidates — better relative volume, tighter ATR readings (0.1 and 1.1 respectively). UFPT carries the best volume confirmation of the top ten.
- SIP is quiet today. The only 2026-07-27 entry is USO at $136.68, sentiment 0, “Oil trading lower on pause” — down 0.76% from the open after gapping -1.27% on RVOL 1.36. Everything else on the SIP list is carryover from Friday 7/24.
- Friday’s SIP names, for context: OVV beat on Q2 sales (+2.85% from open, RVOL 2.48), UVE beat on Q2 results (+6.74% from open), NDLS raised FY2026 guidance on a 24.45% gap and RVOL 10.92. On the downside, LODE fell 20.13% from open on a Q2 EPS miss and LBTYA dropped 4.53% from open on weak Q2.
Strategy Check — Continuation, SIP & 20% Study
- 45 continuation signals live, and the institutional tags matter: REGN $676.28 (+3.1%, RVOL 0.6, INST), CTAS $210.63 (+2.3%, RVOL 0.5, INST) and NOC $549.93 (+1.4%, RVOL 0.2, INST). Defense and business services are quietly doing the work while tech sits out.
- The one clear failure is FANG at $199.78, -2.4% on RVOL 0.6 — an INST-tagged energy name going the wrong way, which lines up perfectly with Energy’s sector reading dropping -1.73% today to 0.35 after four sessions of building. Energy still ranks in the 76th percentile, so this is a pullback, not a break.
- Sector rotation is the story. Consumer Discretionary (RSPD) +2.17% to 0.19 and rising, Communication Services (RSPC) +1.99%, Staples (RSPS) +1.70% sitting in the 86th percentile, and Health Care (RSPH) +1.35% at 2.04. Meanwhile Technology (RSPT) is at -1.32 and the 2nd percentile — dead last, and it has been negative since July 7.
- 20% Study shows divergence, not confirmation. Most names carry negative ATR multiples — LNOK at -2.46, TEMT at -1.63, LABX at -1.22. The exceptions worth flagging: SNDQ $33.86 on rel-volume 2.45 and HIMZ $29.77 on 1.84, both showing real participation. CBRS $199.12 is the institutional name here — 324 funds, funds pct 22.06, sitting just 3.17% above a daily demand zone at 163.27–178.63.
Quick Takes & Wrap-Up
- CBRS — the daily demand zone at 163.27 to 178.63 is the line in the sand. Above it, the fund story stays alive; a loss of 178.63 puts the whole 20% setup in question.
- LNOK — sitting at demand, only 1.01% from the weekly zone at 27.26 to 28.07 (strength 8.5). That is a defined-risk reaction level; supply overhead sits at 32.96–33.89.
- FANG — down 2.4% today. Whether energy’s pullback stops here or extends decides if RSPG’s 76th-percentile rank holds into month-end.
- Bias into the close: constructive but selective. Breadth flipped bullish and the 40SMA is comfortably above 60%, but only 21% of names are above their 20SMA and RVOL across the continuation leaders is running below 1.0 — this is a rotation rally, not a volume thrust.
- Action codes today: CRT (Controlled Risk Taking — take the signals, size for the thin volume) and PLASTICS (Sector Winners — lean Staples, Health Care and Discretionary, fade Technology at the 2nd percentile).