#$blmn

5 Trade ideas excerpted from the detailed analysis and plan for premium subscribers

Agrium, Ticker: $AGU

Agrium, $AGU, has trended lower since making a top over 116 to start March 2015. It started rising off of a bottom in February but found resistance as t crossed 90. he pullback from there made a higher low into May and it turned back up. Entering the week it is back at resistance with support to move higher. The RSI is rising in the bullish zone and the MACD is rising. Look for a break of resistance to participate to the upside.....

Biogen, Ticker: $BIIB

Biogen, $BIIB, gapped down in July last year and has drifted lower since. A series of lower highs and lower lows morphed into a bottoming pattern from February through March. And now it has seen a higher high following a higher low in May. The RSI is in the bullish zone and rising while the MACD rises, both supporting more upside. Look for a break of the short term resistance last week to participate to the upside.....

Bloomin' Brands, Ticker: $BLMN

Bloomin' Brands, $BLMN, has been moving through a rounded bottom, making a series of higher highs and higher lows since February. Last week saw the stock push back to the May highs, with support for more upside from the bullish and rising RSI and the MACD about to cross up. Look for a break of the May high to participate to the upside.....

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ticker: $BMY

Bristol-Myers Squibb, $BMY, recovered from the August 2015 drop, rising into the end of 2015. But it fell back with the market from there to a low in February. Since then it has moved higher to a peak at the end of April. It has consolidated the under resistance for more than a month. As it does, the RSI is rising in the bullish zone and the MACD is about to cross up. Look for a break above resistance to participate to the upside.....

Canadian National Railway, Ticker: $CNI

Canadian National Railway, $CNI, ran higher from the February low until peaking in late April. It pulled back from there and found support at the 200 day SMA. It has been consolidating there since. The RSI has started back higher and is moving through the mid line while the MACD is crossed up and rising. Look for a break of resistance to participate to the upside.....

After reviewing over 1,000 charts, I have found some good setups for the week. These were selected and should be viewed in the context of the broad Market Macro picture reviewed Friday which heading into the first full week of June sees the Equity Indexes looking solid.

Elsewhere look for Gold to bounce higher in consolidation while Crude Oil consolidates its move higher, holding at the round number 50. The US Dollar Index looks better to the downside short term in its broad consolidation while US Treasuries are strong and look to move higher. The Shanghai Composite has a short term bias higher and may have broken a long term pattern to the upside while Emerging Markets are continue to move up.

Volatility looks to remain subdued keeping the bias higher for the equity index ETF’s SPY, IWM and QQQ. There charts show some variation in the short run with the IWM leading to the upside, perhaps catching up, while the QQQ has a short term upward bias in consolidation and the SPY looks to be muddled in consolidation after its move higher. Use this information as you prepare for the coming week and trad’em well.

5 Trade ideas excerpted from the detailed analysis and plan for premium subscribers

Amazon, Ticker: $AMZN

Amazon, $AMZN, reported earnings a little over a week ago and blasted higher. It held the gap last week with a slight pullback on declining volume. This is the definition of a bull flag. Momentum remain strong too. The RSI is in the bullish zone and the MACD rising. Look for a break of the flag higher to participate in more upside.....

Bloomin' Brands, Ticker: $BLMN

Bloomin' Brands, $BLMN, dropped from a consolidation in August last year. The stock found a bottom in November and has been consolidating since. In March it looks to have started a reversal higher with a series of higher highs and higher lows. It ended Friday pressing against resistance from October and over the 200 day SMA. Look for a break higher to participate.....

Commerce Bancshares, Ticker: $CBSH

Commerce Bancshares, $CBSH, broke out to new highs in April, reaching a peak near 47.50. It fell back from there to retest the breakout level last week, and saw a solid bounce off of it Friday. This happened as the RSI turned back higher off the mid line and the MACD falling. Look for follow through Monday to the upside to participate.....

Eaton Vance, Ticker: $EV

Eaton Vance, $EV, ended a pullback in January and started moving higher. The advance fell short of the November high when it topped out in April and it pulled back. The bull flag found support at the 50 day SMA and had a strong candle higher Friday, perhaps a reversal. The RSI would support it as it remains in the bullish zone but the MACD continues lower. Look for continuation higher Monday to participate to the upside.....

Edwards Lifesciences, Ticker: $EW

Edwards Lifesciences, $EW, was in a channel trending higher that began accelerating in February. It gapped higher to start April on positive drug trial results and has held the gap. A retest of the bottom of the new range last week held and it looks ready for another push higher. The RSI has reset lower and held in the bullish zone while the MACD is falling. Look for a move over Friday's high to participate to the upside.....

After reviewing over 1,000 charts, I have found some good setups for the week. This week’s list contains the first five below to get you started early. These were selected and should be viewed in the context of the broad Market Macro picture reviewed Friday which heading into next week see equities continuing to look better to the downside short term after a week lower, but with a glimpse of promise from the Friday action.

Elsewhere look for Gold to resume its uptrend while Crude Oil moves higher as well. The US Dollar Index is set to continue the bounce while US Treasuries consolidate with an upward bias. The Shanghai Composite continues to consolidate with a bias lower and Emerging Markets are biased to the downside.

Volatility looks to remain subdued keeping the bias higher for the equity index ETF’s SPY, IWM and QQQ, despite the moves lower. Their charts suggest more short term downside though with the QQQ looking the worst. Use this information as you prepare for the coming week and trad’em well.

Restaurants get a lot of chatter on social, so I thought I’d look into the publicly traded restaurant companies to see who’s getting the buzz...

Here are some restaurant chains people talk about on social:

People talk about Olive Garden (owned by Darden) a lot.... Cracker Barrel, not so much.

Also interesting are the positive social sentiment numbers for these companies.  All of them are in respectable range, with Cracker Barrel the lowest at 83% positive and Bloomin Brands (think Outback Steakhouse) the highest at an impressive 92% positive.

Of course, these give us a baseline to work off of. What’s important here isn’t the raw volume around these brands, but rather any consumer shifts we see in the future.

For example, if we start to see a steady increase in Cracker Barrel social volume while sentiment remains high, we’ll know something interesting is going on at the stores.  On the flip-side, if mentions of Darden-owned restaurants start to slip, we will have a clue that comps might not be up to Wall St expectations, like we saw withTesla last quarter.

Again, it’s all about consumer shifts.  What happens to these restaurants from the baseline is what will tell us when it’s time to take a look for opportunities in the stock.  

That’s what LikeFolio is all about -- using social data to find opportunities that Wall St hasn’t noticed... yet.

5 Trade ideas excerpted from the detailed analysis and plan for premium subscribers.

Bloomin' Brands, Ticker: $BLMN

Bloomin' Brands, $BLMN, has had a strong run higher off of the bottom in August 2014. Since the calendar rolled to 2015 it has been consolidating under resistance and recently got reacquainted with its 50 day SMA. Friday it tried to break higher but the weak market pulled it back down. The RSI is rising and in the bullish zone while the MACD is also rising, supporting more upside.

Broadcom, Ticker: $BRCM

Broadcom, $BRCM, has trended higher since June 2014 with a short set back in October, when the market pulled back. To start January it consolidated and gained strength rising off of the 100 day SMA and now is consolidating at resistance. The RSI is bullish and the MACD is avoiding a cross down.

Infosys, Ticker: $INFY

Infosys, $INFY, trended higher with the market since June with a hiccup in December. The last two weeks have seen consolidation in that move at the 20 day SMA. The RSI is in the bullish zone while the MACD has crossed down during the consolidation. This offers a possible trade in both directions.

Varian Medical Systems, Ticker: $VAR

Varian Medical Systems, $VAR, moved up off of the October low and consolidated for two months before rising to the latest consolidation zone. With the Bollinger Bands® squeezing a move may be imminent. The RSI is in the bullish zone but the MACD has crossed down. Be ready for it to break either way.

Zions Bancorporation, Ticker: $ZION

Zions Bancorp, $ZION, bounced at the end of January as the RSI bottomed and started higher from the oversold zone and the MACD made a new low and reversed. For the last month it has consolidated that bounce under resistance but Friday saw a test to break it higher. The RSI and MACD are rising now to support a push up and the Bollinger Bands leave some room to start.

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After reviewing over 1,000 charts, I have found some good setups for the week. These were selected and should be viewed in the context of the broad Market Macro picture reviewed Friday which, heading into March the strength that was anticipated to close February did not appear, but weakness did not show up either.

Elsewhere look for Gold to continue the short term bounce higher while Crude Oil churns in the consolidation of the downward move. The US Dollar Index seems ready to move higher again while US Treasuries are biased higher short term in the pullback. The Shanghai Composite is on the cusp of another leg higher and Emerging Markets are stalled at resistance but not showing any bias.

Volatility looks to remain subdued and may drift lower keeping the bias higher for the equity index ETF's SPY, IWM and QQQ. Their charts are not as strong with consolidation or a pullback looking more likely in them, especially the SPY with the IWM next and QQQ strongest, holding level. Use this information as you prepare for the coming week and trad'em well.

Casual dining stocks have just been on fire over the last 6 months. All are trending higher and making it hard for a technical trader to find an entry. So when one pulls back it is time to take notice. Bloomin' Brands, $BLMN, is one of those names. They are the parent company to Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grille and Fleming's among others, and make a killer bloomin' onion.

The chart above shows the trend higher since August in this name. Nothing fancy here, it just goes up. Most importantly for the technical trader watching this space is the last two weeks. Over this period it made a short term top and started to pullback. The touch at the rising trend line as support last week is the reason to get ready.

You can see that this trend is closely following the 20 day SMA higher. The bounce higher Monday confirms the the short term trend changed higher again and gives an entry signal. For this name, sticking with a stop the whole dollar value below the trend line seems like a good plan. I bought some against 24 as a stop.

Guest post by Philip Van Deusen, Director of Research Tigress Financial Partners

Consumer Discretionary is the second worst performing sector in the S&P YTD, just ahead of Basic Materials. The sector has suffered from a lack of consumer spending, which has been hampered by low disposable income and stagnating wage growth. Recently, there has been plenty of discussion about the impact that lower gas prices will have on consumer spending because lower prices at the gas pump effectively act as a wage increase. While we do not believe this will have a big impact on GDP given the low multiplier effect, we feel strongly that stocks in the restaurant industry will be major beneficiaries of lower gas prices.

Oil and gas prices have been declining since June; AAA recently noted that average prices at the pump declined for nearly 50 consecutive days, the most since 2008. Over the same time frame, the US Consensus Bureau’s Retail Sales figures are showing increasing M/M growth in Food Service & Drinking Places. This trend can continue over the coming months if gas prices stay at these levels and consumers become more confident that low gas prices are here to stay.