The Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES) is showing strength here in March as it breaks back above its 40-week SMA. More importantly, the long-term trend is up and this week’s breakout argues for a continuation of this uptrend.
The chart below shows XES with a big breakout surge in the fourth quarter of 2020. Even though this move reversed the long-term downtrend, the advance over the last three years is quite choppy. The green dashed lines show a rising channel with the 40-week SMA (red line) in the middle. XES crossed this moving average several times as it slowly zigzagged higher. Despite choppy trading, the long-term trend is clearly up on this chart.
Short-term, I am seeing a breakout after a pullback. The red shadings show prior dips below the 40-week and each dip represented more of an opportunity than a threat. XES dipped below the 40-week SMA in December and remained below from early January to early March. The ETF turned up the last few weeks and surged above its 40-week SMA this week. This move reverses the downswing within the rising channel and argues for a continuation of the bigger uptrend. The upside target is around 110 and a closes below 81 would argue for a re-evaluation.
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Arthur Hill, CMT, is the Chief Technical Strategist at TrendInvestorPro.com. Focusing predominantly on US equities and ETFs, his systematic approach of identifying trend, finding signals within the trend, and setting key price levels has made him an esteemed market technician. Arthur has written articles for numerous financial publications including Barrons and Stocks & Commodities Magazine. In addition to his Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designation, he holds an MBA from the Cass Business School at City University in London.
