By VICTOR REKLAITIS, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 05:34 PM ET
Featured Stocks
ABV * Comp De Bebidas Adr ARCO * Arcos Dorados Hldgs Cl A BIDU Baidu Inc Ads DELL Dell Inc LULU * Lululemon Athletica
* Top-Rated Company
1" 2" The latest market uptrend has provided just a few promising breakouts, with hardly any by leading foreign stocks.
That's not exactly a vote of confidence for the market's attempt to right itself.
It's also not that surprising, given that we're now more than two years from the March 2009 start of the bull market.
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You would expect the third year would feature choppier action and fewer big winners.
So what highly rated foreign stocks have broken out? Arcos Dorados (ARCO) and AmBev (ABV) are among the few that have managed to clear bases.
Arcos briefly fell below its 26.05 buy point on Tuesday, but closed back above that trigger — albeit still with a loss for the session amid roughly average trade.
The 26.05 buy point comes from a choppy cup-without-handle base that counts as a first-stage structure. Argentina-based Arcos, an April IPO, is the world's largest franchisee of McDonald's restaurants.
AmBev, on the other hand, hasn't been able to hold above its most recent entry point at 34.78.
That trigger came from a cup-without-handle base that was V-shaped, a flaw. The pattern was an early-stage structure, since AmBev undercut a prior base back in February, resetting the base count.
Meanwhile, other international leaders haven't jumped to new high ground as the major U.S. indexes bounced back.
Baidu (BIDU) has been trying to recover from a failed breakout in late July. The Chinese search engine has been a mainstay of every market uptrend for the past five years, but it's showing signs of fatigue, as noted in this column on Aug 29.
Baidu got a lift Tuesday from news that it'll partner with Dell (DELL) to produce tablet PCs and cell phones for the Chinese market. (See related article here.)
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) has struggled to regain its 50-day moving average.
The Canada-based seller of workout clothing may be etching a new base, but it would be a late-stage structure.
Plus the stock has displayed big weekly swings lately, rather than the calm action that you like to see in a proper consolidation.
Lululemon plans to report its second-quarter results Friday.
In world markets, the action so far this week has been negative, as investors react to the latest discouraging news from the euro zone. (See related article here.)
While U.S. markets were closed for Labor Day, European markets fell hard Monday. Germany's DAX lost 5.3%, France's CAC-40 4.7% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 3.6%.
They then gave a mixed performance Tuesday. The DAX shed 1% and the CAC-40 fell 1.1%, while the FTSE 100 gained 1.1%.
In Asia, the Shanghai composite dropped 2% Monday and 0.3% Tuesday, as Japan's Nikkei slid 1.9% and 2.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 3% Monday but rose 0.5% Tuesday.