BMY closes below its opening price unable to hold early session gains

Overview

BMY ended the week -0.71% lower at 53.08 after losing $0.17 (-0.32%) today, but still significantly outperforming the S&P 500 (-2.33%) following today's NFP report. Trading $0.57 higher after the open, Bristol-Myers Squibb was unable to hold its gains as the bears took control ending the day below its opening price. The last time this happened on Monday, BMY lost -2.35% on the following trading day. Closing within the prior day's range, prices failed to decisively move beyond the previous day's trading range.

Daily Candlestick Chart (BMY as at Dec 07, 2018):

Friday's trading range has been $1.05 (1.97%), that's slightly below the last trading month's daily average range of $1.16. Weekly volatility is also lower, being slightly below the market's average weekly trading range. The longer-term, monthly volatility is currently lower than usual for BMY.

After moving higher in the prior session, the share closed lower but above the previous day's open today, forming a bearish Harami Candle. Additionally, one bearish candlestick pattern matches today's price action, the Bearish Spinning Top.

Prices are trading close to the key technical support level at 52.60 (S1).

The trend is clearly bearish, showing an intact downtrend in the short, medium and long-term.

Buying might accelerate should prices move above the close-by swing high at 53.99 where further buy stops could get activated. Further buying might move prices higher should the market test November's nearby high at 54.81.

Among the four market conditions that our pattern recognition engine identified today, the statistics for the Price Action based market condition "Bearish Intraday Reversal" stand out. Though it is usually interpreted as bearish, it has actually shown to be bullish for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Out of 382 times, BMY closed higher 56.81% of the time on the next trading day after the market condition occurred. The optimal exit for swing trading this condition on the long side has been after 10 trading days, showing a win rate of 55.24% with an average market move of 0.56%.