During earnings season, we can gain value from the charts by judging how stocks react to their reports. We are especially mindful of support and resistance levels, watching for breakouts and breakdowns as technical catalysts. In response to earnings this morning, health care services stock IQVIA Holdings (IQV) broke out above initial resistance from the daily cloud model (denoted by the shaded area on the chart below) in a bullish intermediate-term catalyst, reversing a four-month corrective phase.
The breakout shows no signs of upside exhaustion, and short-term momentum is positive. Our intermediate-term gauges are turning the corner for IQV, suggesting the up move has staying power. The weekly MACD is on the verge of a buy signal for the first time since November, and the weekly stochastics are not yet in overbought territory.
This supports upside follow-through for IQV in the weeks ahead towards resistance from a Fibonacci retracement level near $258. From a long-term perspective, IQV appears to be in a bullish turnaround phase after a bear market cycle in 2022-2023. The chart has the shape of a rounded bottom due to its latest rally, which has a left a higher low on the chart to suggest the stock is in the early stages of a cyclical bull trend.
We ultimately expect the stock to retest final resistance, near $285, with a long-term time horizon. Long-term support on the chart is defined by the weekly cloud model, which rises to roughly $215 next month. Short-term support is.