WMT and JNJ Break Out from Long Ranges

In June, shares of Walmart ($WMT) finally took out the stock’s all-time high from 12.5 years before. For much of that time, the stock was locked in what I called the “Mother of All Trading Ranges.” Consider this: For 3,107 straight trading days (or 148 months), Walmart never closed above $65 or below $42. Not once.

Now we’re seeing a similar story with Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ). Last week, the stock came close to breaking through $70 per share which is something it hasn’t done in more than four years. While JNJ’s trading range hasn’t been as narrow or as long as Walmart’s, the stock has spent almost the entire past eight years bouncing between $57 and $72 per share.

This could signal that after a very long rough patch, large-cap blue chips are ready to make new highs.

Posted by on October 15th, 2012 at 1:26 pm


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