While last week ended beautifully for the bears and bloody for the bulls, this week begins to the theme song of Laurel and Hardy’s comedy act of the mid-40’s- “The Dance of the Cuckoos.”

The humor of Laurel and Hardy was highly visual with slapstick used for emphasis. Monday’s market action certainly adds an interesting visual component to the charts. And all might agree that slapstick for emphasis describes the giant guffaw the market had today on the back of the bears.

Take the ETF for Biotechnology IBB as an example. It had a classic bullish engulfing pattern (BEP) if you like a visual chart pattern of beauty. For those not familiar with candlestick formations, a BEP forms when the opening and closing prices from the day prior is literally engulfed or swallowed with wider opening and closing prices the next day.

Conventional wisdom says that the following day, the instrument must close higher than the BEP of the day before to confirm. I will get back to that in a bit.

How does slapstick for emphasis apply today?

Slapstick exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. The name originates from Italian meaning a club-like object made of two wooden slats that when struck make a loud smacking noise. The noise emphasized the otherwise benign action where no one really got smacked.

Did the slapstick routine on Friday mean the market did not really get smacked? Was Friday’s sell-off the dance of the cuckoos?

Turning to the Modern Family, three cleared a resistance point known as R1 that indicates a near term reversal of trend. Biotechnology, Semiconductors and Retail. Retail however, remains in a warning phase.

The rest of the Family could be repeating Laurel and Hardy’s famous catchphrase: “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.”

Transportation, Regional Banks and Gramps Russell 2000 could not clear R1 in spite of the impressive turnaround. Granted, they all sit in bullish phases.