Investors have renewed confidence in Nike after a blowout quarter. Even before the company reported earnings, the charts showed Nike as a buy, says one market technician.
"We like the chart, we like the longer-term setup from what we're seeing here," Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Jaffray, told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Thursday. "You can see that there's this big base that's been forming over the last two years."
"You're seeing improving relative strength and from our perspective on the charts, a close above $68 is going to open up the possibilities of a whole 'nother leg higher from here," he added.
Nike shares are consolidating around the 50-day moving average, a level of resistance around $67 to $68 a share, says Johnson. As of Thursday's close, Nike was trading slightly below its 50-day moving average, though it has held above its 100-day and 200-day moving averages this year.
The sporting brand's relative strength index is also headed lower, moving closer to oversold conditions after a sell-off this week. Its RSI, a measure of overbought and oversold conditions, ended Thursday at 41.43. A level below 30 indicates a stock is oversold.
"We like what we're seeing, we like the relative strength, we think it's a buy," said Johnson.
Nike earned an adjusted 68 cents a share over its third quarter, far higher than an anticipated estimate of 53 cents. Revenue surged more than 6 percent to $8.99 billion, led by international growth. Sales came in higher than consensus.
A broader market sell-off dragged Nike shares lower this week. Its stock was down nearly 3 percent in the week as of Thursday's close, putting it on track for its worst weekly loss in more than a month. However, the stock was up nearly 5 percent in Friday's premarket. For the full year as of Thursday's close, shares have added 3 percent, making it just one of eight Dow stocks positive in 2018.
There's value elsewhere in the retail space, notably among home improvement chains, adds Larry McDonald, founder of the Bear Traps Report. McDonald predicts a big windfall for retailers such as Home Depot and Lowe's, housed in the XHB Homebuilders ETF, if Congress finalizes financial reforms in the next few weeks.
"Legislation in Washington on community banks is extremely beneficial to the XHB," said McDonald. "Those homebuilders have exposure to the consumer, and this legislation is really going to free up a tremendous amount of lending to smaller banks."
McDonald expects easing of Dodd-Frank regulations implemented after the 2008 financial crisis to lead to a pickup in activity at smaller and regional banks. Increased lending might then incentivize homebuilding and homebuying, trickling down to the home-improvement space.
As of Thursday's closing, the XHB ETF had fallen 8 percent this year, while Lowe's and Home Depot had dropped more than 7 percent.
