Global stocks retreated on Friday as uncertainty over Europe's festering debt crisis overcame an early bounce driven by better-than-expected U.S. consumer sentiment, while oil prices fell after weak data from China reduced demand expectations.

Safe-haven government debt rose, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note falling for the eighth straight week. Whether Greece can remain in the euro zone and concerns about the health of Spanish banks spurred buying.

The U.S. June light sweet crude contract declined 95 cents to settle at $96.13 a barrel.

Gold fell almost 1 percent, capping a 3.7 percent loss for the week, its biggest weekly decline this year. (commentary & photo courtesy of Reuters)

I read that this weeks market loss was the worse for the year. Are we in a downtrend? This past week has seen several funds hit their stop loss levels. These were:

• iPath DJ-UBS Cotton TR Sub-Idx ETN (BAL)
• ALPS Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP)
• iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Value Index (IJS)
• iShares MSCI Chile Investable Mkt Idx (ECH)

An example of these funds, falling out of bed, is the cotton fund BAL, chart below. It was on the way up when it reversed its trend and was stopped out. Part of the RSI process it to protect 

RSI is designed to identify buying opportunities. When these opportunities fail to materialize, they are sold. There is no forecasting of the future. We will reserve this for others. We do however notice those times, like now, when the RSI is shedding positions it is at a time of market contraction. Only in the fullness of time will we know if this trend will continue.

I hope you are having a great weekend. Have a nice Mother’s day tomorrow.