SPY and QQQ Price Action: October 13, 2026 Market Recap
Tuesday gave us a clean example of a gap-down-and-recover candle. SPY finished almost exactly where it started the session, down 0.09 (-0.01%) at 778.01. QQQ finished lower by 2.47 (-0.33%) at 743.57, but the shape of its day is the more interesting story. This recap stays with the chart: the open, the range, the close, and the levels they leave behind.
The numbers
SPY opened at 777.34, made a high of 778.75 and a low of 775.95, and closed at 778.01. Monday’s close was 778.10, so the session began with a 0.76 gap down. The total range was 2.80, and the close landed 0.67 above the open, roughly 74% of the way up that range.
QQQ opened at 739.52, made a high of 744.20 and a low of 738.83, and closed at 743.57. Monday’s close was 746.04, so the gap down at the open was 6.52. The range was 5.37, and the close sat 4.05 above the open, about 88% of the way up the range. That puts the close close to the high of the session.
SPY at -0.01% and QQQ at -0.33% is a gap in how the two finished. SPY was nearly flat and QQQ was lower. The data here only records that difference; it does not tell us anything beyond it.
QQQ: opened under Thursday’s low, closed back above it
Thursday, October 8 had a low of 743.23 on QQQ. Tuesday’s open of 739.52 was 3.71 below that level, so the session started outside the prior range to the downside. The high of 744.20 came back above 743.23 by 0.97, and the close at 743.57 finished 0.34 above it.
That is a reclaim in the plainest sense: price traded below a marked level and the daily close settled back above it. The margin is small. A 0.34 cushion above a line is a thin one, and it is worth saying so directly rather than rounding it up into something larger.
The gap itself stayed open. The high of 744.20 finished 1.84 short of Monday’s close at 746.04, so the 6.52 gap was never filled. The session recovered most of the distance from the open but left the gap boundary untouched above. On the chart, that leaves two lines stacked close together: 743.23 underneath the close and 746.04 above it.
The close at 743.57 is also the lowest close since October 1, when QQQ closed at 742.03. The comparison reaches back only to October 1.
SPY: the mirror image
SPY showed the same pattern with smaller numbers. Thursday’s high was 777.09. Tuesday’s low of 775.95 went 1.14 below that level, and the close at 778.01 finished back above it. The low also stayed 0.81 above Friday’s low of 775.14, so Friday’s floor was not tested.
On the upper side, the high of 778.75 stayed below Friday’s high of 779.42, and the close stayed under Monday’s close of 778.10 by 0.09. The gap of 0.76 was therefore not completely closed either, though it came within a hair of it. SPY spent its day between 775.95 and 778.75, a 2.80 range that sits entirely inside the space between Friday’s low and Friday’s high.
What a reclaim means, and what it does not
A close back above a level is information about that one day. It says that when the session ended, price was above the line. It does not say the line is now support, and it does not say the next session will behave the same way. One daily close is one observation.
Tuesday’s calendar, for the record
Tuesday’s scheduled items included NFIB Small Business Index with a forecast of 98.1 against a previous 98.7, and Existing Home Sales with a forecast of 3.95M against a previous 3.98M. Fed speakers Waller, Barkin and Collins were also on the schedule. This recap lists them as calendar entries only.
Levels going into Wednesday
Here is the map as the chart stands after the close.
QQQ: 743.23 below, 746.04 above. The close sits 0.34 over the lower line and 2.47 under the upper one.
SPY: 777.09 below, 779.42 above. The close at 778.01 sits 0.92 over the lower line and 1.41 under the upper one. Monday’s close at 778.10 sits just overhead as well.
Wednesday, October 14 has the 8:30am ET CPI release, flagged as high impact. The forecast for CPI m/m is 0.6% against a previous 0.4%, and the forecast for CPI y/y is 3.6% against a previous 3.4%. Core CPI m/m has a forecast of 0.2% against a previous 0.3%. Bowman is scheduled at 5:40am, Barkin at 1:30pm, and the Beige Book at 2:00pm. On Thursday, October 15, an 8:30am cluster includes Retail Sales with a forecast of 0.3% against a previous 1.2%, and Unemployment Claims with a forecast of 199K against a previous 197K.
Treat CPI morning as one bar
Treat the 8:30am CPI release as a single bar. Its high, low and close are not known until the bar finishes. A price-action approach waits for the bar to close, then reads where it closed relative to the levels above: 743.23 and 746.04 on QQQ, 777.09 and 779.42 on SPY.
This is an educational recap of price action only. It is not a prediction and not trading advice.
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