Beige Book Lifts Indices in Volatile Session
Be alerted when Harry posts an article
The stock market indices had a volatile session again on low volume today. The day started out with a little pop to the upside, then a quick rollover very sharply in the morning. By 11:00 am they hit their session lows, and then made their way up just as sharply with the FOMC Beige Book report. The Nasdaq 100 jumped from 2772 to 2790 and the S&P 500 from 1406 1/2 to 1414, and then they rolled back in the afternoon to give back a chunk of their gains, and barely ended up on the day.
Net on the day, the Dow was up 4.49 at 13,107.48, about 37 points off its high and 26 points off the low. The S&P 500 was up 1.19 cents at 1410.49, only 3 1/2 points off its high and 3 1/2 points off its low. The Nasdaq 100 was up 1.31 at 2784.00, 6 points off the high and 13 points off its low.
Advance-declines were about 3 to 2 positive on New York Stock Exchange, and about 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was barely ahead on New York, with total volume of a very light 500 million shares. Nasdaq traded over 1.2 billion, and had a flat volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed for the most part, but there were some point-plus gainers. Leading the way in the Nasdaq 100 was Google Inc. (GOOG), up 10.76 to 688.01, not far off the high for the day. Apple Inc. (AAPL), on the other hand, was 4 points off the high, down 1.33 to 673.47. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) was up 1.01 to 247.12, also not far off the high.
Other major players that were gainers today included VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC), up 1.41 to 26.88 on a late run, and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) up 1.16 to 38.81.
Leading percent gainers included low-priced Genetic Technologies Ltd. (GENE), up 81 cents to 3.93, or 26%, on 2.8 million shares. Yelp, Inc. (YELP) jumped 4.11 to 22.37, or 22 1/2%, on 8.6 million shares. Jos. A Bank Clothiers Inc. (JOSB) gained 5.81 to 47.44, or 14%, on 4.2 million shares after earnings. Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) was up 1.48 to 12.23, or 14%, on 23.6 million shares.
MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO), which we traded today, closed up 1.72 to 17.27, or 11%, on 4 million shares. Sealed Air Corporation (SEE) advanced 1.58 to 14.58, or 12%, on 9.8 million shares. Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT), on take-over rumors, jumped 1.86 to 19.73, or 10.4%, on 6.8 million shares.
Other gainers of note included WellPoint Inc. (WLP), up 4.41 to 61.80, Cyberonics Inc. (CYBX) up 3.31 to 49.67, Terex Corp. (TEX) 1.31 to 21.67, and Francesca’s Holdings Corporation (FRAN) 1.85 to 36.28.
In addition, Stratasys Inc. (SSYS) was up another 3.31 to 69.24, Zillow, Inc. (Z) gained 1.92 to 40.91, and Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) advanced 2.49 to 57.45. ProShares Ultra Long DJ-UBS Natural Gas (BOIL) jumped 1.55 to 38.69.
On the downside, Apple was the only point-plus losers.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, and then rolled over hard in late morning to reach their session lows to test support severely, but held. When that occurred, the Beige Book came out and they rallied strongly.
The only problem was the 5-wave pullback in the last couple hours took them off the highs and pulled them just fractionally ahead today.
We’ll see whether this consolidation the last several sessions ends up being bullish or bearish.
Good Trading!
Harry