Mixed Session with Weak Technicals
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The stock market indices had quite a volatile day today. They gapped up at the opening, pulling back to test, and then ran sharply higher. At midday they reached their peak for the session at 2663 Nasdaq 100 and 1380 and change on the S&P 500. They then rolled over, and rolled over hard, to early afternoon, but held support, especially on the S&P 500 near 1371-2. They stair-stepped their way higher in a choppy pattern into the last ten minutes, when they retested intraday resistance near the highs, and sold off in the last ten minutes. Still, they closed on the upside for the day, but off the highs.
Net of the day, the Dow was up 34.66 at 12,943.36, about 34 points off its high, the S&P 500 was up 3.73 at 1376.51, only 4 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 29.94 at 2655.61, 8 points off the high.
Advance-declines were nearly slightly higher on New York by 112 issues, and lower on Nasdaq by 300 issues. Up/down volume was flat, but slightly higher on New York, with total volume of 735 million shares. Nasdaq traded 1.66 billion, and had a 3 to 2 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was mostly mixed. Nasdaq 100 large-cap stocks led the way, with Google Inc. (GOOG) up 12.30 to 593.06, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) up 8.70 to 226.17, Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 8.06 to 614.32, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) up 7.09 to 195.34, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) up 1.85 to 83.12.
Other gainers of note included large percentage gainers. Leading the way was Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (MLNX), which on tremendous earnings, jumped 27.52 to 93.90, or 41 1/2%, on 6.3 million shares. pSivida Corp. (PSDV) gained 60 cents to 2.74, or 28%, on 1.3 million shares. Select Comfort Corporation (SCSS), on good earnings, advanced 5.83 to 27.60, or 27%, on 6.3 million shares. OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OCZ), on takeover rumors, jumped 1.05 to 5.61, or 23%, on 9.6 million shares. Low-priced Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. (PSTI) popped 51 cents to 3.20, or 19%, on 1.9 million shares. New Oriental Education & Technology Group (EDU) spiked up 1.70 to 11.20, or 18%, on 50 million shares.
In addition, Rovi Corporation (ROVI) spiked early, and ran all day, up 1.59 to 11.60, or 16%, on 9 million shares. NetScout Systems, Inc. (NTCT), on good earnings, was up 2.27 to 21.93, or 12%, on 600,000 shares. Georgia Gulf Corp. (GGC) jumped 3.81 to 32.66, or 13%, on 6.3 million shares. Textron Inc. (TXT) spiked up 2.74 to 26.50, or 11 1/2%, on 9.2 million shares.
Low-priced 8x8 Inc. (EGHT) was up 44 cents to 5.06, or nearly 10%, on 5.2 million shares. Ultratech, Inc. (UTEK) was up 2.94 to 33.71, EBay Inc. (EBAY) was up 3.49 to 43.95, Tempur Pedic International Inc. (TPX) gained 2.04 to 27.57, Cirrus Logic Inc. (CRUS) rose 1.92 to 28.51, Fusion-io, Inc. (FIO) added 1.33 to 20.30, and GATX Corp. (GMT) was up 2.41 to 41.50.
In addition, Yelp, Inc. (YELP) jumped 1.30 to 24.00 even, Crown Holdings Inc. (CCK) up 1.87 to 36.07, Continental Resources, Inc. (CLR) up 3.81 to 76.26, Allot Communications Ltd. (ALLT) rose 1.22 to 24.71, Sourcefire, Inc. (FIRE) gained 1.93 to 47.69, and NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) 1.08 to 22.94.
On the downside, Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) gave back 2.80 to 49.70, nearly 10 points off its recent high. VIVUS Inc. (VVUS) lost 3.23 to 25.78. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) was down 1.51 to 52.10. Goldman Sachs (GS) was also down 1.51 to 95.00 even in a weak finance group.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply at the opening, pulled back sharply to test, and rallied sharply to new highs. They pulled back sharply midday, and rallied back to take back most of the losses from the midday pullback, and closed to the upside on the session. It was a rather mixed session, with weak technicals. With the indices up, at, near, or slightly above prior highs, this could be an area of consolidation. Plus the S&P 500 intraday, with a head-and-shoulders-type pattern could see some weakness from here, unless they blow through this and do it quickly.
Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry