The market was extremely choppy today, perhaps unnerved with the anticipation of the Fed minutes and then uncomforted after the Fed minutes had come out. But certain sectors still showed lots of strength: metals and miners, agriculture, and energy.

The Dow was down 35.99 points; SPX fell 7 points; and Nasdaq lost 6.07 points.

Here’s how the market looked at the close:

INX2 (Internet), SOX (semiconductors), BTK (biotechs), and SWH (software) were all weak, losing 0.61%, 2.77%, 0.6%, and 0.87% respectively. SLV (silver) lost 2.47% and GLD (gold) fell 0.9%. XME (metals and mining) jumped +2.61%. USO (oil), and UNG (natural gas) both went up slightly. XLF (financials) and HGX (housing) were also weak. FXI (Chinese ADRs) fell 2.65%.

SPX

SPX lost 7 points to close at 1365.54. Its 20-day MA had gone up above the 30-day MA. Its MACD was flat.

Nasdaq

Nasdaq fell 16.07 points to close at 2348.76. Its 20-day MA also went above the 30-day MA. Its MACD flattened.

The market was again flat, although very choppy. One encouraging development was that the 20-day MA moved above the 30-day MA, forming a new bullish phase. We do need, however, to see some solid upward movements in the market soon to actually carry out this new bullish formation.

This morning, WM raised $7 billon in capital, but admitted more mortage loan losses than had been expected. WM shares fell 10.19%. Agriculture shares were strong in spite of the choppy market. Here are some top gainers: POT +1.71%, CF +3.19%, MOS +1.77%, and MON +1%. Energy stocks also showed tremendous strength with UPL, APA, and DVN all making new all-time highs. Solars started to recover. SPWR jumped more than +4% (I just started a new position in this); STP was up +2.72%; ESLR charged up +4.79%; SOLF added +2.68%. FSLR traded as low as $263, but came back up to close at $271.99, losing only 0.1%. Both MA and V were strong today, gaining +2.31% and +4.69%, respectively.