The markets had a volatile session, but a got very strong finish, closing at
the highs for the day on some of the indices and near them on the others.
The day started out with positive market futures, but they had come way off
their early pre-market highs. They opened positive but then sold off immediately
to retest yesterday's late lows, but held there. When that happened, they staged
a very strong rally in the morning that took the Nasdaq 100 from about 1192 to
1137, about a 45-point rally. The S&P 500 went from about the 818 area up
848, about a 30-point rally over the next 2-3 hours. By lunch hour they reached
their morning rally peak, and then rolled over sharply in early afternoon to do
a very sharp plunge and retest the lows, However, they made higher lows, turned
it around, and rallied very sharply back in the last hour, particularly the last
10 minutes at which point the S&P alone went from 832 to 850.
Net on the day the Dow was up 270 to 8419, the S&P 500 up 32.60 to just
under 849, and the Nasdaq 100 up 38.84 to 1130. The Philadelphia Semiconductor
Index (SOXX) gained 2.45.
The technicals were solid today, with advance-declines positive by 24 to 7,
or 3 1/2 to 1, on New York and by 2 1/2 to 1 positive Nasdaq. Up/down volume was
1.4 billion to the upside and only 171 million to the downside on New York,
about an 8 to 1 ratio,. Nasdaq had about a 6 to 1 positive volume ratio, with
1.77 billion to the upside and only 292 million to the downside.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result of the late surge, closed mostly green.
Leading the way were some of the ETFs, with the BGU up 2.93 to 30.63, the DIG
1.81, the FXI also up 1.81, the EWZ up 1.30, and the QLD up 1.44.
AAPL advanced 3.54 and ENER 2.64. Portfolio position EBS jumped to 24.24 up
1.87, and SQNM snapped back 1.90 to 15.97. AFAM was up 1.90, and portfolio
position SPWR closed at 30.17, up 1.55.
Some of the agriculture stocks, despite a weak opening, turned it around,
with CF closing at 45.95 up 1.73 and MOS at 27.16 up 1.76.
POT still was down on the day, off 1.27, and so was AGU ,which also did not
make it back into the plus column, down 1.12.
Other stocks on the downside, the USO dropped 1.39, as oil went to 3 1/2-year
lows. The SDS in the ultrashort ETF area got clobbered for 7.95, the BGZ 9.84,
and the QID 5.82.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns we had two steep spike
lows today, making higher lows on the second low, triggering a very late strong
rally that took the indices to near their session highs. It was a promising
session for the indices, but everything will depend on tomorrow's action and
whether they get a follow-through and take out overhead resistance. Right now
we'll be watching the 1133-37 zone, which is just above on the NDX, and the
current level on the SPX at 850, which is immediate resistance, followed by the
858-60 zone.
