The market started the week off with a down note. They were lower from the
get-go and then had a rather sharp sell-off, particularly on the Nasdaq 100 that
took it from over 1200 down to the 1170 area. Mid-day they bounced back and
forth, tried to stabilize, did roll over and take out the lows, setting new
session lows late in the session. But there was no downside follow-through, and
they snapped back very sharply, taking the NDX from 1167 to 1192, or 25 points
in about a half hour. The S&P 500 went from 858 to about 874 over the same
period of time. In the last 15 minutes they backed off again.
Net on the day the Dow was down 65, the S&P 500 down 11, and the Nasdaq
100 was down just under 25. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down
3 3/4.
The technicals were negative by 23 to 8 on declines over advances on New York
and about 3 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 8 to 3 on New York
on total volume of a light 1.2 billion. Nasdaq also traded fairy light volume of
under 1 2/3 billion and had a 5 1/2 to 1 negative volume ratio.
As a result, it was a sloppy, fairly narrowly mixed close, with a few point
plus gainers on our TheTechTrader.com board. Leading the way was POT up 2.70 and
AGU up 47 cents in the agriculture group, although CF lost 1.30 and MOS 4 cents.
So, it was a mixed picture in that group, which was sharply higher earlier in
the morning and gave back a bunch of their gains.
Short ETF instruments were higher today, with the BGZ up 2.60 and the QID
2.18.
Sequenom (SQNM), with outstanding relative action recently, reached as high
as 19.87, closing at 19.53, up another 1.18 on more than 2 million.
Rambus (RMBS), extending its recent gains, has moved from under 5 to under
15, or nearly a triple in the last 3 weeks, up another 89 cents today on more
than 3 million shares.
Shippers were firm, with Dryships (DRYS) getting above 11 before closing at
10.19, up 82 cents on 34.7 million. That was our Chart of the Day. EXM jumped 96
cents on 6 1.4 million, closing at 7.35.
On the downside, AAPL lost 3.52 on a downgrade to 94.75, trading as low as 93
earlier. ENER at 20.86 was down 1.73, and portfolio position EBS got hammered
for 1.64.
RIMM dropped 1.96 to 36.86, and portfolio position SPWR backed off 2.33 to
30.54.
AFAM backed off 1.03, and the USO lost 1.26. It had been up over 40 earlier
in the day, but closed at 30.86, a pretty negative reversal day as oil dropped
from over 50 to under 45 today.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down
for most of the session and threatened to break down sharply late in the session
but were saved on a late rally. Still, a negative start to the week.
On the plus side, the indices continued to hold their rising trendlines off
the October lows, and the pattern off the recent highs continued to look orderly
and constructive to the downside. We'll see if the indices can right themselves,
take out overhead resistance, and then take another leg up, which we are
expecting.
Right now key support is in the 1157-60 area on the NDX and at about 852-55
zone on the S&P.
