The markets had a reasonable consolidation day, but ended lower on the
session, due to profit-taking from a very overbought condition. Although at
mid-day they did reach new rally highs, a pullback in the last couple hours
pulled them back into negative territory.
The day started out with a gap down. They went lower and reached session lows
early in the first half hour, rallied nicely and snapped back to retest the
highs, but at that point went sideways in a multi-hour consolidation. They ended
up breaking out after lunch hour and moved to the session highs, but pulled back
the rest of the afternoon. Only a late last 20-30 minute snapback brought them
back to pare the losses.
Net on the day the Dow was down nearly 82, the S&P 500 down 4 1/3, and
the Nasdaq 100 1.18. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) managed to gain
1.38 in a relatively stronger semiconductor sector.
Advance-declines were 2 to 1 positive on New York, but positive by just 245
issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 7 to 6 positive on New York on total
volume of 1.3 billion, which is lighter than normal, but an increase over recent
levels. Nasdaq traded a little more than 1.7 billion and was flat on up/down
volume .
TheTechTrader.com board had an exceptionally strong day today. Leading the
way were the agriculture stocks. Potash (POT) at 82.62 was up 5.27. Mosaic (MOS)
gained 81 cents, CF Holdings (CF) 2.97, and Agrium (AGU) 99 cents.
Multiple-point gainers included Apple (AAPL), up 3.83. The U.S. Oil Fund ETF
(USO) gained 1.67, and the iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) was up 1.38 to
38.08. The Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (DIG) gained 1.14, as would be expected
with crude oil increasing.
Other stocks of note, Multi Fineline Electronix (MFLX) on an upgrade in
earnings and upward guidance advanced 3.40 to 15.68 on less than half a million
shares. SunPower (SPWR) at 44.15 was up 3.75 in a very firm solar sector.
Canadian Solar (CSIQ) advanced 65 cents to 7.04.
Sequenom (SQNM), one of our portfolio positions, jumped to 3-month highs at
26.42, up 2.84 on 2 1/4 million, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) gained
1.58 to 29.38. Emergent BioSolutions (EBS), a portfolio position, snapped back 2
points off its earlier low, closing up 1.17 at 26.26.
DryShips (DRYS) had a spectacular session, reaching as high as 14.44, backing
off late in the afternoon to close at 13.85, still up 1.36 on nearly 35 million
shares today. Aerovironment (AVAV) jumped 1.12 and hit a new all-time high today
at 39.73, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) snapped back over 16 to close at
16.10, up 45 cents.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns as indicated earlier
they were down early, rallied to new rally highs by mid-afternoon, and then
pulled back at the end of the day to end negatively on the session. It was not
too bad a sell-off considering the overbought condition of the market.
Good trading!
