It was a very strong session for the indices and a terrific ending to the
week, as the indices surged from the get-go, rallied all morning, backed off
mid-afternoon, but came on into the close and closed in a very strong manner to
end the week with a bang.
The day started out with a strong surge from the get-go that took out
yesterday's highs, and the rally was on. After a brief consolidation in the
morning, they ran to secondary highs, consolidated again for about 1-1 1/2 hours
and then took off until mid-day when they reached their highs for the day. On
two other occasions they retested those highs right at them, but couldn't get
through and backed off.
Net on the day the Dow still ended up 217 1/2 at 8280.59, the S&P 500 was
up 22.74 at 868.59, and the Nasdaq 100 up 32.38 at 1277.49. The Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 7.85, up 3 1/2 percent.
The technicals were very strong. Advance-declines were about 5 to 1 positive
on New York and 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 11 to 1 positive
on New York on total volume of about 1.6 billion. Nasdaq traded about 2.4
billion and had about a 5 to 1 volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was vastly higher, with only a couple losers. The
ultrashort ETFs got slammed, as would be expected. The Direxion Financial Bear
3x Shares (FAZ) dropped from 48 to 39.80, closing at 40.94, down 9.91. That's
off nearly 20 points just from yesterday morning's high. The Direxion Large Cap
Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) dropped 5.58 to 59.41.
On negative earnings news, Hartford Financial Services (HIG) dropped
dramatically to as low as 10.66 this morning. It did manage to rally back more
than 2, but closed down 2.41 on the day on 70 million shares.
DryShips (DRYS) lost a quarter, and the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) lost 61 cents
today. Morgan Stanley (MS) was also down 32 cents today.
But MS aside , the financial sector was generally strong today. Bank of
America (BAC) jumped 1.29 to 6.13 on 718 million shares. Citigroup (C) popped 38
cents to 3.91 on more than a quarter billion. JP Morgan (JPM) jumped 3.09 at
27.63. Wells Fargo (WFC) at 19.14 was up 2.87.
The ag stocks were strong again today with Potash (POT) up 5.28 to 91.20,
Mosaic (MOS) up 3.70 at 45.05, Agrium (AGU) up 2.49 to 38.61, and CF Holdings
(CF) up 2.19 to 54.63.
Other stocks of note, Apple (AAPL) jumped 3.96 to 99.72, tagging 100 at its
high today. Portfolio position Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) jumped 1.50,
closing at 25.75.
Other portfolio positions: Genco Shipping (GNK) jumped 1.63 to 20.34,
Sequenom (SQNM) snapped back 1.36 to 18.47.and Net 1 Ueps Technologies (UEPS)
gained 64 cents to 13.63.
In addition, former portfolio position and Chart of the Week
TeleCommunication Systems (TSYS) rose 1.33 to 8.58 a strong earnings report.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices broke out
above key short-term resistance on the Nasdaq 100 and took out minor resistance
on the S&P 500, but the SPX remains trailing behind, which is a concern to
us. The NDX is now near its early January high, just a few points from it, but
the SPX is about 77 points from its Early January right now.
So there's a big difference in the rate of ascent on these two indices, and
negative divergence may be setting up. But in any case a strong ending to a
solid week.
