The markets were soft today, ending in the negative column only because of a last-hour decline.
The indices were quite volatile in the morning, gapping down, heading lower, taking out support slightly and then rallying sharply back up. They broke out mid-day, with the S&P 500 reaching new session highs by late afternoon with about an hour to go. When the NDX not only did not confirm but failed at the 2-day declining tops line, they then rolled them over fairly hard into the close, closing negative, though just slightly, on the day.
Net on the day the Dow was down 8 points, the S&P 500 down 2.35, and the Nasdaq 100 down 8.02. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 4.13 today.
The technicals flattened out, with advance-declines positive by just 15 to 14 on New York and by about 15 to 11 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume negative on both exchanges, by 7 to 5 on New York on total volume of 1 1/4 billion. Nasdaq traded about 2 billion shares and had about a 3 to 2 negative volume ratio.
As a result of all the back-and-forth action, most issues on TheTechTrader.com board closed narrowly. Leading the way to the downside, but with an asterisk, was Dendreon (DNDN), plunging from 25 to as low as 7 1/2 in just a few minutes by mid-day, and then trading halted at around 11.81 in early afternoon. But the company then came out with positive news, and the stock may very well open strongly tomorrow and run, but we?ll see how that goes. All will depend on what news come out of the conference late this evening.
Other losers of note, Research in Motion (RIMM) dropped 1.50 to 68.10, and SunPower (SPWR) lost another 1.43 to 22.61.
The only point-plus gainer on our board was the UltraShort Financial ProShares (SKF), which closed at 61.17, up 1.59.
Other than that there were just fractional changes across the board. Portfolio position Synnex (SNX) gained 17 cents to 19.95, and AgFeed Industries (FEED) added 13 cents to 3.64. Small fractional gains, but gains nonetheless on a down day.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, as indicated, down early, snapped back early, consolidated mid-day and dropped in the afternoon to close at the afternoon lows and negative on the day, but only slightly so. So we?ll see what tomorrow brings.
Good trading!
Harry
