The indices got hammered from the get-go, and were down all morning until early afternoon when they tried to move back. But it was a rather unenthusiastic rally try, which looked corrective, and sure enough in the last 20 minutes they rolled over hard, with the S&P 500 closing at the lows for the day going away and the Dow not far from it.
Net on the day the Dow was down 200.72 at 8379.01, the S&P 500 down a whopping 28.19 at 893.04, and the Nasdaq 100 down 44.62 at 1426.61. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) down 9.87 or nearly 4 percent at 254.60.
The technicals were horrible with advance-declines 2710 lower and 345 up, almost 7 to 1 gegative, on New York and 5 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was even worse, with 1.3 billion traded to the downside and only 93 million to the upside on New York, a 14 to 1 ratio. Nasdaq had more than 2 billion to the downside and 236 million to the upside, about 9 to 1 negative volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was extremely negative. Only the ultrashorts were profitable, and we traded some of them this morning.
Leading the way to the downside were the financials, with Goldman Sachs (GS) down 6.12 to 137.01, JP Morgan (JPM) down 2.13 to 32.87, Morgan Stanley (MS) 1.64 to 26.63, Wells Fargo (WFC) down 1.68 to 22.51, Bank of America (BAC) down 1.28 to 11.94, and Hartford Financial Services (HIG) down 1.37 to 10.98.
Boxer Short Potash (POT) fell 5.45 to 87.27, and Mosaic (MOS) 4.18 to 42.27.
Junior solars got hammered, with Canadian Solar (CSIQ) down 1.92 to 11.13 and Yingli Green Energy (YGE) down 1.01 to 12.32. Rambus (RMBS) gave back 87 cents to 17.83, and 3Par (PAR) lost 76 cents to 10.94.
OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) got crushed to 21.19, down 2.57. Dendreon (DNDN) gave back 1.54 to 24.54, and Cree Inc. (CREE) lost 1.67 to 28.74.
Apple (AAPL) fell 2.11 to 137.37, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) lost 1.16 to 23.57. Palm gave back 1.07 to 12.86.
On the plus side, Savient Pharmaceuticals (SVNT) gained 34 cents to 12.40, and new portfolio position Cornerstone Therapeutics (CRTX) added 37 cents to 10.02.
Among the ultrashort ETFs, portfolio position UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) gained 2.07 to 22.25, the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) 2.49 at 25.04, and the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) had a late run up 73 cents to 5.44 on heavy volume.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices cracked key support at 1448 NDX and 904 SPX, closing substantially beneath them. Next up is key support at 880 SPX and 1395-1400 on the NDX.
We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, but today’s action sure looked like a trend breaker.
Good trading!
Harry
