The indices ended mixed on the session. After a strong morning, they backed off in the afternoon in a 3 wave decline, but firmed in the last 10-15 minutes to take back some of the afternoon pullback losses.
On the day the Dow was down 34.68 at 8881.26, about 70 points off its high. The S&P 500 fell 0.51 at 954.07, nearly 6 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 was up for the 11th straight session, gaining 11.99 to 1565, about 7 points off its high. That was helped by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), which gained 7.80, or 2 ½ percent, to 301.77.
Advance-declines were 17 to 13 positive on New York and 16 to 10 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was less than 3 to 2 positive on New York on light total volume of just over 1 billion. However, Nasdaq traded more than 2 ¼ billion and had better than a 2 to 1 positive volume ratio.
As a result of the up in the morning and down in the afternoon action, most of the stocks on the TheTechTrader.com board were rather mixed.
Apple ( ) led the way, up 5.23 to 156.74 after a solid earnings report. Favorite OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) was up 3.12 to 25.87, breaking out of a 6-week coil consolidation.
STEC Inc. ( ) gained 1.05 to 34.83, tagging 35 today, a new all-time high.
Vanda Pharmaceuticals ( ) jumped 65 cents to 14, reaching as high as 15 earlier in the day.
Orexigen Therapeutics ( ) was up 75 cents to 8.27, although that reached as high 9.47 earlier in the session.
Fuel System Solutions ( ) was up 70 cents to 23.22, and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) up 31 cents to 7.89, along with China Green Agriculture ( ) up 33 cents to 7.73.
Human Genome Sciences ( ) closed at 14.05, up 21 cents, but reached as high as 14.83 earlier in the day.
Low-priced Infosonics ( ), a model portfolio position, jumped to a new nearly 2-year high today, up 25 cents to 2.08, a gain of 14 percent.
On the downside, only Potash ( ) was down more than a point, down 2.23 at 88.92.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were up early, then a sharp pullback held support and then they ran hard to new multi-week rally highs and in some cases new 2009 rally highs. But the afternoon sell-off pared back the gains and brought the Dow and S&P 500 into negative territory at the close.
We’ll see if any meaningful pullback results from today’s actions.
Good trading!
Harry
