The stock market indices suffered a fall today, led by Apple Inc. (AAPL), of all things. Apple, which spiked up to new all-time highs this morning, reaching over 526.00, spiked down under 500 to 497.67, giving back 11.79 in the afternoon. That was quite the reversal on a monstrous 53.3 million shares traded. That does not auger well for stocks and we'll see what kind of follow-through to the downside it gets over the next two days.
The day started out with a gap up, and the indices ran hard in a 5-wave advance, reaching over 2600 on Nasdaq 100 and 1356 on the S&P 500. But then they abruptly plunged in the afternoon. That was followed by a bounce around FOMC, and then another pullback. They stabilized around 2565 NDX and 1344-45 on SPX, but then drifted lower into the close, not far off the session lows.
Net on the day, the Dow was down 97.33 at 12,780.95, 27 points off its low, but more than 118 points off its high. The S&P 500 was down 7.27 to 1343.23, 12 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 fell 19.23 to 2556.01. It was over 2600 at one point, so that was a 45-point reversal today, and closed near the session lows at the end of the day.
That kind of close, coming off new multi-year highs, such as is the case with Nasdaq 100, does not auger well for stocks. If we gap down tomorrow, or come down sharply, we may have ended the rise. We'll have to see how that goes.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed. There were about as many gainers as losers, and some of those were outstanding gainers today, in the morning especially. Leading the way, Vaalco Energy (EGY), which peaked early on in the 7.25 range, exploded up near 9.00 by the afternoon. It closed up 1.38 to 8.55, or 19 1/4%, on 4.5 million shares. Cimarex Energy Co. (XEC) jumped 12.73 to 81.51, or 18 1/2%, on 6.6 million shares. Low-priced GRAVITY (GRVY) gained 35 cents to 2.38, or 17%, on 1 million shares, while Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (THLD) was up 44 cents to 3.44, or 14.7%, and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ALNY), a big standout in the biotech sector, up 1.57 to 12.55, or 14%.
In addition, gaming stock Asia Entertainment & Resources Ltd. (AERL) rose 89 cents to 7.23, or 14%, and and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BCRX) 44 cents to 4.11, or 12%.
Other stocks of note included Dean Foods Company (DF) up 1.12 to 11.99, WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (WCG) up 5.78 to 68.74, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) 3.71 to 48.30, Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) 3.92 to 52.69, Devon Energy (DVN) 4.80 to 71.70, Bob Evans Farms Inc. (BOBE) 2.26 to 38.50, NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) 1.30 to 24.95, Diamond Foods, Inc. (DMND) 1.16 to 23.46, OpenTable, Inc. (OPEN) 2.16 to 46.71, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 1.63 to 35.57.
The ultra-short VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) did well today, up 1.89 to 19.08, or 11$, on 42 million shares. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) was up 1.50 to 28.02.
On the downside, losses of more than a point, other than Apple Inc., included Rackspace Hosting, Inc (RAX) down 1.33 to 54.12, SolarWinds, Inc. (SWI) 1.11 to 36.95, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 1.01 to 122.06, and Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) 1.07 to 56.33.
The ultra-long Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) dropped 1.59 to 59.16, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) lost 1.31 to 86.84, although it was much higher earlier in the session before the market pulled back.
Tomorrow will be very interesting. We'll have to see if trend lines and moving averages hold on the hourly charts. That's the key here.
Good Trading!
Harry