(By Harry Boxer) The stock market had a spectacularly volatile day, with the indices all over the place. In the morning, they backed and filled before the FOMC statement that caused the market to dip sharply, but it held support, and they rallied back very sharply when the news was interpreted as positive. They went to nominal new highs on the Nasdaq 100, but did not confirm on the S&P 500. Then they rolled over in a mini, 7-wave decline that nearly tested the lows, but late in the day, they snapped back sharply to put the NDX back in the plus column. The S&P 500 and Dow blue chips remain with minor losses today.
Net of the day, the Dow was down 12.94 at 12,824.39, about 80 points off its low and about 50 points off its high, so you can see the big swing today. The S&P 500 was down 2.29 at 1355.39, only 6 points off its high, but 9 points off the low. The Nasdaq 100, however, was up 2.50 at 2623.33, 10 points off the high and 20 points off the low.
Advance-declines were only nominally positive by 12 issues on New York, and negative by 275 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was slightly negative on New York, with total volume of 740 million. Nasdaq traded 1.5 billion, and had a 3 to 2 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed, but there were some outstanding gainers today. WSI Industries Inc. (WSCI) was up 1.86 to 6.75, or 38%, but only traded 240,000 shares. So this was a thinly traded stock. Medgenics, Inc. (MDGN) jumped 1.75 to 8.65, or 25%, on less than 300,000 shares. James River Coal Co. (JRCC) gained 73 cents to 3.42, or 27%, on 5.2 million shares.
In addition, Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) advanced 58 cents to 4.25, or 16%, on 3.3 million shares, reaching as high as 4.60 today, a huge snapback from the 1.90 low just 2 weeks ago. Bon-Ton Stores Inc. (BONT) advanced another 61 cents to 6.52, or 10%. LiveDeal, Inc. (LIVE) gained 84 cents to 6.97, or 14%.
Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE), which we traded today, was up 58 cents to 5.15, or 13%, on 1.6 million shares, and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP), also in that group. gained 1.77 to 22.43, or 9%, on nearly 10 million shares.
Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (OSIR) was up 86 cents to 11.08, or 8%. Amyris, Inc. (AMRS) jumped 35 cents to 3.43, or 11%. Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA) gained 80 cents to 10.50, or 8%, on 30 million shares. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) gained 1.92 to 59.15.
Jabil Circuit Inc. (JBL) spiked 1.33 to 20.75, or 7%, on 9.2 million shares, on positive earnings.
Francesca's Holdings Corporation (FRAN) was up 1.59 to 28.25, Smart Balance, Inc (SMBL), a swing trade target, up 46 cents to 8.78, Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) 1.23 to 23.87, Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) 2.32 to 45.00, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 2.17 to 37.60, and Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) 1.69 to 33.78. Goldman Sachs (GS) snapped back only 18 cents to 96.55
On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was down 1.67 to 585.74. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) was down 1.01 to 223.92. Google Inc. (GOOG) lost 4.02 to 577.51. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) dropped 1.67 to 68.16.
It was amazing that the Nasdaq 100 even had a gain today.
Ultra-short ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (UVXY) lost 1.04 to 11.05.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were mixed in the morning, plunged midday, snapped back with abandoned to new session highs, and then rolled over to retest the lows before bouncing late in the session.
It was a very volatile day, and net-net it was a mixed session.
Good Trading!
Harry