The stock market indices had a very ugly session in the morning and reached new lows for the pullback, taking out support by a substantial margin on the Nasdaq 100, and then bouncing off secondary support. The S&P 500 held initial support, or thereabouts. Late in the session they came out with a rush, running from 2549 to 2577 on the NDX and the S&P 500 jumped from 1333 to 1344, and change, and then backed off just a little into the close.
Net of the day, the Dow was down 48.67 at 12,604.45, about 70 points off its low, the S&P 500 down only .03 at 1341.44, about 8 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 down 14.53 at 2570.99, 34 points off the low.
Advance-declines were positive by 163 issues on New York, and negative by about 25 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was barely positive on New York, with total volume of 730 million shares. Nasdaq traded 1.55 billion, and had a nearly 2 to 1 negative volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative, but there were a lot of stocks that had a good day today. Complete Genomics, Inc. (GNOM) made a major announcement today about a new discovery, and the stock jumped 89 cents to 2.91, or 43%, 9.3 million shares. Ocean Power Technologies, Inc (OPTT) on new deal with Lockheed, spikes up 1.49 to 3.55, or 72%, on 2.9 million shares, which was a 6000% increase in volume. RiT Technologies Ltd. (RITT) also spiked up, gaining 1.81 to 5.00, or 57%, on 1.3 million shares, which was an 8000% in normal volume.
Low-priced biotech Amyris, Inc. (AMRS) snapped back 55 cents to 3.49, or 18%, on 1.7 million shares. SkyWest Inc. (SKYW) was up 99 cents to 7.85, or 14%, on nearly a million shares. VeriFone Systems, Inc (PAY) gained 3.49 to 35.41, or 11%, on 7.6 million shares.
Zhongpin, Inc. (HOGS) made a run straight up in the morning, ending the day up 75 cents to 10.75. Healthcare Services Group Inc. (HCSG), which we traded today, gained 1.45 to 21.08. Solazyme, Inc. (SZYM) jumped 76 cents to 11.74. Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) snapped back 27 cents to 4.05. Rock-Tenn Co. (RKT) gained 2.55 to 55.85. International Paper Company (IP) jumped 1.15 to 29.71.
ProShares Ultra Long DJ-UBS Natural Gas (BOIL) had another good day, up 2.94 to 45.20.
Most of the large-cap stocks we watch were down today. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) snapped back 1.41 to 81.64, Apple Inc. (AAPL) closed down 3.78 to 604.43, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) dropped 1.13 to 218.38, and Google Inc. (GOOG) got hammered and came back 7.00, but was still down 10.51 to 571.19. International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) lost 1.01 to 185.25.
In addition, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ONXX) was down 2.65 to 64.73. Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) gave back 4.46 of it gains, closing at 52.87. SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) was down another 1.27 to 36.94. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) dropped 1.40 to 52.76. Sourcefire, Inc. (FIRE) lost 2.25 to 42.99.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices stair-stepped their way lower and followed yesterday's down channel on the NDX, broke out of a bear wedge today, and got smacked in the afternoon on the S&P 500. Both of them came back sharply at the close, and closed near flat on the S&P 500, down only two cents at the close, however, the NDX and Dow a bit today.
So there was a substantial snapback after reaching the bottom of the current down channel. We'll see if it was just a technical bounce, or not.
Good Trading!
Harry