The stock market indices had a down day today but they came way back. Early gap-downs and sharp sell-offs within the first hour got the Nasdaq 100 down to 2523 and the S&P 500 down to under 1326. They then pulled back midday, and then really spiked up just after the lunch hour, before backing off in the afternoon. Coming back up to test the highs late in the day, they made nominal new snapback highs near 1340 on the S&P 500, however, could not do so on the NDX. When that occurred, in the last 15 minutes, they sold off rather sharply but held support.
Net of the day, the Dow was down 31.26 at 12,573.27, about 80 points off its low, the S&P 500 was down 6.69 at 1334.76, 9 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 down 25.69 at 2545.30, 23 points off the low.
Advance-declines were 3 to 2 negative on New York, and about 3 to 2 negative on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was almost 2 1/2 negative on New York, with total volume of 733 million shares. Nasdaq traded a little more than 1 2/3 billion, and had a 3 to 1 negative volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed. Leading the way today was Affymax, Inc. (AFFY), up 2.29 to 14.24, or 19%, on 3.9 million shares. Asure Software, Inc. (ASUR) spiked 1.27 to 7.45, or 20.6%. Medgenics, Inc. (MDGN) jumped 2.15 to 14.80, or 17%. Texas Industries Inc. (TXI) made its way up 5.35 to 43.40, or 14%, on 1.5 million shares. Sunshine Heart Inc. (SSH) snapped back 1.25 to 12.66, or 11%, on 1.5 million shares. Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) had a big day, up 1.43 to 15.59, or 10%, on 15.5 million shares. Synacor, Inc. (SYNC) gained 1.11 to 15.26, or 8%.
In addition, low-priced Tegal Corporation (TGAL) was up 47 cents to 3.94, or 14% and MBIA Inc. (MBI) advanced 66 cents to 10.50, or 7%.
Other gainers of note included Zillow, Inc. (Z) which was up 2.49 to 41.26, Fastenal Company (FAST) up 2.50 to 42.31, Incyte Corporation (INCY) gaining 1.21 to 25.60, VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) up 1.90 to 37.77, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), up 3.33 to 84.97, United Rentals, Inc. (URI) rising 1.30 to 33.53, Quest Diagnostics Inc. (DGX) up 2.31 to 63.09, Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) up 1.19 to 32.70, Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) up 2.30 to 63.70, and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ONXX) up 1.80 to 66.53, rounding out the gainers on our board today.
On the downside, the major large-cap stocks were lower, with Apple Inc. (AAPL) down 5.53 to 598.90, although that was 6 points off the low, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) losing 3.01 to 215.36, and Google Inc. (GOOG) was near flat, down 71 cents to 570.48.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped lower, went down sharply in the morning, and within an hour were at the session lows. They then snapped back sharply and took back a vast majority of the losses to actually get into the plus column on the Dow and near flat on the S&P 500. They did sell-off in the last 15 minutes to put them in the loss column on the session. However, with today's lows being near oversold conditions, and near trend line and support levels, I'm not surprised we rallied, but it wasn't more than technicals.
We'll have to see if there's a follow-through.
Good Trading!
Harry