(By Harry Boxer) The stock market indices had a very nice session today, interrupted by an afternoon sell-off, but it did come back to close very positive on the session.
The day started out with a thrust to the upside. It pulled back after about thirty minutes, and then ran hard into midday, at which point they reached 2633 on the Nasdaq 100 and 1375 S&P 500, the highs for the day. They pulled back rather substantially, but then came back in the last hour, and closed substantially off the afternoon pullback lows to finish with a solid gain on the day.
Net of the day, the Dow was over 12,900, up 103.16 at 12,908.70, the S&P 500 was up 9.11 at 1372.78, only 2 1/2 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 34.22 at 2625.87, about 8 points off the high.
Still, it was a very good session.
Advance-declines were a little better than 3 to 2 positive on New York, and 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was also 3 to 2 positive on New York, with total volume of just over 700 million shares. Nasdaq traded 1.75 billion, and had a 2 1/2 to 1 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, however, there were some outstanding gainers as well as losers. First, let's take a look at the point-plus gainers. Percentage gainer leader, Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SUPN), was up 3.95 to 14.64, or 36 1/2%. Galena Biopharma, Inc. (GALE) gained 28 cents to 1.99, or 16%, on 21.8 million shares. Amphenol Corporation (APH) jumped 7.58 to 58.94, or 15%, on 4.4 million shares. Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (FOLD) advanced 49 cents to 6.51, or 8%, on 1.6 million shares.
Stratasys Inc. (SSYS) was up 6.63 to 58.57, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INFI) up 1.70 to 16.39, AAR Corp. (AIR) up 1.48 to 14.15, VIVUS Inc. (VVUS) rose 2.54 to 29.00 even, Aruba Networks, Inc. (ARUN) jumped 1.43 to 13.90, EMC Corporation (EMC) was up 2.16 to 25.08, NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) gained 1.83 to 21.86, Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (MLNX) up 4.14 to 66.38, Procera Networks, Inc. (PKT) gained 1.49 to 23.18, Tibco Software, Inc. (TIBX) rose 2.21 to 28.64, Air Methods Corp. (AIRM) jumped 8.34 to 107.27, ASML Holding NV (ASML) up 3.07 to 54.47, and NetSuite Inc. (N) up 3.34 to 52.84.
ProShares Ultra Long DJ-UBS Natural Gas (BOIL) ran up 4.67 to 48.46.
In addition, Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS) jumped 4.91 to 81.49, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) up 1.06 to 17.46, Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (SWK) up 3.54 to 63.26, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) up 1.43 to 38.68 on a deal with Kraft, 3D Systems Corp. (DDD) up 1.58 to 35.78, and Sourcefire, Inc. (FIRE) up 2.76 to 45.76.
Other gainers of note included Ellie Mae, Inc. (ELLI), one of our recent favorites, up 98 cents to 19.03, and SolarWinds, Inc. (SWI) up 1.86 to 42.67.
On the downside, the only point-plus losers included Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA), down 1.07 to 9.98, on competitive approval of their drug, and Goldman Sachs (GS) down 1.47 to 96.51.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, a very strong thrust follow-through this morning broke out in both key resistance to test recent highs on the S&P 500, but far from it on the NDX. They did pull back in the afternoon when they failed to break out, but then came back nicely, and closed with stronger gains for the day
We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry