(By Harry Boxer) The stock market indices had an interesting, volatile, whippy day today as the markets were up early, came down hard, and rallied just as hard. They got up to retest the highs twice in the afternoon, but couldn't get through, and rolled over into the close.
Net of the day, the Dow was down up 58.73 at 12,676.05, but the S&P 500 was down 41 cents at 1337.90, 6 points off its low and 6 points off the high, and the Nasdaq 100 was down 18.26 at 2549.20, 14 points off the low and 17 points off the high.
So you can see that both indices closed mid-range.
Advance-declines were 16 to 13 positive on New York, and 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was mixed to near flat on New York, with total volume of about 757 million shares. Nasdaq traded 1.7 billion, and had a minus 7 plurality, declining volume over advancing volume.
TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, however, Nasdaq 100 was negatively affected by both Apple's and Netflix's earnings. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was down 25.95 to 574.97, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) lost 20.11 to 60.28. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) also lost 5.99 to 217.05. Those three stocks equaled the majority of the losses for the NDX today.
However, there were some major gainers on our board today. Leading the way, InvenSense, Inc. (INVN) was up 3.13 to 12.32, or 34%, on 7.2 million shares. Lumber Liquidators Holdings, Inc. (LL), on stellar earnings, gained 8.73 to 41.31, or 27%, on 4.7 million shares. Riverbed Technology, Inc. (RVBD) jumped 3.77 to 18.32, or 26%, on nearly 19 million shares.
Several of the low-priced stocks did well. Stereotaxis Inc. (STXS) gained 48 cents to 2.09, or 30%. Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) advanced 72 cents to 3.64, or 24%, on 1.6 million shares. Zale Corporation (ZLC) spiked up 59 cents to 3.16, or 23%, on 1.8 million shares. CytRx Corporation (CYTR) gained 67 cents to 4.42, or 18%.
SolarWinds, Inc. (SWI), on big earnings, exploded for 8.06 even to 49.54, or 19%, on 4.1 million shares. iRobot Corporation (IRBT) popped 3.50 to 22.99, or 18%, on 2.1 million shares. Ancestry.com Inc. (ACOM) advanced 4.19 to 31.42, or 15%, on 3.2 million shares. Healthways Inc. (HWAY) ran as high as 10.61, and closed up 1.31 to 9.76, or 15 1/2%. Sunshine Heart Inc. (SSH) jumped 1.39 to 11.44, or 14%. Altera Corp. (ALTR) closed up 3.74 to 34.41, or 12%, on 13.5 million shares.
Other gainers of note included Unisys Corporation (UIS), up 1.93 to 18.52, Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) 1.69 to 16.50, W.R. Grace & Co. (GRA) 5.79 to 56.29, ARM Holdings (ARMH) 2.24 to 24.58, Tempur Pedic International Inc. (TPX) 2.56 to 29.67, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (TMO) 4.36 to 54.14, rounded out the gainers today.
On the downside, the only point-plus losers were SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA), down 1.44 to 37.49, and ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL), down 1.80 to 67.28.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, down sharply in the morning, snapped back into mid-afternoon, double-topped, and then rolled over into the close to close mixed on the session.
It was a very interesting day, indeed, but nothing was resolved today.
Let's see how it goes tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry