(By Harry Boxer) The stock market indices had a spectacular session today, gapping up huge on good news out of Europe, and the U.S. on the economy this morning.
The day started out with big gaps up that took the Nasdaq 100 from under 2550 to nearly 2600. The S&P 500 jumped from near 1340 up to 1361 early on, and then they sold off pretty sharply, and did about a 50% retracement on the NDX, and about a .382 Fibonacci retracement on the S&P 500 in falling wedges. When support held, and they started back up, they then accelerated, pulled back in the afternoon to retest, and came on again late in the day, with the NDX going from 2568 to 2594. The S&P 500 jumped from 1351 to 1363 only to pull back in the last 10 minutes to pare back some of the gains.
Net of the day, the Dow was up 211.65 at 12,88.70, about 45 points off its high, the S&P 500 was up 22.13 at 1360.02, only 3 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 35.65 at 2584.85, 14 points off the high.
Advance-declines were 22 to 8 positive, on New York, and 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4-4 1/2 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of 900 million shares. Nasdaq traded 1.9 billion, and had a 2 1/2 to 1 positive volume ratio.e
It was a very, very good day technically, and they had a nice comeback in the afternoon.
TheTechTrader.com board had mostly gainers today. Leading the way today were some of the large-cap stocks. Google Inc. (GOOG) was up 5.37 to 613.36, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) jumped 2.96 to 220.01, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) gained 2.87 to 193.95, and Goldman Sachs (GS) rose 2.10 to 98.06.
Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) snapped back 2.40 to 52.06, and SolarWinds, Inc. (SWI) was up 3.43 to 52.91.
On our percentage-gainer list, there were quite a few stocks that had big gains, a couple of them we traded as well. Leading the way, MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (PCS) jumped 2.31 to 8.59, or 37%, on 32.5 million shares. Terex Corp. (TEX) spiked up 4.12 to 18.23, or 29%, on 16.7 million shares. MPG Office Trust, Inc. (MPG) advanced 69 cents to 3.26, or 27%, on 3.2 million shares. Xenoport, Inc. (XNPT) gained 1.61 to 8.40, or 24%, on 3.2 million shares.
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM) exploded 6.79 to 35.04, or 24%, on 13.7 million shares on solid earnings. Western Digital Corp. (WDC) jumped 6.80 to 39.27, or 21%, on 20.8 million shares. Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) gained 69 cents to 4.05, or 20%, on a whopping 303.8 million shares. Trinity Industries Inc. (TRN) was up 4.31 to 26.84, or 19%, on 3.1 million shares.
Steven Madden, Ltd. (SHOO) was up 5.96 to 38.75, The Spectranetics Corporation (SPNC) rose 1.83, Inphi Corporation (IPHI) gained another 1.55 to 10.47, Stewart Information Services Corporation (STC) added 2.13 to 15.40, Oshkosh Corporation (OSK) rose 2.98 to 22.63, Cabela's Inc. (CAB) was up 5.68 to 44.91, Seagate Technology PLC (STX) added 3.75 to 30.06, and Meritage Homes Corporation (MTH) jumped 4.23 to 37.23.
Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) was the big gainer today, up a whopping 13.55 to 92.60.
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFM) jumped 9.57 to 94.10, and Arctic Cat Inc. (ACAT) was up 4.17 to 42.15. Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. (NUS) worked its way up 4.55 to 48.55. Patrick Industries Inc. (PATK) gained 1.02 to 13.35.
There were quite a few other gainers today, but too many to mention them all.
On the downside, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) was down 3.27 to 57.01. NuVasive, Inc. (NUVA) gave back 1.27 to 21.65. VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) got hammered for 3.87 to 25.28. Facebook, Inc. (FB) was down 2.50 to 26.84.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had huge gap-ups early on, pulled back, held support, and then came on at the close, with the S&P 500 making nominal new highs. However, the NDX did not confirm. When that happened late in the day, they did pull back in the last 10-15 minutes.
Nevertheless, it was solid gains on the day.
Good Trading!
Harry