(By Harry Boxer) The stock market indices had a spectacular session today, gapping up, pausing, and then exploding all session. They ran up in stair-step fashion, and reached the session highs with about 30 minutes to go. Unfortunately, the last hour, they did get some profit-taking, but closed off the highs.
Net on the day, the Dow was over 12,250 at 13,250.11, up 85.33, only 19 points off its high. The S&P 500 was up 9.98 at 1415.51, about 2 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 was up 32.62 at 2768.09, 6 points off the high.
Advance-declines were a little less than 3 to 1 positive on New York Stock Exchange, and 17 to 7 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of a very light 585 million shares. Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion, and had a little better than a 2 to 1 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. Nasdaq 100 market generals had a good day as Google Inc. (GOOG) advanced 5.33 to 672.87. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 5.51 to 636.34. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) gained 4.13 to 241.55. International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) jumped 2.44 to 200.84.
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) closed up 1.05 to 64.31. SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) gained 1.15 to 38.82, and Ellie Mae, Inc. (ELLI), one of our swing trades, worked its way up 1.28 to 28.26 were among the stocks on our main board.
Percentage gainers included CompuCredit Holdings Corp. (CCRT), which jumped 1.44 to 6.46, or 29%, on 1.3 million shares. Blyth, Inc. (BTH) gained 6.27, or 17%, on 1.5 million shares. Venoco, Inc. (VQ) advanced 1.45 to 10.98, or 15%, on 4.5 million shares. BioMimetic Therapeutics Inc. (BMTI) gained 53 cents to 4.01, or 15%, 439,000 shares.
GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (GTAT) was up 75 cents to 6.14, or 14%, on 5.8 million shares. SINA Corporation (SINA) jumped 5.29 to 56.19, or 10%, on 14.6 million shares. Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (SRPT) snapped back 95 cents to 10.15, or 10%, on 1.6 million shares. Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) had a good day on earnings, up 1.67 to 19.02, or 10%, on 40.8 million shares.
Low-priced Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. (PSTI) gained 43 cents to 4.75, U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (SLCA) up 1.10 to 12.92, The Children (PLCE) 4.33 to 55.90, Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) 3.66 to 51.88, Fusion-io, Inc. (FIO) 1.97 to 28.23, and Yandex N.V. (YNDX) 1.33 to 21.46.
Other gainers of note included Cameco Corp. (CCJ), up 1.38 to 22.53, Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc. (RSTI) up 1.34 to 21.27, Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) 3.69 to 60.29, Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) 1.03 to 19.25, BroadSoft, Inc. (BSFT) 1.94 to 39.87, and Genomic Health Inc. (GHDX) 1.80 to 36.10 were among the point-plus gainers today.
PetSmart, Inc. (PETM) had a big day on earnings today, up 3.09 to 70.53, on 4.1 million shares.
On the downside, there were only a few point-plus losers on our board today. Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ONXX) did not do well at all today, down 2.13 to 68.55. Facebook, Inc. (FB) got smacked and is now under $20 at 19.87, down 1.33, even though there were 46.2 million shares traded on it today.
ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) was down 1.90 to 62.78.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up, broke out across key resistance ranges to 1410 S&P 500, running up to nearly 1418, and then backing off and closing at 1415. The NDX, which was stellar all day with market generals Apple, Google, and Amazon, and even though they backed off late in the session also closed nicely with a high near 2774. That's the highest it's reached all year or more.
Let's see how it goes tomorrow. Certainly, the trend is your friend is still up, and despite all of the indication to the contrary in terms of Fibonacci movements, cycle highs, etc., we continue to press forward and squeeze the shorts.
Good Trading!
Harry