(By Harry Boxer) The stock market indices started off the week with a mixed session. The Nasdaq 100 closed ahead, with Apple Inc. (AAPL) continuing strong after the positive ruling from international courts against Samsung. Apple was up 12.46 to 675.68, which certainly helped the NDX eke out a gain today.
The day started out with gap to the upside, followed by a pullback, and then they took off and hit the session highs just before noon. They then pulled down in an orderly fashion, but couldn't rally. When they failed to breakout in the afternoon, they rolled over hard to nominal new lows, and then bounced into the close positively.
Net on the day, the Dow was down 33.30 at 13,124.67, and the S&P 500 was down 69 cents at 1402.80, but the Nasdaq 100 was up 4.50 at 2782.55, about 12 points off its high.
Advance-declines were about 164 issues lower on New York Stock Exchange, and almost dead-even flat on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 negative on New York, with total volume of an ultra-light 483 million shares. Nasdaq traded over 1 1/4 billion, with the slightest negative plurality.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, other than Apple, only a few of our stocks did well today. Percent gainers included Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. (IMH), up 1.07 to 5.56, or 24%. Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (SRPT) gained 1.49 to 12.27, or 14%, on 3.4 million shares. Nam Tai Electronics, Inc. (NTE) advanced 85 cents to 8.81, or 11%, on 1.8 million shares.
Low-priced Almaden Minerals Ltd. (AAU) jumped 28 cents to 2.66, or 12%, on 1.1 million shares. Wizzard Software Corporation (WZE) gained 46 cents to 5.11, or 10%.
Other gainers of note included Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA), up 68 cents to 9.32, Tiffany & Co. (TIF), which we traded today, was up 4.21 to 62.71, Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc. (CSOD) 1.77 to 26.87, Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc. (GWAY) 1.02 to 16.22, Immunogen Inc. (IMGN) 78 cents to 14.62, and Ixia (XXIA) 73 cents to 15.32.
In addition, Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) was up 1.53 to 30.77, Movado Group, Inc. (MOV) gained 1.36 to 30.11, VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) gained 94 cents to 24.82, and Homeowners Choice, Inc. (HCII) advanced 95 cents to 20.45.
Most of the gainers on our board today were up just a small fraction.
On the downside, point-plus losers included Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), down 1.82 to 243.92, Google Inc. (GOOG) 9.41 to 669.22, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 2.08 to 195.69.
So some of the Nasdaq 100 generals were weak -- Google and Amazon, in particular -- but Apple more than made up for it today.
We'll see how it goes tomorrow. The indices did pull back in the afternoon, very sharply, but held moving averages on the hourly charts. We'll see if they can hold today's lows, which may be key.
Good Trading!
Harry