A Down Day for the Indices

The stock market indices suffered a down day today, but it was very choppy, advancing early in the morning, and then snapping back by midday as well, but pre-FOMC announcement. The indices then backed off into that announcement, vacillated for a bit right after it, and then fell in a 5-wave decline to new session lows, and broke two layers of support on the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 to close precariously near key support at this point, with the NDX having dropped from a high of 2758, reaching new rally highs. They then rolled over to get to 2732, before bouncing to 2738. The S&P 500 dropped from nearly 1510, eventually reaching 1500. They bounced a couple points to 1501.89, but it was a last-minute short-covering move.
The market is now precariously in a position to have a more substantial decline, or if support holds, another squeeze to the upside. We'll see what we get.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 44.00 at 13,910.42, the S&P 500 dropped 5.88 at 1501.96, and the Nasdaq 100 was down 4.87 at 2738.71.

Advance-declines were 2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 2 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was better than 2 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 687 million shares. Nasdaq traded nearly 1.9 billion and had a 12 to 7 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, with some severe downside moves as well. Priceline Incorporated (PCLN) was down 5.20 to 695.09, and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ONXX) down 1.55 to 76.69.

Research In Motion Limited (RIMM) was down 1.88 to 13.78, after jumping up to 16.62, on a whopping 223 million shares, after the BlackBerry was announced.

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) lost 1.42 to 167.70, Peabody Energy Corp.
(BTU) was down 1.69 to 24.87, Apple Inc. (AAPL) down 1.454 to 456.83 to close not far off the low for the day.

Ultra-longs got hit. The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) lost 2.74 to 74.86, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) dropped 1.58 to 142.47. The ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) gave back 1.87 to 44.20.

So it was a big reversal day for sure.

There were some gainers as well. Amazon Inc. (AMZN) jumped 12.41 to 272.76, on 13 million shares, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR) was up 1.28 to 44.56.

There were some large percent gainers on our board today. Meru Networks, Inc. (MERU) popped 1.00 to 3.40, or 42%, on 2.2 million shares. Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. (FSL) advanced 1.84 to 14.23, or 15%, on 5.4 million shares. Multimedia Games Inc. (MGAM) gained 2.43 to 16.72, or 17%, on 1.1 million shares.

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (KERX) continued its massive more of late, but finally reached it pinnacle just under 10 at my target at 9.90-10 zone today, and then rolled over hard to close at 8.50, up only 14 cents, on 46 million shares. It was a good reversal day.

Aspen Technology, Inc. (AZPN), one of our Top 26 stocks, was up 2.27 to 30.76, Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ISIS) up 1.31 to 14.69, Unisys Corporation (UIS), which we traded today, and 2.83 to 21.75, and Avery Dennison Corporation (AVY) 2.30 to 38.44.

ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Fut ETF (UVXY), which we traded, closed up 1.34 to 11.79, or 13%, on 18 million shares, rounding out the gainers for today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices opened up strong and then rolled over hard and bounced sharply, and by midday they were just below the snapback highs, weren't able to do much with it, and rolled over for the rest of the session, especially after the FOMC announcement.

We'll see we are going forward, but it was a down day for the indices.

Good Trading!