Back-Breaker Day for Recent Rally

The stock market indices may have ended the short-term uptrend, which they were in for a couple of weeks. The day started with a smack to the downside in a pretty nasty slide, with the indices breaking early on and sliding all morning, stabilizing midday, and trying to rally late in the day. Only a pullback at the end of the day kept them from a bigger rally.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 179.85 at 17,730.48. The S&P 500 was down 20.62 to 2078.58. The Nasdaq 100 was down 51.72 to 4655.52.

Advance-declines were 4 to 1 negative on New York Stock Exchange and 2 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 3 3/4 billion shares. Nasdaq traded 1 3/4 billion shares, and had nearly a 3 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower, except for the biotech group that had a great day today. Priceline Inc. (PCLN) really put the kabash on the Nasdaq 100 on a poor earnings report, down 138.75 to 1311.15, Google Inc. (GOOG) down 8.87 to 724.89, Apple Inc. (AAPL) down just 49 cents to 120.57, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 3.88 to 655.49, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 4.20 to 109.86.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) lost 7.03 to 225.33.

In addition, Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) was down 1.19 to 27.09, Facebook, Inc. (FB) down just 61 cents to 106.49, Mobileye N.V. (MBLY) down 1.93 to 44.82, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) 1.28 to 58.39, CyberArk Software, Ltd. (CYBR) in a weak cyber-security group, 2.45 to 44.78, and Cellectis S.A. (CLLS) 2.13 to 40.01.

On the upside, Heron Therapeutics, Inc. (HRTX) was up 1.61 to 28.09, Juno Therapeutics Inc. (JUNO) up 2.21 to 51.90, NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK) up 1.56 to 35.48, Weight Watchers International, Inc. (WTW) up 81 cents to 23.70, as it continues the recent rally.

Checking the TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, Loxo Oncology, Inc. (LOXO) ran 4.43 to 27.68, or 19%, on nearly a million shares. Cytokinetics, Incorporated (CYTK) gained 1.47 to 12.29, or 14%, on 1.9 million shares. Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX) stair-stepped its way up 1.69 to 15.46, or 12%, on 3.6 million shares. Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ISIS) thrust 6.90

Other gainers of note included Horizon Pharma (HZNP), up 1.29 to 22.29, along with many, many other biotech's today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down from the get-go, gapping lower, bouncing, but then rolling hard all morning, until just before noon when they reached their lows for the day. They bounced midday, stabilized for a couple hours, and then tried a late rally that looked really good, until the last ten minutes when they backed off again.

Unfortunately, it was a very negative way to start the week, and potentially a back-breaker for our recent rally. Key support for Nasdaq 100 beneath here is at 4625 and 4600, and for the S&P 500 at 2060, followed by 2040.

Let's see how it goes tomorrow.

Good Trading!

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