Very Strong Session for the Indices

The stock market indices had a rip-roaring rally today off of oversold conditions. First, however, they dipped to the lows, the Nasdaq 100 getting down to 4143, and then exploded within less than an hour to 4245, more than 100 points. The S&P 500 went from 1879 to 1919. They then backed off in a Fibonacci retracement, held the moving averages, and then took off in a 5-wave advance in the afternoon at a slower pace, but, nevertheless, steady, and reaching 4308 on the Nasdaq 100, about 185 points off the low at that point. The S&P 500 went from 1879 to 1934, 55 points off the low. That was a very huge rally. It was no surprise that late in the day when the top of the channels were tagged as well as the declining topslines and moving averages on the hourly charts. They then backed off in the last hour and gave back a chunk of the gains.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 227.64 at 16,379.05, 103 points off the high. The S&P 500 was up 31.56 to 1921.84, 13 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 was up 89.85 to 4305.72, 36 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 2 to 1 positive on New York Stock Exchange and 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 3 to 1 positive on New York, and more than 5 billion shares traded. The Nasdaq traded 2 1/2 billion shares and had a 3 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly positive, but there were two outstanding point-plus loser. With oil up today, the ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil (SCO) dropped back 5.64 to 184.08. Mobileye N.V. (MBLY) on a downgrade was down 3.28 to 30.57.

On the upside, Priceline.com (PCLN), having reached 1136.71 early, closed up 22.48 to 1121.38, Google Inc. (GOOG) up 14.16 to 714.72, 7 points off its high, Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 2.13 to 99.52, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 11.19 to 593.00, 9 points off its high, but Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) gained only 50 cents to 107.06.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) jumped 5.87 to 206.18 and Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) climbed 6.19 to 172.23. Facebook, Inc. (FB) gained 2.93 to 98.37, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) popped 1.47 to 53.11, and Intel Corporation (INTC) thrust 83 cents to 32.74.

In addition, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) was up 2.23 to 63.51, Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) up 3.24 to 82.54, Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (ITCI) up 3.25 to 43.48, NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK) 1.48 to 27.28, and Universal Display Corp. (OLED) 1.17 to 49.95.

The Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X ETF (LABU) jumped from 8.25 in the morning to 11.05, and backed off to 10.64, and ended up 1.05 to 10.64 on nearly 10 million shares.

Checking the TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ANTH) advanced 97 cents to 3.76, or 35%, on 2.2 million shares.

Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd (BSI), a clothing retailer, popped 2.85 to 4.96, or 135%, on 5.4 million shares traded. VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) ran 1.21 to 3.69, or 49%, on 3.6 million shares traded.

Among other gainers,Intrexon Corporation (XON) was up 3.78 to 25.16, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX) up 5.89 to 47.75, Qunar Cayman Islands Limited (QUNR) 5.50 to 44.89, and Radius Health, Inc. (RDUS) 5.30 to 45.42.

The VelocityShares 3x Inv Natural Gas ETN (DGAZ), which we played today, jumped 2.09 to 14.57.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices plunged in the morning, and then the big reversal came, and the markets rallied very sharply, until the last hour when they gave back a chunk of the gains. Still, it was a very strong session for the indices.

They need to get a downside channel of the last week and a half to break to the upside, and that's going to take a move to highs over 4308 Nasdaq 100. The S&P 500 resistance now at 3435 is what we need to try to take out tomorrow.

Good Trading!