Volatile Session With Sloppy Technicals

The stock market indices had a volatile session, to say the least. They did end up in the plus column for the blue chips after an afternoon rally, but not quite so on the Nasdaq 100.

The day started out with a hard move down. They rallied back and had a sharp rally for the NDX, with Apple Inc. (AAPL) rallying from 2740 up to 2758. The S&P 500 rallied during the course of that rally, going from 1505 to 1512. They then they rolled over very sharply, and made nominal new lows on the NDX but not on the S&P 500. When they failed to get confirmation, they moved back in an orderly fashion in a very steady, rising-narrow channel on the S&P 500, but the spike into the close got it back up to 1512.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 7.22 at 13,986.52, and got as low as 13, 913 earlier in the day, 73 points off the low. The S&P 500 was up 83 cents at 1512.12, 7 1/2 points off the low, with a spike into the close, after being down to as low as 1504.71. The Dow and S&P 500 both managed to get back into the positive column. The Nasdaq 100, however, was down 8.64 at 2746.35, 12 points off its high, and did not get into the plus column today.

Advance-declines, which were sloppy all day, ended the day almost 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and higher by 250 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 positive on New York, with total volume of 650 million shares.
Nasdaq traded nearly 1.95 billion shares and had a 5 to 4 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was led by Netflix Inc. (NFLX), up another 10.02 to 184.41, Priceline Inc. (PCLN) was up 2.53 to 694.10, Google Inc. (GOOG) 4.43 to 770.17, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) was up 2.64 to 50.98, and First Solar, Inc. (FSLR), which we traded today, up 2.11 to 31.13.

There were many percent gainers on our board today. Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ACUR) spiked 48 cents to 2.35, or 26%, on nearly a million shares. Low priced BIOLASE, Inc. (BIOL) was up 55 cents to 3.38, or 12%, on 3 million shares and traded substantially higher earlier in the day to say the least.

Zoltek Companies Inc. (ZOLT) gained 91 cents to 7.94, or 13%, on 1.5 million shares, and Sunshine Heart Inc. (SSH) ran 96 cents to 7.77, or 14%.

Shutterfly, Inc. (SFLY), on major earnings, gapped up in the morning and stayed up all day, closing up 6.81 to 40.40, or 20 1/4%, on 8.1 million shares, a 1000% increase in volume than normal. Goodrich Petroleum Corp. (GDP) advanced 1.94 to 12.56, or 18%, on 4.4 million shares. MBIA Inc. (MBI) soared 1.58 to 10.41, or 18%, on 10.9 million shares.

Other gainers of note included Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) was up 1.78 to 14.44, Vipshop Holdings Limited (VIPS) up 2.26 to 20.57, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 2.84 to 33.39, Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (RS), on an acquisition today, 5.56 to 70.25, TrueBlue, Inc. (TBI) 1.45 to 18.30, 3D Systems Corp. (DDD), after announcing new split, up 4.82 to 67.40.

Conceptus, Inc. (CPTS) popped 1.49 to 22.80, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (WYN) advanced 3.81 to 60.01, Yelp, Inc. (YELP) closed up 1.20 to 22.38, gained Youku Tudou Inc. (YOKU) 1.14 to 22.40, Moody's Corp. (MCO) jumped around, up and down, but finally ended up on the day, 2.40 to 47.49.

On the downside, Amazon Inc. (AMZN) dropped 4.67 to 262.22 and Affymax, Inc. (AFFY) lost 1.03 to 17.17.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were sharply, bounced, lower lows on the Nasdaq 100, but not on the S&P 500. That caused a late morning rally, but they rolled over hard into the afternoon with nominal new lows on the NDX, but not being confirmed on the S&P 500. Once again, they rallied back into the close, much more so on the S&P 500 than the Nasdaq 100.

They still remain above the moving averages on the hourly charts and managed to close in the plus column on the blue chips.

That's the best we can say for it today. So, we'll see how it goes on tomorrow.

Good Trading!