Consolidation Day, Poor Technicals, NDX Reaches New All-Time High

The stock market indices had an interesting, very mixed, session today, with the Nasdaq 100 making new all-time highs, closing near 5572, a gain of over 30 points.

The day started out with a gap up on the Nasdaq 100, but not so much on the S&P 500. When they moved higher in the morning, and then pulled back, the S&P 500 made lower lows, but the Nasdaq 100 formed a bull wedge. The Nasdaq 100 broke out midday, along with the S&P 500, which ran up, and in the afternoon, they pulled back, the Nasdaq 100 rallying again to new highs, but the S&P 500 couldn’t even get through the declining topsline. It was a very mixed session, continuing the consolidation on a higher range on the Nasdaq 100, but more of a pullback low on the blue chips.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 6.30 at 20,981.39. The S&P 500 was up 1.32 at 2388.77. The Nasdaq 100 was up 30.20 at 5571.28.

Technicals were very flat today.

Advance-declines were 44 issues negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 180 issues negative on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 negative on New York, total volume of over 4.2 billion shares traded. The Nasdaq traded 1.8 billion shares and had a 4 to 3 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed. Priceline.com (PCLN) was up 32.92 to 1837.04, Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) up 2.52 to 874.25, trading at 909.00 in after hours, Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 11 cents to 143.79, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) 9.71 to 918.99, exploding to 966.00 in after hours, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 2.91 to 153.08.

Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) gained 1.19 to 187.86, and First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) popped 45 cents to 29.44. Facebook, Inc. (FB) advanced 1.14 to 147.70, trading to a new all-time high at 149.00 in after hours.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) lost 1.56 to 308.61.

Other stocks to the upside included NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), up 1.62 to 105.64, Exact Sciences Corporation (EXAS) up 6.34 to 30.14, and Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AERI) 2.05 to 44.50.

The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) bounced 1.07 to 81.01, reaching new all-time highs.

On the downside, Shopify Inc. (SHOP) dropped 1.03 to 73.09, Medidata Solutions, Inc. (MDSO) fell 1.95 to 65.19, and Deere & Company (DE) gave back 1.37 to 111.18.

These were the only point-plus losers on our board today.

Checking TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, GRUBHUB INC. (GRUB), on earnings, jumped 7.90, or 23%, to 42.92, on 13.4 million shares traded. LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. (LMAT) ran 5.48, or 21%, to 31.86. Silicom Ltd. (SILC) exploded 6.29, or 13%, to 54.00. Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. (UCTT) climbed 2.29, or 13%, to 19.80, on 3 million shares traded.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up in the morning, down midday, and back up in the early afternoon. They pulled back late afternoon, before the late charge on the Nasdaq 100, leaving the S&P 500 behind.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Good Trading!