NDX Closes at the High for the Day

The stock market indices started off the day on a down note. They immediately rallied in the morning, made a new high on the Nasdaq 100 for the last few sessions, but the S&P 500 failed to follow through, confirmed, and both sold off midday. Early afternoon they hit bottom and rallied back, the Nasdaq 100 closing at the highs for the day going away, but the S&P 500 did not quite confirm. At the end of the day it was a mixed session.

Net on the day, the Dow was only down 19.04 at 20,052.42. The S&P 500 was down 4.86 at 2292.56. The Nasdaq 100 was up 6.36 at 5167.96.

Advance-declines, however, were 18 to 11 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 9 to 5 negative the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 negative on New York, total volume of 3 billion shares traded. The Nasdaq traded 1.7 billion shares and had an 85 to 84 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was quite flat. Priceline.com (PCLN) was up 3.80 to 1587.18, Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 1.21 to 130.29, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) up 72 cents to 140.97, but Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) dropped 15 cents to 801.34, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) closed down 2.56 to 807.64.

Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) gained 2.65 to 177.81, Facebook, Inc. (FB) popped 1.08 to 132.06, but First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) closed flat, down just 2 cents to 32.13.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) jumped 6.44 to 257.77.

Other stocks to the upside included NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) up 2.93 to 117.31 ahead of earnings this week, Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (ESPR), a recent new swing trade of ours, up 1.22 to 17.66, and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) gained 1.40 to 13.64 on 140 million shares traded, which is strong volume for this stock.

On the downside, Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SUPN) dropped 1.75 to 25.00, and Clovis Oncology Inc (CLVS) gave back 3.25 to 61.04.

The biotech’s had a strange day, with the Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X ETF (LABU) down 17 cents to 41.97, after being up earlier in the day.

Checking TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, shippers had a good day today, with DryShips, Inc. (DRYS) up 1.43, or 34%, to 5.61, on 46.7 million shares traded and Globus Maritime Limited (GLBS) gained 2.23, or 30%, to 9.70, on 1.5 million shares traded. Pulmatrix, Inc. (PULM) ran 1.12, or 29%, to 4.98, 19 million shares traded.

Gold also had a big day. The Direxion Daily Jr Gld Mnrs Bull 3X ETF (JNUG) bounced 2.27, or 23%, to 12.34, on 55 million shares traded.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down in the morning, spiked up late morning, pulled back down early afternoon when they started to rally again, and finished on a strong note, particularly on the Nasdaq 100, which closed at its high for the day.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Good Trading!