Not a Pretty Day for the Market

The stock market indices had a volatile session, first gapping lower and snapping back sharply to fill that gap, only to roll over, retest, and slightly take out the lows before a late rally brought them back.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 30.06 at 18,199.33. The S&P 500 was down 3.73 at 2139.43, 8 points off its low. The Nasdaq 100 was down 30.86 at 4860.59, 11 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 19 to 10 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 19 to 8 negative on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 negative on New York, total volume of a light 3.7 billion shares traded. The Nasdaq traded 1.7 billion shares and had a 5 to 3 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative today. Priceline.com (PCLN) was down 9.87 to 1469.16, Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) down 8.60 to 799.07, Apple Inc. (AAPL), after earnings, down 2.66 to 1215.59, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) 12.59 to 822.59, but Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) was up just a fraction, 46 cents to 126.97.

Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) gave back 3.86 to 172.82, Facebook, Inc. (FB) fell 1.25 to 131.04, but First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) gained 43 cents to 41.11.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) dropped 10 cents to 202.24.

Biotech’s had a tough day. The Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X ETF (LABU) was down 1.14 to 32.07. Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (PBYI) dropped 1.65 to 42.00, Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc. (AXDX) lost 1.20 to 21.45, and Exact Sciences Corporation (EXAS) gave back 2.86 to 16.73.

Checking TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, Moleculin Biotech, Inc. (MBRX) popped 58 cents, or 19 1/2%, to 3.56.

Unisys Corporation (UIS) ran 1.79, or 20%,to 10.74, on 4 million shares traded, nearly five times the normal volume. Logitech International (LOGI) jumped 3.72, or 17%, to 25.22, on 4.3 million shares traded. Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM) closed-up 8.63, or 15%, to 67.70, on 13.5 million shares traded. Mercury Systems, Inc. (MRCY) advanced 3.11, or 13%, to 27.16. iRobot Corporation (IRBT) climbed 4.99, or 11%, to 48.93, on 1.8 million shares traded.

Among other gainers, Owens-Illinois, Inc. (OI) was up 1.83 to 18.83, and Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) bounced 2.43 to 26.15.

Gold got hit hard today. The Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X ETF (DUST) jumped 2.35 to 40.33, and the Direxion Daily Jr Gld Mnrs Bear 3X ETF (JDST) popped 1.83 to 26.77.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a big gap down, got to support, bounced, and filled those gaps, but could not get through, rolled over, retested the lows, and bounced at the end of the day.

It wasn’t a pretty day, but they did manage to come off the lows, and closed mixed, with the Dow slightly ahead to no avail.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Good Trading!