Solid Session with Mixed Technicals

The stock market indices had a good session, although they started the day out with a drop to the downside, held support, came on strong in the morning, consolidated midsession, and ran back up in the afternoon, only to pull back n the last ten minutes to pare back the gains and put the Dow back in the negative column.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 35.95 at 20,054.34. The S&P 500 was up 1.59 at 2294.67, a point off the high. The Nasdaq 100 was up 10.70 at 5196.58, 5 points off the high.

Advance-declines were negative most of the session and turned positive in the last hour. It was 1660 issues up and 1270 issues down, or 17 to 13 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and negative by 300 issues on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York, total volume of 3 1/2 billion shares traded. The Nasdaq traded 1.9 billion shares and had a 10 to 9 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed. There were plenty of gainers. Priceline.com (PCLN) was up 2.49 to 1601.19, Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) up 1.41 to 808.38, Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 51 cents to 132.04, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) 7.21 to 819.71, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 74 cents to 144.74.

Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) jumped 3.33 to 181.50, Facebook, Inc. (FB) gained 2.36 to 134.20, but First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) was down 24 cents to 31.55.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) ran 4.60 to 262.08.

Biotech’s were firm today. The Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X ETF (LABU) gained 1.01 to 41.99. Mostly because Tesaro, Inc. (TSRO), on takeover rumors, jumped 19.73, or 12%, to 182.68, on 2.8 million shares traded.

Other point-plus gainers included Clovis Oncology Inc (CLVS) was up 3.41 to 63.41, Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AERI) up 2.00 to 44.80, and Exelixis, Inc. (EXEL), trading over 22 at one point, gained 1.04 to 21.61.

On the downside, Argan, Inc. (AGX) was the only point-plus loser today, down 2.05 to 71.85.

Checking TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, Aehr Test Systems (AEHR) gained 79 cents, or 36% to 3.00, on 9.2 million shares traded, but substantially off the high. Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (APOP) popped 79 cents, or 19%, to 4.96, 5.6 million shares traded.

Universal Corporation (UVV) jumped 10.90, or 15%, to 81.35, on 1.5 million shares traded. Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) closed up 5.65, or 14%, to 45.85, on 5.2 million shares traded.

Coherent, Inc. (COHR), on earnings, bounced 29.31, or 18%, to 190.65, on 1.4 million shares traded.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices came down early, popped, ran up the rest of the day, only to pull back in the last half hour.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Good Trading!