Intriguing Day for the Indices

The stock market indices had a very intriguing day today, with a strong move down at the opening. They held support, and then they had a nice rally to test the highs on the Nasdaq 100, but the S&P 500 got nowhere near the highs. The S&P 500 formed a big bear coil, while the Nasdaq 100 kept testing its highs. In the afternoon when the coil broke, they rolled over to test support, making lower lows on the S&P 500, but that was not confirmed by the Nasdaq 100. That resulted in a late rally back, with the Nasdaq 100 closing up, and the S&P 500 and Dow closing in the negative column.

Net on the day, the Dow was down at 10.15 at 18,214.42, about 57 points off the low. The S&P 500 was down 3.12 at 2110.74, 7 points of the low. The Nasdaq 100 was up 21.68 at 4462.27, just a point off the high, and 32 points off the low, led by the large-cap stocks.

Advance-declines were 16 1/2 to 14 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 5 to 4 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was almost 2 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 3 1/3 billion shares. Nasdaq traded over 1.8 billion shares, and had a 11 to 7 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly positive, with most of our stocks up. Google Inc. (GOOG) was up 11.61 to 555.48, Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 1.63 to 130.41, on 90 million shares, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 4.70 to 483.03.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) ran 3.43 to 207.19

Other gainers included BroadSoft, Inc. (BSFT), one of our swing trades, up 2.42 to 32.41, Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) up 1.74 to 68.77, Ambarella, Inc. (AMBA) 1.37 to 58.01, Amedisys Inc. (AMED), one of our favorite stocks for the year, 1.29 to 30.90, NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK) 1.08 to 42.13, and ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. (ZIOP), on strong volume, 1.28 to 11.78.

In a firm cyber security group, Cyber-Ark Software Ltd. (CYBR) gained to 62.46, and Splunk, Inc. (SPLK) ran 2.07 to 69.57.

On the downside, Priceline.com Incorporated (PCLN) gave back 9.61, or 1241.25, Amazon.comInc. (AMZN) closed nearly flat, down 57 cents to 384.80, Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) dropped 2.40 to 217.82, and TASER International Inc. (TASR), after earnings disappointed, 4.37 to 22.68.

Checking the TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, low-priced Cytori Therapeutics, Inc. (CYTX) advanced 41 cents to 1.13, or 57%, on 44 million shares. Planar Systems Inc. (PLNR) snapped back 70 cents to 6.36, or 13%. Penn Virginia Corporation (PVA) bounced 67 cents to 6.87, or 11%, on 15.9 million shares. MiMedx Group, Inc. (MDXG) thrust 96 cents to 10.48, or 10%, on 1.5 million shares. Advaxis, Inc. (ADXS) closed up 83 cents to 9.73, or 9%, on nearly a million shares.

PGT, Inc. (PGTI) climbed 1.98 to 10.45, or 23%, on 2.2 million shares. Atossa Genetics, Inc. (ATOS) thrust 39 cents to 1.99, or 24%, on 21.8 million shares, but closed way off its high earlier in the session when it reached 2.65. ZAGG Inc (ZAGG) took back 77 cents to 7.86, or 11%, on 1.4 million shares.

VelocityShares 3x Inv Natural Gas ETN (DGAZ) closed at 7.68, up 1.20, or 18%, on 14.5 million shares.

Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (DPLO), in a strong biotech sector, climbed 4.57 to 30.09, or 18%, on over a half million shares. Akorn, Inc. (AKRX), also a biotech, and which we traded, ran 7.07 to 53.47, or 15%, on 4.8 million shares. Flamel Technologies SA (FLML), another one of our favorites, popped 1.78 to 15.30, or 13%, on 1.7 million shares.

Avago Technologies Limited (AVGO) on acquisition on Accretive, had a big day, up 16.57 to 129.25, or 15%, on 8.9 million shares.

Among other gainers, Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AAOI) was up 1.31 to 11.82, salesforce.com, inc. (CRM) up 7.37 to 70.24,

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were choppy, with the Nasdaq 100 much stronger than the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 making new, multi-year highs, and the S&P 500 not confirming. Today's lows, I think, are critical at 4430 NDX, and 2104 S&P 500.

Let's see where we stand tomorrow.

Good Trading!