Unusual Mixed Session

Harry Boxer The Technical Trader

The stock market indices had a very unusual day, with huge gaps down, they broke support, in the first fifteen minutes showed extreme volatility, and then took off and ran from 5316 NDX all the way up to 5583 by midday. The S&P 500 jumped from 2322 to 2344, backed and filled, and then tried to rally again. Only in the last fifteen minutes they backed off.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 45.74 at 20,550.98. The S&P 500 was down 2.39 at 2341.59, 20 points off the low. The Nasdaq 100 was up 10.28 at 5374.27, 60 points off the low.

Advance-declines were flat on the New York Stock Exchange, and 4 to 3 positive on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly flat on New York, total volume of 2.8 billion shares traded. The Nasdaq traded 1 1/2 billion shares and had a 9 to 5 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly green. Priceline.com (PCLN) was up 18.89 to 1772.00, Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) up 5.08 to 819.51, Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 24 cents to 140.88, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) 1.21 to 846.82, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 2.04 to 144.06.

Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) gained 67 cents to 168.93, Facebook, Inc. (FB) closed flat, and First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) closed nearly flat, up just 8 cents to 28.23.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) jumped 7.06 to 270.22.

The biotech’s were very strong today, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) was up 78 cents to 108.25, bluebird bio, Inc. (BLUE) up 5.95 to 94.05, Exact Sciences Corporation (EXAS) 1.91 to 22.99, Editas Medicine Inc. (EDIT) 1.43 to 20.69, and Achaogen, Inc. (AKAO) 90 cents to 21.78.

The Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X ETF (LABU) popped 2.06 to 48.55.

Checking TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. (ZIOP) climbed 81 cents, or 14%, to 6.69, on 4.7 million shares traded.

Cancer Genetics, Inc. (CGIX) thrust 1.15, or 30%, to 5.05, on 3.5 million shares traded.

Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (APOP) exploded 4.64, or 74%, to 10.90, on 9 million shares traded. Impax Laboratories Inc. (IPXL), on a new CEO, ran 3.45, or 37%, to 12.70, on 12 million shares traded.

Among other gainers, Pulse Biosciences, Inc. (PLSE) was up 2.98 to 33.32, Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NVMI) up 1.96 to 18.77, and Cara Therapeutics Inc. (CARA) up 1.39 to 18.15.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down huge, and then rallied right back all the way until the end of the day when they pulled back, finishing mixed on the day.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Good Trading!

Author

Harry Boxer

The Technical Trader

Regular columnist on ADVFN, Stockhouse, and DecisionPoint, among many sites, and regular guest on WinningOnWallStreet, Marketviews.tv, KFWB-Radio Los Angeles, and more. Frequent guest columnist on CBSMarketWatch.

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