Day Trading with Hary Boxer

The stock market indices had a difficult session for most of the session, until the last 30 minutes when news out of Europe exploded the indices. They were stair-stepping their way down in orderly channels all day, and were decidedly lower, until they spiked up, taking the Nasdaq 100 from 2555 to 2575, a 20-point pop in 30 minutes. The S&P 500 dropped 9 points in the same period of time, and closed at the afternoon highs on both going away at 2575 NDX, a new high for the last several months. The S&P 500 did not make new highs, but closed way off the lows.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 4.24 at 12,878.28, 100 points off its low. The S&P 500 was down 1.27 to 1350.50, and the Nasdaq 100 up 5.75 at 2575.24.

Advance-declines were about 19 to 11 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 16 to 9 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little less than 2 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 725 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded a little over 1.8 billion shares and had a 5 to 4 negative volume ratio.

They did come way back in the last half hour, but still closed substantially off the lows, and mixed on the day.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was very mixed, but there were some gainers. Apple Inc. (AAPL) closed 10 cents off its all-time high, up 6.86 to 509.46, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) was up 4.77 to 123.07.

Rackspace Hosting, Inc (RAX), a swing trade of ours, had an explosive move on Tuesday. It went right up through the target zone at 54-55, and reached as high as 56.94, closing at 55.45, up 6.22, or 12.6%, on nearly 11 million shares. This could very well trigger a move into the high 60’s, but it definitely reached the swing trade target on Tuesday.

Other stocks of note were Hauppauge Digital, Inc. (HAUP), up 44 cents to 1.50, or 42%, and Michael Kors Holdings (KORS), which we traded this morning, up 9.24 to 42.85, or 27 1/2%, on 11 million shares.

Shippers were strong today, with Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (EGLE) up 40 cents to 2.25, or 22%, and DryShips Inc. (DRYS) up 40 cents to 3.74, or 12%, on 68.6 million shares. That huge for that stock. Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. (GNK) was up sharply, and tagged our swing trade target at over 10 earlier, and closed up 9 cents to 9.46. That was a big negative reversal there after reaching key overhead resistance.

In addition, MedAssets, Inc. (MDAS) was up 2.31 to 14.09, Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd. (CHTP) 61 cents to 3.71, LivePerson, Inc. (LPSN) 2.37 to 14.96, Cynosure, Inc. (CYNO) 2.55 to 16.44, On Assignment, Inc. (ASGN) 1.73 to 13.67, Ultra Clean Holdings Inc. (UCTT) 1.05 to 8.85, LCA-Vision Inc. (LCAV) 78 cents to 6.68, IMAX Corporation (IMAX) 2.46 to 24.53, TAL International Group, Inc.(TAL) 3.48 to 38.30, Fidelity National Information (FIS) 2.04 to 31.04, Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) 93 cents to 14.35, Hospira Inc (HSP) 2.08 to 36.30, and Jive Software, Inc. (JIVE) 1.12 to 19.66.

Also, Body Central Corp. (BODY) was up 1.52 to 28.15, Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) 1.68 to 33.17, and Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG), one of our favorites, 2.45 to 46.68.

On the downside, the ultra-shorts were mixed. The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was down 2.17 to 88.15, but the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX), which was up as high as 19.19, closed up 1.00 to 17.19, on 36 million shares. That was record volume.

Other losses of note included Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. (NUS) down 1.21 to 52.89, Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) 1.49 to 29.56 on profit taking, and Goldman Sachs (GS) down 1.66 to 112.87.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices stair-stepped their way lower all session, until the last 30 minutes when news out of Europe spiked them up to close mixed on the session.

We’ll see how significant that was and if there‘s a follow-through tomorrow.

Good Trading!

Harry