Day Trading with Hary Boxer

The stock market indices had a very strong session today, a follow-up from yesterday. It got up to key overhead resistance and stalled there, particularly on the Nasdaq 100. From mid-morning until mid-day, they made 4 consecutive new highs on the S&P 500 that were not confirmed by the NDX. It’s a bit of a concern, but we’ll see what they can do with key overhead resistance right here at the 1388 area on the S&P 500 and the 2743 zone on the NDX.

The day started out with a very strong move to the upside. They then stalled late morning, but the S&P 500 kept moving higher and the NDX kept moving lower. In the afternoon, the NDX tried to play catch-up, but couldn’t take out the morning highs, although they did close at the session highs, or near them.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 181.19 at 12,986.58, just pennies off the high. The S&P 500 was up 18.86 at 1387.57, a half point off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 32.13 at 2740.126, only 2 points off its high.

Advance-declines were nearly 5 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and about 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 10 to 1 positive on New York with total volume just under 700 million. Nasdaq traded 1.4 billion shares and had a 4 1/2 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. There were some phenominal percentage gainers. They included SGOCO Group, Ltd. (SGOC), up 1.82 to 2.55, or 249.32%, on 2.2 million shares, which was a 46,000% increase in volume. Southcoast Financial Corp. (SOCB) jumped 74 cents to 2.20, or 53%. FreeSeas Inc. (FREE) gained 70 cents to 1.85, or 61%, on nearly 5 million shares. ZOOM Technologies, Inc. (ZOOM) jumped 44 cents to 1.48, or 42%, on 1.6 million shares. MIPS Technologies Inc. (MIPS) was up 1.37 to 6.58, or 25%, on 7.8 million shares on talks of sale of the company. FriendFinder Networks Inc. (FFN) gained 18 cents to 1.27, or 16 1/2%, on 1.3 million shares.

Higher-priced stocks did well today as well. Cytec Industries Inc. (CYT) rallied 6.57 to 64.06, or 11.4%, on 2.2 million shares. Fusion-io, Inc. (FIO), which we traded today, rose 3.65 to 28.31, or 14.8%, on 5.7 million shares. MBIA Inc. (MBI) climbed 1.21 to 10.28, or 13%, on 7.2 million shares. YPF S.A. (YPF) gained 1.82 to 22.93, or 8.6%, on 3.7 million shares. Titan Machinery, Inc. (TITN) exploded 3.21 to 35.26, or 10%, on 2.8 million shares. Rowan Companies Inc. (RDC) ran up 3.00 to 34.00, or 9.6%, on 8 million shares. Renren Inc. (RENN) was up 70 cents to 6.87, or 11%, on 25 million shares. Velti Plc (VELT) added 1.18 to 12.86, or 10%, on 1.2 million shares, and Hexcel Corp. (HXL) was up 2.33 to 26.70, or 10%, on 3.4 million shares.

In addition, BroadSoft, Inc. (BSFT) was up 2.94 to 41.44, and Ocean Rig UDW Inc. (ORIG), which we traded today, up 1.24 to 17.50, with LinkedIn Corporation (LNKD) up 8.24 to 105.90, Terex Corp. (TEX) 1.31 to 23.39, and Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (UBNT) 1.46 to 33.88.

Other gainers of note included Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) up 5.65 to 97.95, VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) 1.41 to 24.05, Rio Tinto plc (RIO) 3.10 to 56.15, Greenbrier Companies (GBX) 1.00 to 18.35, Youku Inc. (YOKU) 1.45 to 24.01, and ASML Holding NV (ASML) 1.80 to 48.91.

Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) jumped 4.45 to 104.26, and Goldman Sachs (GS) snapped back 4.46 to 120.39.

On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) gave back 3.43 to 622.77. The ultra-shorts got hammered, with the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) dropping 1.39 to 8.02, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) down 1.27 to 21.46. The Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) lost 1.08 to 12.64, and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) gave back 1.73 to 18.31.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning on the NDX and S&P 500, but the rest of the day they spent back-and-filling and consolidating on the NDX, while the S&P 500 continued to tread higher. Possibly a negative divergence, but we’re at resistance right now.

We’ll have to see how that affects the market tomorrow.

Good Trading!

Harry