Day Trading with Hary Boxer

The stock market indices suffered more losses today, although they were mixed just before the close, and pulled back into the close.

The day started out with a move down, and then a snapback. Resistance was futile as the indices then rolled over to new lows on the Nasdaq 100, but not so on the S&P 500. The S&P 500 held. bounced around mid-day, retested, and then rallied in the afternoon. Apple Inc. (AAPL) led the way, as the NDX jumped from 2710 to 2732. The S&P 500 jumped from 1383 to 1390, but was unable to get through the morning high, and that resulted in a rollover into the close.

Net for the day, the Dow was down 82.79 at 13,032.75, the S&P 500 down 5.64 at 1385.14, and the Nasdaq 100 down 7.44 at 2716.14.

Advance-declines were about 2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 2 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 1/2 to 1 negative on New York, while total volume was a light 680 million shares. Nasdaq traded a little less than 1.6 billion shares, and had a little more than a 2 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower. Leading the way to the downside, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) was down 7.32 to 200.13 after earnings. Goldman Sachs (GS) gave back 1.53 to 115.33. Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 1.36 to 608.34, although it was 6 points off the low.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) ultra-long was down 2.33 to 100.85, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) gave back 1.50 to 56.16.

On the plus side, the percentage gainers among the low-priced stocks included OptimumBank Holdings Inc. (OPHC), up 48 cents to 2.80, or 21%. Princeton National Bancorp Inc. (PNBC) gained 32 cents to 1.90, or 20%. Feihe International, Inc. (ADY) jumped 68 cents to 4.84, or 16%. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) was up 1.88 to 13.64, or 16%, on 21 million shares. Digital Domain Media Group, Inc. (DDMG) rallied sharply late in the day, gaining 90 cents to 6.90, or 15%, on 1.1 million shares.

United Rentals, Inc. (URI) jumped 4.84 to 45.75. Polaris Industries, Inc. (PII) ran up 7.37 to 80.50. Both stocks were up on earnings, and we traded both of them.

H&E Equipment Services Inc. (HEES) gained 1.58 to 19.57, Francesca’s Holdings Corporation (FRAN) up 2.42 to 30.12, RSC Holdings, Inc. (RRR) 1.34 to 23.47, Accuray Incorporated (ARAY) 52 cents to 7.85, Datawatch Corporation (DWCH) 84 cents to 14.84, Terex Corp. (TEX), another favorite of ours, 1.34 to 24.85, Western Digital Corp. (WDC) 2.05 to 41.56, and Arctic Cat Inc. (ACAT) 2.54 to 45.49.

Also moving today, Halliburton Company (HAL) jumped 1.51 to 34.17. Seagate Technology PLC (STX) advanced 1.07 to 28.96. MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) jumped 1.45 to 41.29. Family Dollar Stores Inc. (FDO) closed up 2.30 to 67.00 even.

In addition, Tibco Software, Inc. (TIBX) jumped 1.04 to 34.20, Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (RGR) was up another 1.44 to 51.46, and Sourcefire, Inc. (FIRE) gained 1.17 to 51.01.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down at the opening, rallied back to near just a small loss, and had the biggest sell-off of the day late morning only to bounce around the noon hour, and consolidate for the next couple hours. They tried rallying in the afternoon, which was successfully lead by Apple Inc. (AAPL). The only problem was Apple sold off in the last half hour, taking the indices back down, and closing them solidly in the negative column. Despite the fact that the NDX closed above its declining channel in the last several sessions, the S&P 500 did not. As a result, if we get any downside follow-through here, we could see quite an additional sell-off. My projections are around 1358-60 S&P 500 and 1338-40.

Good Trading!

Harry