Fri May 1st 2009
Late Snapback Closes Indices in the Plus Columnby Harry Boxer,
www.TheTechTrader.comLate Snapback Closes Indices in the Plus Column
By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (
www.thetechtrader.com)
The indices ended the week with another gain. The day started out with a move down that saw the indices slightly take out support, but no follow-through led to a strong 3-wave rally back that reached the session highs by mid-day. They pulled down steadily in the afternoon, tested initial support, but were not able to follow-through to the downside. A last half-hour snap back brought them back sharply, closing them in the plus column.
Net on the day the Dow was up 44.29 to 8212.41, the S&P 500 up 4.71 to 877.52, and the Nasdaq 100 up just 2.29 at 1396.62. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell 0.35 to 258.19.
The technicals were positive by 3 to 2 on advance-declines on New York and by less than 100 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 7 to 5 positive on New York on total volume of less than 1.3 billion. Nasdaq traded over 2.1 billion and had a 4 to 3 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was mixed but mostly higher. On the plus side, agriculture/chemical stocks were especially strong, with Potash (POT) up 4.02 to 90.51 and Mosaic (MOS) 1.90 at 42.35.
Apple (AAPL) gained 1.41 to 127.24, and Research in Motion (RIMM) 2.80 to 72.30.
Some of the sector-specific ultrashort ETFs did well today. The UltraShort Financial ProShares (SKF) was up 1.40 to 58.41, and the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) up 1.56 to 25.02.
The iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) gained another 1.68 to 46.78.
In the financial sector, Morgan Stanley (MS) was very strong, up 2.18 to 25.82. However, that sector was generally mixed and somewhat weaker, as JP Morgan (JPM) fell 51 cents to 32.49, Goldman Sachs (GS) 1.42 to 127.08, and Hartford Financial Services (HIG) 91 cents to 10.56. Wells Fargo (WFC) lost 40 cents to 19.61 and Bank of America (BAC) 23 cents to 8.70.
As a result, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) jumped 30 cents to 8.61. Also, the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) gained nearly a point, up 99 cents, to 29.62.
On the downside, Amazon (AMZN) lost 1.56 to 78.96, Best Buy (BBY) 1.18 to 37.20, and recently exited portfolio position DG FastChannel(DGIT) 1.34 to 21.99.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early, up mid-day, down in the afternoon, and snapped back late in the session to close in the plus column. Key support is still holding, and moving averages and trendlines on the hourly charts remain unscathed, but IFor more of Harry Boxer, sign up for a FREE 15-Day Trial to his Real-Time Technical Trading Diary. Or sign up for a Free 30-Day Trial to his Top Charts of the Week service.
