Day Trading with Hary Boxer

The stock market indices had a mixed session, and it was quite volatile despite the low volume today.

The day started out with a sharp dip to the downside which held, and then reversed sharply. The Nasdaq 100 really ran with Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) leading the way. They then backed off midday and came on again in early afternoon to reach the session highs at 2660 NDX and 1374 S&P 500. Despite the new highs on the NDX, the S&P 500 was not able to get to 1375. They rolled over, and rolled over hard in the afternoon, and took back a big chunk of the gains, especially the NDX.

Net of the day, the Dow was down 47.15 at 12,896.67, about 65 points off its high, the S&P 500 was down 6.44 at 1367.58, only 6 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 1.63 at 2647.47, 13 points off the high.

Advance-declines were 17 to 13 negative on New York, and 13 to 11 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 1/2 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 676 million shares. Nasdaq traded 1.3 billion, and had dead even flat volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but what was interesting about today’s action was that large-cap stocks, such as Apple Inc. (AAPL), up 10.53 to 609.94, Google Inc. (GOOG) up 8.09 to 595.92, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) up 9.68 to 81.72 lead the way, and as a result, is the reason Nasdaq 100 even had a gain of 1.63.

Other gainers of note included Medgenics, Inc. (MDGN), which we traded today, led the way up 43%, up 4.51 to 15.00.

Asure Software, Inc. (ASUR) gained 67 cents to 4.87, or 16%. Microvision Inc. (MVIS) moved 45 cents to 2.04, or 28%, on 2 million shares. LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. (LF) advanced 94 cents to 11.38, or 9%, on 3.4 million shares.

Coal stocks did well today. Patriot Coal Corporation (PCX) advanced 42 cents to 2.26, or 23%, on 41 million shares after a report from Bloomberg discussed increased coal demand from Europe. James River Coal Co. (JRCC) gained 49 cents to 3.63, or 15%, on 5.7 million shares.

Biotech stocks had a few gainers today. Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA) had a bid day today, up 1.33 to 11.35, or 13%, on 42 million shares. Coronado Biosciences, Inc. (CNDO), which was a standout and a day trade pick of ours, spiked up 1.18 to 6.93, or 21%, on 705,000 shares. OraSure Technologies Inc. (OSUR) moved 1.26 to 13.36, or 10%, on 6.2 million shares.

It was a good day for the shipper sector. Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. (GNK) gained 39 cents to 3.55, or 12%, on 1.4 million shares. Neonode, Inc. (NEON) jumped 49 cents to 6.99, or 8%, on 2.3 million shares.

In addition, Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) jumped 4.41 to 67.19, Yelp, Inc. (YELP) was up 1.44 to 26.16, Stratasys Inc. (SSYS) gained 2.76 to 54.00 even, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SPPI) advanced 71 cents to 16.46, Yandex N.V. (YNDX) rose 98 cents to 20.25, Liquidity Services, Inc. (LQDT) gained 1.83 to 42.00, NetEase, Inc (NTES) was up 2.71 to 61.38, and Michael Kors Holdings (KORS) was up 1.77 to 44.44, rounding out the gainers today.

ProShares Ultra Long DJ-UBS Natural Gas (BOIL) jumped 1.97 to 49.20.

The ProShares Ultra-Short Silver (ZSL) was up 2.91 to 66.56.

On the downside, Goldman Sachs (GS) was down 2.68 to 95.92 in a somewhat weak financial group. VIVUS Inc. (VVUS) lost 1.08 to 28.85.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) gave back 3.11 to 89.61.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early, snapped back sharply by midday, reached their session highs, but couldn’t get through the highs on the S&P 500 from Tuesday, even though the NDX did. They then rolled over and gave back a big chunk of the gains, which turned into losses for the S&P 500 and the Dow today.

It was a mixed picture. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, but many of our stocks did quite well today.

Good Trading!

Harry