The indices certainly had some volatility on Thursday, up sharply in the morning and down sharply in the afternoon, taking back all of the gains and then some, closing mixed on the indices at the end of the day.

The day started out with a big gap up. They ran very sharply in the first half hour to 40 minutes, and then they backed and filled, flagged, and made new highs by mid-morning, and then rolled over, took out support, and went into a 5-wave decline until mid-day when they bounced and did a perfect retracement to resistance that failed, rolled over to new lows, but the S&P 500 held at yesterday's late lows, and had a very sharp rally until about 10 minutes before the close when they backed off sharply again.

Net on the day the Dow was down 17.61 to 8168.12, about 140 points off its high. The S&P 500 was off 0.83 to 872.81, 16 points off the high, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 11.95 to 1394.33, some 24 points off its high. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 6.99, a 2 1/2 percent gain, but 7 points off its high.

With all the afternoon selling, the technicals still managed to close to the upside on New York, where advance-declines were about 300 ahead. However, Nasdaq was almost dead-even flat. Up/down volume was about 9 to 8 positive on New York on total volume of more than 1.7 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.8 billion and had a 16 to 11 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, but many of those stocks that ended up small fractions were much higher earlier in the day. Point-plus gainers included Research in Motion (RIMM) up 2.71 to 69.50, SunPower (SPWR) up 2.33 to 27.38, portfolio position SNX up 1.05 to 21.53, Cree Inc. (CREE) up 1.36 to 27.39, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) up 1.22 to 18.38, nearly reaching 20.

Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 1.32, but JP Morgan (JPM) was down 1.48 in a mixed financial section. Wells Fargo (WFC) was barely up, by just 4 cents to 20.01. Bank of America (BAC) was up 25 cents to 8.93.

Most of the ETFs, both long and short, were extremely narrowly changed today. For example, the Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) was up a nickel, while the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) was unchanged. The iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) was down 12 cents, and the iShares

FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) up 2 cents. The Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) was up 11 cents, and the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) down 10 cents.

Very narrow movement in the ETFs today, indicative of a sharply higher early morning market and then a strong decline in the afternoon that brought them back to near unchanged.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices made new 2-month rally highs early in the morning, gave back all of it on the Dow and S&P 500, but managed to hold a nearly 12 point gain on the Nasdaq 100 and 7 on the SOXX.

So a mixed close, and despite the sharp afternoon pullback, the indices have still not broken either trendline or moving average support yet on the hourly charts. But we'll probably soon see if the afternoon decline brings any downside follow-through that changes that picture.

Good trading!

Harry

For 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.

(c) 2009 AdviceTrade, Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed only by written permission of AdviceTrade and The Technical Trader at info@advicetrade.com . In using any portion of Harry Boxer's content, you agree to the terms and conditions governing the use of the service as described in our disclaimer at http://www.thetechtrader.com

Mr. Boxer's commentaries and index analysis represent his own opinions and should not be relied upon for purposes of effecting securities transactions or other investing strategies, nor should they be construed as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy any security. You should not interpret Mr. Boxer's opinions as constituting investment advice. Trades mentioned on the site are hypothetical, not actual, positions.

Harry Boxer Archive

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in

The Market Oracle is a FREE Financial Markets Forecasting & Analysis web-site.
(c) 2005-2024 MarketOracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd) - Market Oracle Ltd asserts copyright on all articles authored by our editorial team and all comments posted. Any and all information provided within the web-site, is for general information purposes only and Market Oracle Ltd do not warrant the accuracy, timeliness or suitability of any information provided on this site. nor is or shall be deemed to constitute, financial or any other advice or recommendation by us. and are also not meant to be investment advice or solicitation or recommendation to establish market positions. We do not give investment advice and our comments are an expression of opinion only and should not be construed in any manner whatsoever as recommendations to enter into a market position either stock, option, futures contract, bonds, commodity or any other financial instrument at any time. We recommend that independent professional advice is obtained before you make any investment or trading decisions. By using this site you agree to this sites Terms of Use. From time to time we promote or endorse certain products / services that we believe are worthy of your time and attention. In return for that endorsement and only in the cases where you purchase directly though us may we be compensated by the producers of those products.