Stock Market Choppy, Corrective Session

By: Harry_Boxer

The stock market indices had a very choppy session. They gapped up strongly at the opening, but that was it right there at the highs in the first couple minutes. They pulled back in an orderly fashion, tried to come back on, but when they couldn't get through the highs they rolled over with the sharpest sell-off by mid-day and early afternoon. That stabilized their support and contributed to a snapback rally, which took back about 50%-60% of its losses. However, in the last 15 minutes they rolled over rather hard and pared back the gains somewhat further.

Net of the day, the Dow was up 28.15 at 10,415.16, although that was about 60 points off its high. The S&P 500 up 5.34 at 1104.21, 6 points off its high, so it gave back about half its gains. The Nasdaq 100 up 6.14 at 1886.14, about 11 points off its high, but still up on the day.

Advance-declines were a little better than 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, but only positive by 210 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little better than 2 to 1 positive on New York, but total volume was a very light 815 million shares. Nasdaq's total volume was about 1.5 billion shares with a 3 to 2 positive ratio of advancing volume over declining volume.

Charts of the Day:

Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) had a big price-volume surge break-away gap today and ran up 3.55, or 12%. As you can see, the declining topsline was broken with one big surge, which also took out lateral price resistance. This kind of surge on 38.4 million is usually significant. It closed near the high end of the range for the day, and it looks to me like we should get some follow-through.

There is some resistance above here around the 34 area, but my thought is that the short-term trading target gets us up to 37-37 1/2, up to the prior highs from last December and this past March.

Exact Sciences Corporation (EXAS) had a significant breakout, exploding through the March and June high today. It did so on strong volume, the heaviest volume in a couple months. A clean breakout occurred that took this stock to multi-year highs. Trading target up in the 6 1/4 zone should be reached shortly. If it gets through that I'm looking for a move to the top of the channel around10 and then 12.

Medicines Co. (MDCO) had a significant pop. You'll notice in August it had that one big day and it settled into a 4-week tight coil. Today it popped again, which could be the advent of a new move. 15 and then 16 3/4 are short-term trading targets.

MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) is a recent IPO, which popped after the IPO and then went into a coil pattern. It broke out on significant volume today and price action. Looks like it could be headed for 40, my next trading target.

VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) after its multiple-month coil broke out and flagged. Over the last four days it has accelerated out of the mini-flag with gains every day on strong volume. Looks like this could accelerate and get up towards the 14-15 zone, my next trading target.

Reviewing our Watchboard:

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result of the choppy action, was narrowly mixed, with a few gainers of note. On the plus side, Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) was the leading gainer on our board today, up 3.55 at 32.86. Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 1.60 at 149.14, Transocean Ltd. (RIG) up 1.56 at 55.30, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 1.24 at 140.38.

Those were the point-plus gainers on our board.

Among fractional gainers of note, Leap Wireless International Inc. (LEAP) jumped 53 cents at 11.19, Corinthian Colleges Inc. (COCO) 54 cents at 5.44, Evolution Petroleum Corp. (EPM) 54 cents at 5.49, ADTRAN Inc. (ADTN) 75 cents at 33.60, Valassis Communications Inc. (VCI) 50 cents at 32.78, and Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) 31 cents at 27.82.

Most other gainers were up by just a small fraction.

On the downside there were no point-plus losers. Leading the way, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) was down 94 cents to 36.34, China Agritech Inc. (CAGC) 95 cents to 12.34, Nanometrics Incorporated (NANO) 59 cents to 13.23, and Isilon Systems, Inc. (ISLN) 59 cents to 23.00 even.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, it was a choppy session with the indices up sharply at the opening, but that was it for the day. Then they backed and filled, tried to break out, couldn't roll over, and made new session lows by early afternoon, but then snapped back to put the indices back in the plus column.

In any case, it was more of a corrective day overall. We'll see what kind of follow-through we get tomorrow.

Good Trading!

Harry

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