Tale of Two Stock Markets, as Nasdaq Soars

By: Harry_Boxer

The stock market had a very interesting session Friday as the indices gapped up at the opening, sold off very sharply early on, but held support, and then came on with a bang, especially on the Nasdaq 100, which caused mid-session to consolidate and then exploded into the close, to close at the high for the day going away.

The S&P 500 was vastly different, closing far off the highs and far off its weekly highs set earlier in the week, perhaps creating a negative divergence, but we'll see how it goes.

The NDX strength was due mostly to Google Inc. (GOOG), up 61 after earnings, closing back over 600 at 601 and change. Apple Inc. (AAPL) closed just under 315, up 12.43, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) jumped 9.11 to 164.64, a new all-time high. So, some of the major leaders on Nasdaq 100 soared Friday, pushing the NDX to new 2010 highs, but the S&P 500 is trailing here, and perhaps causing a negative divergence here that could be a serious negative for the market next week. We'll see how it goes in the meantime.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 31.79 at 11,062.78. The S&P 500 managed to come back and close up 2.38 at 1176.19, but the NDX was the story, up 43.22 at 2097.73, the exact tick high of the day and the week, and the year for that matter.

Advance-declines were negative by 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, but negative by about 75 issues on Nasdaq. So, despite the Nasdaq 100 gaining 43, there were more decliners than advancers.

So, decidedly different stories on the NYSE vs. Nasdaq today.

Reviewing our Watchboard:

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower. Other than Google, Amazon and Apple, there were no point-plus gainers on our board. But some large fractional gainers included Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) up 67 cents to 37.46, Amtech Systems Inc. (ASYS) up 94 cents to 19.45, Cree Inc. (CREE) 70 cents to 56.56, Isilon Systems, Inc. (ISLN) 50 cents to 27.72, and Logitech International SA (LOGI), our swing trade pick, up 47 cents to 19.26. Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX) advanced 52 cents to 8.04.

On the downside the loss leaders included Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) down 2.75 to 27.87, in a weak solar group. IDT Corporation (IDT) dropped 1.79 to 16.27 after breaking key support, and American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) was down 1.48 to 36. Those were the point-plus losers.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply at the opening, sold off sharply, held support though, but came on strong, especially on Nasdaq. While the S&P 500 marked time, the NDX was exploding in the last couple hours.

So a mixed close, with strength on Nasdaq, weakness on the Dow, and just a bit of upside on the SPX.

Good trading!

Harry

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