The day started out with another strong gap up and burst to the upside. At one point the Dow was up to near 9800, up about 400 points on the session, but then came down in a very strong 3-wave decline lasting until late afternoon, which took the Dow 700 points off its early high. The Nasdaq 100 dropped from 1471 to 1350, 121 points. The S&P 500 dropped 72 points from 1044 to 972, before a late afternoon bounce off key support levels brought them back up. In the last 10-15 minutes they backed off again.

Net on the day the Dow was down 76.62 and the S&P 500 5.38, but the Nasdaq 100, which had been near unchanged with just 20 minutes to go, closed down 64.95. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell 13.43, a big percentage loss there.

The technicals were mixed, with advance-declines positive by 280 issues on New York, but negative by more than 700 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 4 on New York on total volume of 1.85 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.9 billion and had about a 5 to 1 negative ratio of on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, and all over the place today. On the plus side, financials were positive, with Citibank (C) up 2.87 to 18.52 and Morgan Stanley (MS) up 3.84 to 21.94. That was as low as 6.75 on Friday. The QID, with the drop in the market, snapped back 4.42 to close at 67.42, and the SDS was up 1.71 to 87.71; however, that was 9 points off the low earlier in the day.

Among other point-plus gainers, DryShips (DRYS) advanced 1.78, Perrigo (PRGO) 1.46, and Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) up 1.32.

On the downside, Apple (AAPL) was down 6.18, Mosaic (MOS) at 39.25 down 4.96, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) down 2.18, Agrium (AGU) down 3.04, and Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) 4.38. The USO backed off 2.48 and the QLD 3.93.

So it was very much a mixed picture, with what appeared to be an effort to consolidate the sharp gains of the last day and a half. On the positive side, afternoon lows were right at key initial support, right now in the 1340-50 zone on the Nasdaq, and beneath that 1315-20 as secondary support. S&P support is 970-72, and beneath that the 958 area or thereabouts.

We'll be looking to see if the markets can right themselves and extend the advances.

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) 2008 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.