Closing Technical Market Comments for Mon Jul 16, 2007
Dow Strength Masks Market Weakness
By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (www.thetechtrader.com)
The markets had a session that appeared stronger than it was. On a day where the Dow was up 44 points and technicals were very poor by better than 2 to 1 negative on advance-declines and up/down volume, the Dow's strength masked the weakness of the market today.
The day started with some churning áction back-and-forth, and then they did try a rally that took them to new rally highs and to new multi-year highs, but just nominally so on the S&P 500 before it rolled over mid-day. It bounced in mid-afternoon, and took back about half the losses, but then was unable to carry through the intraday moving averages and rolled over towards the end.
Net on the day the Dow was up nearly 44, the S&P 500 down 3, and the Nasdaq 100 down 4. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up just 1 point today.
Advance-declines were 22 to 10 negative on New York, and about 19 to 11 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 2 to 1 negative on New York and 10 to 7 negative on Nasdaq. Total volume on New York was about 1 1/3 billion, and on Nasdaq more than 1.7 billion.
TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed both up and down. On the plus side, the star of the day was Dynacq Healthcare (DYII), which came out with quarterly earnings in the morning. The stock exploded from 2.30 running as high as 8.25 late in the day, closing at 7.87, up 5.41, a gain of 220% on 4.6 million shares, a stellar day there. Chart of the Week Escelon (ELON) jumped 2.54 today, or 14%, on 2 1/2 million shares.
Syntax-Brillian (BRLC), which we added late in the session to our portfolio, jumped 1.05 to 6.61 on a whopping 17 1/2 million shares today, on upward guidance and revenues. FuelTek (FTEK), one of our charts to watch this week, was up 1.19 to 33.30 on 1 million shares and last week's Chart of the Week, Versar (VSR) announced a contract and jumped another 1.41, or more than 10%, on nearly 1 million shares traded.
Ascent Solar (ASTI) jumped 42 cents and closed at 10.14, and Transcend Services (TRCR) made a new all-time high at 25.08, closing at 24.74, up 55 cents.
On the downside, plenty of point-plus losers. IMMR was downgraded before the opening. The stock got hammered for 3.23 on 5 1/2 million shares. Force Protection (FRPT) also got smashed for 2.75, and last week's Chart of the Week Excel Maritime (EXM) gave back 1.93.
China Medical Technologies (CMED) had a huge negative reversal, jumping sharply earlier in the session and reaching a new multi-month high at 37.55, before reversing 4 points. It ended up at 33.96, down 1.06 today.
JA Solar (JASO) got hammered for 2.45, Metabolix (MBLX) gave back 1.33, NVE Corp. (NVEC) lost 1.40, and Rediff.com India (REDF), on profit-taking after some early strength, closed down 2.11 on the day.
So some real volatility today in terms of gains and losses on our board.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after making new multi-year highs the indices then rolled over at mid-session, bounced in the afternoon and pulled back near the close to close mixed on the session. But with poor technicals, the market is indicating that perhaps it's getting long in the tooth and pretty tired, and we may see some further weakness over the next few days.
Good trading!
Harry
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