Closing Technical Market Comments for Fri Jan 04, 2008
First Week of '08 a Bear!
By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (www.thetechtrader.com)
The indices had an extremely negative session and closed at the lows for the day going away, capping off an extremely negative week and a very poor start to the year, to say the least.
The Dow fell 257 points, closing right at 12,800. The S&P 500 was down 35.50, and the Nasdaq 100 down 88.24, more than 4 percent. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) also lost more than 4 percent, around 18.44.
The technicals bore out how negative a day it was, with advance-declines negative by about 24 to 7 on New York and by about 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was even worse, negative by 15 to 1 on New York on a total of 1 2/3 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2 1/2 billion, but 2.3 billion of that was to the downside, a ratio of about 13 to 1 negative.
TheTechTrader.com board was extremely negative. There were only a few gainers today, but they were outstanding ones. Chinese farm products producer, Origin Agritech (SEED), had a tremendous day today as the #2-leading gainer on Nasdaq. It was up 2.58, more than 35% today, closing at 9.88, on more than 12 million shares.
Akeena Solar (AKNS) extended its tremendous gains of late, up another 1.40 today on 13 1/4 million shares. SPX & NDX index short ETF’s were up, of course, with the SDS ahead by 2.68 and the QID by 3.46.
On the downside, losers included Sigma Designs (SIGM) down 4.63, DryShips (DRYS) 6.40, Ascent Solar (ASTI) 2.05, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) 2.11, Excel Maritime (EXM) 2.29, Fushi (FSIN) 2.25, Global Solutions (GSOL) 2.67, and TBS International (TBSI) 2.71. So, some of the junior solars and shipping stocks had very negative sessions today.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, it was a bloodbath on Wall Street, as most stocks had a negative session. The day started out with a gap down. They immediately formed bear flags, went sharply lower in the morning, bounced at mid-day but failed to get through the overhead resistance and then rolled over again and had a very negative afternoon, as well.
They say the first week often dictates the trend of the first month, and the first month dictates the trend for the year, so certainly a very bad start to the year for equities.
Good trading!
Harry
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