Closing Technical Market Comments for Mon Apr 28, 2008
Mixed Session Closes Near Afternoon Lows
By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (www.thetechtrader.com)
The markets ended mixed on Monday. They were up in the morning, came down in the afternoon, and had a selloff late in the day to close near the afternoon lows and not far from the session lows.
Net on the day the Dow, which had gotten up to 12,938, closed at 12,871, down 20. The S&P 500, which pierced the formidable 1400 area, getting up to nearly 1403, closed at 1396 and couldn't hold the gains, closing down 1.47 on the day.
Nasdaq did manage to stay up on the session, but it was 13 points off the high, up only 4.68 today. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 0.87.
The technicals, which were pretty solid mid-session, were ahead by just 18 to 13 on advance-declines on New York, and only 15 to 13 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was barely ahead on New York on light volume of just under 1.2 billion. Nasdaq traded about 1.7 billion and had a slight positive plurality on advancing volume over declining volume.
As a result, TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed. On the plus side, DryShips (DRYS) had an outstanding session, reaching as high as 88 before backing off to close at 86.54, up 2.56 on 4 million. VMware (VMW) jumped to 67.33, but was as high as 69.47 earlier, giving back about 2 points. It still closed up 2.49 on 2.8 million.
Other stocks of note, Jinpan (JST), former Chart of the Week, at 38.35 was up 1.74. Converted Organics (COIN), which was dormant for the last couple weeks, snapped back strongly, particularly in the afternoon, closing at 10.29, up 1.44. Portfolio position Canadian Solar (CSIQ) was up 1.07 at 25.51, and new portfolio position Digital Alley (DGLY) closed at 9.80, up 88 cents today, reaching as high as 9.90, a new all-time high.
But it was a mixed picture in the tech sector, with Broadcom (BRCM) down 1.21 and several others fractionally lower.
Shippers and solars were mixed today. Even though DryShips was up 2.56, Excel Maritime (EXM) dropped 1.71 and TBS International (TBSI) dropped 1.08. Ascent Solar (ASTI) in the solar sector was up 43 cents, Solarfun (SOLF) lost a nickel and JA Solar (JASO) lost 66 cents.
I'm not surprised that the market backed off since it was near last week's highs and near formidable resistance levels. Current short-term price support and hourly moving average support is at around 1910 NDX and 1386 SPX.
Those are the initial levels to keep an eye on tomorrow.
Good trading!
Harry
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