Closing Technical Market Comments for Mon Sep 08, 2008
Nasdaq, Financials Losers While Blue Chips Rally
By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (www.thetechtrader.com)
The markets had a phenomenal early part of the session, gapping up huge. Unfortunately, that was the high for the day. The indices sold off sharply for the rest of the session, and actually took out the Friday lows on the Nasdaq 100 but held way above that on the S&P 500, as the blue chips outperformed today.
They backed and filled around mid-day and early afternoon, came on late in the day, and took back about half the gains on the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500.
Net on the day the Dow was up about 290 points and the S&P 500 nearly 25 1/2, but the Nasdaq 100 down 5 1/4. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) also lost 0.45, but that was about 6 points off its lows for the day.
The technicals were positive by 2 to 1 on advance-declines on New York and just 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 3 positive on New York on total volume of 1.7 billion. Nasdaq traded heavier volume of nearly 2.6 billion and was just slightly negative on advancing over declining volume.
TheTechTrader.com board, however, was mixed but mostly lower, with some big losers. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), which got up to 69.90 at the high, dropped all the way back to 60 at one point and closed at 61.90, down 4.36.
As a result of the government takeover, Fannie Mae (FNM) got slam-dunked, closing at 73 cents, down from Friday’s 7.05 close.
The SDS ultrashort ETF, as would be expected with the S&P 500 higher, was down 2.95, but the QID was up 50 cents, with Nasdaq down today.
Other losers of note, Focus Media (FMCN) was down 2.19 to 27.56, Lehman (LEH) lost another 2.05 to 14.15, and Sequenom (SQNM) got hammered for 2.32, closing at 21.28, on 2.6 million.
Our Boxer Shorts list brought strong returns today for anyone trading those issues short. They included ACI -5.54, AGU -4.55, ANR -7.16, CLF -5.28, CMP -2.57, JOYG -4.58, POT -8.72 , SD -2.23, SM -1.64 and ZEUS -3.50.
United (UAUA) managed to close at 10.92, but mid-day had a scare on an erroneous news report of a bankruptcy that smacked the stock all the way down to 3 at one point. Fuel System Solutions (FSYS) dropped 1.67, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) 1.21, and A-Power Energy (APWR) 1.89.
On the plus side, Trex (TWP) at 20.83 was up 1.73. Portfolio position GB closed at 25.44, up 73 cents. Clean Energy (CLNE) at 19.35 was up 31 cents. Portfolio position BCSI was up 29 cents.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices rebounded sharply at the get-go but then had a sharp morning sell-off that did stabilize mid-day but came on again at the close to close very positively on the blue chips, but certainly not getting any confirmation from the Nasdaq 100, which lost ground today. So we'll see if the blue chips can lead the Nasdaq higher or whether Nasdaq will be a drag on the blue chips.
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.
