The stock market did have some volatility on Wednesday, but the indices ended narrowly mixed. The day started out with a little move up off the opening followed by a sharp turnaround lower. They spiked down and made a new low on the Nasdaq 100, but did not on the S&P 500, which resulted in a snapback rally. But the rally failed at the 2 day declining tops lines, which resulted in a much sharper afternoon slide that took the market to the lows for the day with about an hour and a half to go.

At that point the NDX reached under 1210, and the S&P 500 retested yesterday's lows but held, also holding the rising bottoms trendline. When that occurred another sharp rally ensued, taking it back to the declining tops line and actually slightly through them. That was very brief, and then they came back down and took back about one-third to a half of the afternoon rally. A very late bounce helped preserve the profits.

Net on the day the Dow was up 50.65 to 7939, the S&P 500 up 6.57 to 833.73, and the Nasdaq 100 down 2.24 to 1227.05. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 2.22.

Advance-declines were positive by about 570 issues on New York and about 290 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of 1.3 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.15 billion and had about a 3 to 2 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was also mixed. Gainers included Agrium (AGU) up 1.02 on positive earnings. Financials snapped back from yesterday's losses, with JP Morgan (JPM) up 1.47 and Morgan Stanley (MS) at 22.91 up 2.12. Wells Fargo (WFC) advanced 1.15 to 17.50, Bank of America (BAC) was up 51 cents to 6.07, and Citigroup (C) gained 34 cents to 2.69.

As a result of the strength in financial stocks, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) closed up 86 cents to 8.99 on 89 million shares.

Other stocks of note, portfolio position Net 1 Ueps Technologies (UEPS) at 14.58 was up 60 cents, and Sequenom (SQNM) snapped back 23 cents to 16.90.

On the downside, shippers were under pressure all day, as GNK got hammed down to 15.27, before snapping back, closing at 16.17, still down 2.52 today on 4 million shares. We eliminated that from our model portfolio just three days ago near 22 1/2.

Agriculture stocks other than AGU were also weaker, with Potash (POT) down 2.87 to 85.00, CF Holdings (CF) down 1.39 to 72.21, and Mosaic (MOS) down 1.98 to 42.19.

So shippers and ags had a negative day, with financials positive.

Other stocks of note, Apple (AAPL) fell 1.01 to 96.82, and RIMM got hammered on lowered guidance and downgrades, down 8.28 to 48.76, on 81 million shares.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices continued their downward thrust from yesterday early on, and then made lower lows on the Nasdaq 100 in the afternoon. When that was not confirmed by the S&P 500, that resulted in a late snapback.

The indices managed to close just mixed and are still below resistance and in a new short term downtrend. We'll see what they can do tomorrow in terms of a follow through.

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) 2009 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.