he stock market indices started lower and kept on going lower all day today and closed not too far off the session lows. It was a fairly orderly decline, particularly in the afternoon but still a nasty day.
The stock market indices started lower and kept on going lower all day today and closed not too far off the session lows. It was a fairly orderly decline, particularly in the afternoon but still a nasty day.
Net on the day, the Dow closed down 115.42 at 11,934.58, the S&P 500 down 15.05 at 1268.45, and Nasdaq 100 down 38.00 at 2217.06.
Advance-declines were about 2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 3 to 2 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume, however, was about 4 1/2 to 1 negative on New York with total volume of 1.7 billion shares. Nasdaq traded nearly 3 billion and had about a 3 to 1 negative ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was mostly flat to negative. There were a few outstanding gainers, but for the most part gainers on our board were up only fractionally. Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) managed to gain 1.79 to 55.76.
Some of the ultra-short ETFs were gainers. ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) was up 1.08 to 19.58, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 1.01 to 50.60, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 98 cents to 24.53, and ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) 62 cents to 52.97.
Fractional gainers of note included ServiceSource International, In (SREV) up 33 cents to 20.36, and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 64 cents to 53.76.
In the low-priced sector YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) jumped 18 cents to 1.12, Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ACUR) 37 cents to 4.10, and Endologix Inc. (ELGX) 63 cents to 9.15. Fusion-io Inc. (FIO) rose 2.17 to 28.73, Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (CBOU) 67 cents to 12.97, Pandora Media, Inc.(P) 1.37 to 15.37, Chart Industries Inc. (GTLS) 1.63 to 49.90, Oncothyreon Inc (ONTY) 38 cents to 8.95, and Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) 79 cents to 10.11.
In addition, Hansen Natural Corporation (HANS) advanced 3.04 to 78.05, a new all-time high.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices opened with a thud, went lower, bounced around mid-morning, and then made lower lows, bounced around all afternoon, and again made lower lows, stair-stepping down in an orderly fashion.
Nevertheless, it was a nasty way to end the week.
Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.