The markets had some extreme volatility today but ended near the lows for the day going away. They opened lower, bounced off support, and had a very sharp morning rally which nominally took out the NDX and S&P 500 highs. But when there was no follow-through after the lunch hour the markets then headed south in a hurry, steadily declining all afternoon.
Net on the day the Dow was down 39 points, and some 100 points off the earlier high. The S&P 500 was down nearly 8 and that was about 13 points off the high as well. The Nasdaq 100 dropped 16 1/2 points, a whopping 35 points off the high. The SOX index managed to drop just 1 point today, but was way higher in the earlier part of the session, up nearly 13 at one point.
The technicals reflected the negative change in the afternoon. Advance-declines were 24 to 9 negative on New York and a little bit better than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 11 to 4 negative on New York on total volume of more than 1 1/2 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2 1/3 billion, very heavy volume, with a negative ratio of nearly 2 to 1 on volume.
TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed. There were some strong stocks today. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) advanced 2.13, outstanding relative strength in today's market. Rambus (RMBS) was up 1.82 on good news.
But other than that there were only fractional gainers.
On the downside, the loss leader was Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM), which gave back 2.02. Abaxas (ABAX) fell 1.25, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) 1.89, Stereotaxis (STXS) 65 cents, Services Acquisition Corp. (SVI) 47 cents, Viisage (VISG) 43 cents, Novavax (NVAX)60 cents and LMI Aerospace Inc. 60 cents as well. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) also dropped 66 cents.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after making just nominal new highs today the indices plunged with abandon, taking out several layers of support and ending very negatively -- what I consider an ominous sign for the market and probably a forbearer of lower prices over the next few days.
Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com, a real-time diary of his day, swing and intermediate-term trades. 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.