We had a drifty, sloppy day today and it looked like a spillover of the weakness we had last week. The market did not manage to stage any significant rally whatsoever, and downward momentum continued today.
The day started out with some choppiness -- down, up, down. Then the indices went sideways for the rest of the morning. During the lunch-hour they started a decline that lasted until mid-afternoon, and then a last-hour snapback attempt failed and the indices backed off again near the end of the session.
Net on the day, the Dow was down just about 7, the S&P down less than a point, and the Nasdaq 100 down 6 1/2, mostly due to the SOX, which was down 5.63 or about 1 1/4 percent today.
The technicals were not that bad, 17 to 16 negative on New York, but about 550 more decliners than advancers on Nasdaq, where it was about a 3 to 2 negative advantage.
New York Stock Exchange up/down volume was about 7 to 5 positive and Nasdaq was a little more than 2 to 1. Total volume was about 1 1/3 billion on New York and just under 1.5 billion on Nasdaq.
TheTechTrader.com board was rather quiet. A couple issues got hit hard though. CryptoLogic (CRYP), hammered for 1.41, slipped under 30 for the first time in 7 weeks. On the plus side, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), one of our recent Chart of the Week Watchboard positions, was up 78 cents today on more than 1 1/3 million.
Other stocks on the plus side, Georesources (GEOI) was up 67 cents, Able Energy (ABLE) 38 cents and DayStar Technologies (DSTI) 37 cents.
Parlux Fragrances (PARL) was back up towards 29, closing at 28.91, up 68 cents.
On the downside, Kendle International (KNDL) gave back 75 cents, JAMDAT Mobile (JMDT) 57 cents, Forward Industries (FORD) 69 cents and Air T (AIRT) another 45 cents.
The market is having trouble even getting back over the intraday moving averages on the 5-minute charts, and that's a good sign of downside momentum continuing.
Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, as you know we had a nasty reversal on Thursday morning. I had indicated that was a strong possibility based on the negative divergences, and that did occur. Downside momentum has not been arrested, and until this market turns, momentum can still take it lower.
However, on the plus side, the downtrend that began about a month ago on the Nasdaq 100 reach the bottom of the channel today. I do expect that due to the short-term oversold condition of the market we might see some sort of snapback attempt tomorrow.
The levels to watch are the 1502-04 zone on the Nasdaq 100, followed by more important overhead resistance around 1510. On the S&P 500, the levels to watch are the 1194-95 zone and 1198-1200 zone.
Good trading!
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.