Markets Cave Near Close

By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader

We certainly had a topsy-turvy, volatile session today with the indices moving in three distinct waves on Friday. In the morning they gapped lower at the opening and moved down steadily until they reached yesterday's late reaction lows just under 1180 on the Nasdaq 100 and down around the 870 range on the S&P 500.

When support near those levels held they came on again in the afternoon and rallied back to actually take out the highs with less than an hour to go, but rolled over very sharply, with the Nasdaq 100 dropping from 1237 to 1176, more than 60 points in the last hour. The S&P 500 dropped from 917 down to 872, or about 45 points, so a very negative close to the market and a very disappointing way to end what was a very promising rally yesterday and a nice snapback rally in the afternoon today. So, to say the least, the indices remain in flux and without clear direction.

Net on the day the Dow was down 338, the S&P 500 down 38, and the Nasdaq 100 down more than 61. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell nearly 14, a loss of just under 7 percent.

The technicals were negative by 4 to 1 on declines over advancers on New York and a little less than that on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was also quite negative with about an 8 to 1 negative ratio on New York on total volume of over 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded almost 2.3 billion and had a 9 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board's stocks were nearly all down today, except for the short instruments, with the SDS up 7.71 and QID up 7.12.

Most of the multiple-point changes were on the downside today. AAPL lost 6.20 closing at 90.24, CF lost 5.48 to close at 51.97, much of that loss coming in the last hour. ENER dropped 3.80, POT 4.38, and AGU 3.04 in a very weak agriculture group.

Among ETFs, the DIG fell 2.40, EWZ 2.69, FXI 2.51and the QLD dropped 2.90. AFAM gave back 3.12, AVAV 2.04, CAL 1.33 and DRYS1.98 today, as it was a very weak last hour, to say the least.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the markets did nothing today to instill confidence, particularly in the last hour. A very promising mid-afternoon rally that appeared to be confirmation that support had held was certainly buffeted in the last hour. The indices closed on an extremely negative note, so we'll see if that carries over on Monday, or if they stabilize and resume the rally.

Right now the trend is certainly in doubt and the rally in jeopardy.

Good trading!

Harry

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