Indices Close Near Flat as Afternoon Sell-Off Reverses Morning Gains

By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader

The stock market indices ended narrowly mixed today after a strong morning reversed and a strong sell-off in the afternoon brought them back to near the zero line.

The day started with a gap up. They backed and filled early on and then made their sessions highs late morning, with the S&P 500 making a nominal new rally high just under the 1126. However, at that point the Nasdaq 100 was not able to take out yesterday’s high and they pulled back in a very distinct 3-wave decline that retested yesterday’s late lows. They did manage to bounce, but in the last 10 minutes backed off once again to finish with the marginal net changes.

Net on the day, the Dow was just down 9.22 at 10,396.76, the S&P was up 0.48 at 1118.79, and the Nasdaq 100 up 0.36 to 1851.57. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) dropped 3.02 today to 346.37

Advance-declines managed to close ahead by about 270 issues on New York and by about 170 issues on Nasdaq. Volume was very light today, under 900 million shares on New York with a volume ratio of about 5 to 1 positive. On Nasdaq the volume was under 2 million today, with about a 15 to 9 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was also narrowly mixed, with only a couple point--plus changes. On the plus side, RINO International (RINO) jumped 1.73 to 23.67, while on the downside Somaxon Pharmaceuticals (SOMX) got hammered today losing 1.02 to 3.62 on 7.6 million shares.

Other than that all changes were fractional. SmartHeat (HEAT) gained 79 cents to 13.15, Ford (F) 46 cents to 12.69, NuVasive, Inc. (NUVA) 46 cents to 40.30, Dendreon (DNDN) 36 cents to 33.62, and Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) 82 cents to 31.09, another new all-time high.

Telestone Technologies (TSTC) snapped back 44 cents to 17.15, Netlist Inc. (NLST) jumped 32 cents to 4.37, China Automotive (CAAS) gained 30 cents to 21.35, and U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) was up 60 cents to 39.40, as oil firmed.

On the downside, other than Somaxon Pharmaceuticals (SOMX) down 1.02 to 3.62, most other losing stocks on our board had just very small fractional losses.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up in the morning, down in a 3-wave decline that tested yesterday’s lows in the afternoon, bounced late in the day but pulled back in the last 10 minutes to end narrowly mixed on the day. We’ll see what consequences that has to the trend over the next couple days.

Good trading!

Harry

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