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Monday, May 3, 2010

Strong Rally to Start the Week


By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader


The stock market indices started the week off with a bang reversing Friday’s sell-off, and after a late morning pullback held support they took off and ran sharply higher. The Nasdaq 100 reached 2040 and the S&P 500 just over 1205, and then they spent the rest of the afternoon pulling back, retesting, and consolidating. But still a very positive day.

Net on the day, the Dow closed up 143.22 at 11,151.83, the S&P 500 up 15.57 at 1202.26, regaining 1200 today, and Nasdaq 100 up 37.97 at 2031.60

Advance-declines were more than 3 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 2 1/2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 1/2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of a light 1.17 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.3 billion shares and had about a 4 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, did very were today. Leading the day was Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) up 20.03 at 708.99, Google (GOOG) up 4.91 at 530.60, Goldman Sachs Group (GS) up 4.30 at 149.50, Cree Inc. (CREE) up 2.34 at 75.55, and Apple (AAPL) up 5.26 at 266.35.

Other gainers of note were Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) gained 1.31 to 27.45, Dendreon (DNDN) 1.37 to 55.43, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) 1.01 to 17.27, and Brigham Exploration (BEXP) 1.29 to 20.80, a new all-time high, in a strong junior oil group today.

Other stocks of note: Akamai (AKAM) jumped 93 cents to 39.76, China Automotive (CAAS) 48 cents to 22.71 in a mixed Chinese sector, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) 79 cents to 25.65, Mindspeed Technologies (MSPD) 35 cents to 10.38, Pharmacyclics (PCYC) 30 cents to 7.89, PLX Technology Inc. (PLXT) 37 cents to 5.62, and TiVo Inc. (TIVO) 61 cents to 18.13.

In addition, Power-One Inc. (PWER) was up 94 cents to 8.80, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (KERX) 63 cents to 6.22, Raptor Pharmaceuticals Corp. (RPTP) 98 cents to 3.43, and Celldex Therapeutics (CLDX) 30 cents to 8.47.

On the downside, the ultra-short ETFs gave back some, with the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) down 1.59 to 24.25, the Direxion Daily Emerging Markets Bear 3x (EDZ) 74 cents to 41.78, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3x (FAZ) 59 cents to 11.65, the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3x (BGZ) 51 cents to 12.57, the Direxion Daily Real Estate Bear 3X Shrs (DRV) 68 cents to 6.16 and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 88 cents to 20.33.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices ran sharply all morning and by mid-day reached their session highs, backed off, and consolidated over the final few hours to pare back the gains. But still it was a very strong start to the week and a bit disappointing lack of follow-through for the bears. We’ll see how it goes for tomorrow and whether it’s a turnaround Tuesday.

Good trading!

Harry

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