Indices Give Up Early Gains

The stock market indices had a rough session, but in the morning they certainly looked like they were going to go ballistic. They continued to rally in stair-step fashion, taking out a triple-top on Nasdaq 100, reaching 4461, and change, and then rolling over sharply in the afternoon, going from 4461 down to 4430. A bounce late in the session brought them back to a point in which the indices closed mixed on the day. Not to be fooled, that drop was a drastic one, and only secondary support managed to hold. If they gap down or crack support tomorrow it could get ugly for the next few days. We'll see what happens going forward.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 15.38 at 18,224.57. The S&P 500 was down 1.62 at 2113.86, 6 points of the high. The Nasdaq 100 was down 10.44 at 4440.59, 21 points from the high as well, completely reversing early gains.

Advance-declines were 17 to 14 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 7 to 6 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 17 to 15 positive on New York, with total volume of 3 1/3 billion shares. Nasdaq traded over 1.8 billion shares, and had a 5 to 4 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board had a lot of big gainers today. Priceline.com Incorporated (PCLN) was up a whopping 31.07 to 1250.86, Google Inc. (GOOG) up 7.78 to 543.87, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 6.78 to 385.37, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 3.45 to 478.33.

Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC), on rumors of a takeover by Johnson & Johnson, spiked 31.77 to 220.22.

First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) was up 3.84 to 58.54, Facebook, Inc. (FB) up 1.11 to 79.56, FireEye, Inc. (FEYE) 1.42 to 45.40, Royal Gold, Inc. (RGLD), in a strong gold sector, 1.53 to 71.37, GoPro, Inc. (GPRO) 1.17 to 45.05, and Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) 1.50 to 86.19.

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX), one of our swing trades, popped 97 cents to 39.59.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) was the big loser today, down 3.38 to 128.79, on 74 million shares.

Checking the TheTechTrader.com percent-gain leaderboard, Signal Genetics, Inc. (SGNL) thrust 74 cents to 3.34, or 29%, on 6.4 million shares.

CollabRx, Inc. (CLRX) climbed 1.07 to 2.26, or 90%, on 23.6 million shares, but after the close it announced secondary and got hit hard. Biocept, Inc. (BIOC) gained 1.36 to 4.75, or 40%, on 45 million shares. Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. (HMNY) ran 1.30 to 4.80, or 37%, on top of yesterday's big gain.

Benefitfocus, Inc. (BNFT) jumped to 37.94, before pulling back to 34.00, up 11.00, or 47 1/2%, on 5.6 million shares, 2,000% more volume than average. Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (EYES) advanced 2.70 to 13.90, or 24%, on nearly 10 million shares. Aruba Networks, Inc. (ARUN) spiked 3.86 to 22.24, or 21%, on 16 million shares.

Among other gainers, Dycom Industries Inc. (DY) was up 6.35 to 43.65, Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CBI), on earnings, up 5.93 to 47.65, EPIRUS Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (EPRS) 1.36 to 10.36, the Rubicon Project, Inc. (RUBI) 1.79 to 19.67, TG Therapeutics, Inc. (TGTX) 1.51 to 15.26, and BroadSoft, Inc. (BSFT) 2.69 to 29.99 rounded out some of the gainers for today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after a gap down, the indices rallied all day, and then early afternoon they reversed sharply, coming down very hard, holding key support at the end of the session, with a late bounce in the last 20 minutes to stave off a big loss today.

Let's see what happens tomorrow.

Good Trading!