3 Nasdaq Stocks for Active Investors
Today’s look at stocks pulling back above the 200-day moving average includes a pair of biotechnology stocks, known for their volatility and ability to make big moves, and an Internet infrastructure play.
Shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RIGL) closed lower for a second day in a row. But perhaps more importantly, the stock’s drop of more than 4% on Wednesday has RIGL lower for the eighth day in the last nine. The sell-off in Rigel Pharma comes as traders and investors take profits from the stock’s rally back toward its highest levels of the year in late last month.
This profit-taking has RIGL finishing oversold for the past five consecutive sessions, surpassing even the oversold extremes from the stock’s previous correction in the first half of February. Then, a five-day retreat ending in a trio of oversold closes led to a rally of more than three and a half percent one day later, and more than four and a half percent less than five days later.
With “consider buying” ratings of 9 out of 10, Rigel Pharmaceuticals is set to open with a positive, short-term edge of nearly two and three-quarters of a percent when trading begins Thursday morning.
Short term traders and more active investors who took advantage of the oversold extremes during the recent sell-off in Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) may have another opportunity to do so as the stock pulls back toward technically oversold territory once again. GILD has closed lower for three days in row, dropping by more than one and a half percent intraday on Wednesday before trimming losses into the close, and is trading at new, short-term lows.
Shares of Gilead Sciences have a short-term, positive edge of more than half a percent. Wednesday’s selling has given the stock a two-point, ratings upgrade to a “consider buying” rating of 8 out of 10.
Pulling back for a third day in a row – and seven out of the last nine – shares of VeriSign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) have traded to their lowest levels in more than a month. The stock was down more than half a percent ahead of trading on Thursday, finishing in technically oversold territory for a second day in a row. The selling in Verisign comes in the wake of VRSN’s edging to new, 52-week highs in the second half of last month.
Verisign has a positive edge of 1% in the short-term. The stock’s 7 out of 10 rating puts VRSN at the upper end of our neutral category.
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David Penn is Editor in Chief of TradingMarkets.com