If not down, then up
The market’s
action of Tuesday and Wednesday, in my view, was nearly as impressive
as any session over the past few weeks.
Though the gains weren’t dense, the fact
that the market had an outsized opportunity to sell off both days speaks
volumes. The “opportunity” I’m referring to was the chance to sell into the good
news that everyone on Wall Street had expected: namely, that the Fed wouldn’t up
rates Tuesday.
Of note
Wednesday: QLogic [QLGC>QLGC] broke out of a five-week base on
average volume…Netcentives [NCNT>NCNT] cleared a two-week congestion zone
on above-average turnover after gapping more than 45% at the open…After an
early shakeout, Sycamore [SCMR>SCMR] followed through on Tuesday’s breakout
of a four-week base–but volume was sub-par for the second day…Redback
Networks [RBAK>RBAK] escalated in stairstep fashion for the entire day,
ultimately inching past the top of its base–turnover was moderate,
however…Infospace [INSP>INSP] moved out of a two-week congestion area on
volume 68% above usual…
You’ve probably heard about the color=#008000>genomics, the companies dealing with the unraveling of
the human genetic code. The group has come under strong accumulation over the past few months as news of the race to map the code hit the media. Monday, a New York Times article gave the shares another boost. TradeHard’s resident medical technology expert, Dr. Paul
Ruggieri, first wrote about the genomics on Feb. 22, 1999…Then, he mentioned
three stocks: Human Genome Sciences [HGSI>HGSI] (up 340% since then), Incyte
Pharmaceuticals [INCY>INCY] (up 58%), and Genset [GENXY>GENXY] (off 18%).
Since that seminal column, Paul has written several more about the genomics. The
most recent was published Dec. 15.
As for Wednesday’s action within the
genomics, Curagen [CRGN>CRGN] drove out of a 2 1/2-week range on volume
168% above its norm…
Human Genome crawled past the top of a 2 1/2-week base on
volume over twice its average…Imclone [IMCL>IMCL] closed near the top of a
wide-range bar on its heaviest volume of the past 20 days as it looks ready to
test its Nov. 29 high…Incyte broke out of a three-month O’Neil cup-with-handle
on volume 13 times its norm, but went out in the lower half of its
range…Myriad Genetics [MYGN>MYGN] hurdled the top of a two-week trading
range, then closed below the border–volume was three times
average.