Monday’s Top Stocks
With the ‘Drive For Five’ days of torturous consolidation out of six complete,
it took a supposedly very ominous jobs report that came in much worse than expected–to
do the job of rallying the market off its technical supports. Funny how it works–the
market’s initial negative reaction to tepid job growth was quickly reassigned
as the reason to rally the market off its first half-hour lows. The new and
improved ‘smart money’ decided that the number, after the first half hour, was
actually good for equities as the threat of an imminent rate hike is now highly
unlikely. All said and done, our bovine friends were finally able to do the
right thing off supports as all three finished in trending fashion near their
highs of the session, up between .93% to 2.20%. It wasn’t perfect though, as
volume came in lighter and below-average. Oh well says ‘cautious bull’–how
much good did massive institutional buying do for all those folks that helped
along the equity feeding frenzy after the first week of January? Well, seeing
that a 7% pullback in the Nasdaq Composite translated into many individual issues
getting toasted by more than 25%, you won’t find this cautious bull taking issue
with today’s rally.
Well opportunity knocked today….somewhat. That’s perfectly OK though, ’cause
I would rather have it less-than-perfect. I think the only time that it’s ever
supposedly perfect to buy the market, is when CNBC has a lot of bullish guests
on their set, pointing to the fact that things look really good now–as evidenced
by the fact that all the charts are at 45-degree angles and the overall investment
climate can only get better from here on in. Yes, it would be nice if it really
worked that way. That is, if Wall Street and Main Street could really make money
at the same time by doing the same thing in unison–to the same ol’ spiel that
they regurgitate over and over each and every business day. The problem with
that folks–is that nobody would be left to take the other ‘profitable’ side
of the trade. Well, that’s just a theory in one humble man’s opinion, the fact
of the matter is that all I really care about is disciplined, consistent daytrading
tactics.
Volatility Readings:
| Volatility Index | Close | Net Change | Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average | Significance |
| VXO ( $VXO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
15.98 | down 1.77 | na | 4% below | not at extreme |
| VXN ( $VXN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
24.55 | down 1.62 | cvn 2, 6 buy | 1% below | not at extreme |
Hottest Sectors : Semiconductors
(
SMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Weakest Sectors : NA
Monday’s stocks to watch:
Technical Strength Top of Range.
Stocks are scanned from TM’s Proprietary and Technology 10 Momentum lists on
the Indicators page, as well as being hand selected, based on the most recent
technical action. This may include some or all of the following: abnormal
volume, price patterns, as well as bullish action off of technical price
supports or clearance of technical resistance in that day’s session.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Silicon Labs | ( SLAB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
50.97 | Top of range consolidation on increased, above-average (IAA) volume, resuming uptrend within ‘right side of base’ consolidation |
1,428 | 2,957 |
| Urban Outfitters | ( URBN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
42.50 | Top of range consolidation on above-average volume closing 1% thru ascending triangle weekly pattern |
700 | 706 |
Technical Weakness Bottom of Range.
Stocks are scanned from TM’s Implosion and Technology Implosion Lists on the
Indicators page, as well as being hand selected, based on the most recent
technical action. This may include some or all of the following: abnormal
volume, price patterns, as well as bearish technical action at key support,
or resistance levels based on closing prices.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| NTL Corp | ( NTLI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
64.98 | Mid level consolidation after daily pullback from lows into MA resistance |
1,080 | 570 |
Stock Reversal Setups Closing Basis.
Stocks that are setting up on a closing basis as potential long or short reversal pattern
candidates. Candidates listed may have triggered on a closing basis, or close
to triggering ( my general rule is to list the pattern setup if it is within
+/-.15 of trigger price). Patterns include basing patterns (Slim Jims, 1,2,3s,
Double bottoms) consolidations, and triangle reversals. Background technical
supports in the form of Fibonacci levels, EMAs (DEMA=daily ema), RS, and former
price action are used in the decision making process.
Long Reversals Closing Basis.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Brightpoint | ( CELL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
18.95 | Top of range consolidation after daily technical test of supports on high volume gap down |
902 | 3,934 |
| United Online | ( UNTD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
17.17 | Second inside day after 78% test on thrust bar lower | 2,071 | 2,510 |
Short Reversals Closing Basis.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
Institutional Favorites and Institutional Laggards.
The following stocks are selected from the Nasdaq, S&P 500 & 600 Indices,
and HOLDRs. These are normally heavily traded, liquid issues that are exhibiting
relative strength or weakness, patterns (consolidations or Slim Jims) , or
last hour volume surges, indicative of follow through in the very near term.
Institutional Favorites
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Agilent | ( A | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
36.85 | 3,169 | 3,352 |
| JP Morgan | ( JPM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
39.73 | 9,052 | 7,310 |
| Adobe | ( ADBE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
38.92 | 3,692 | 3,234 |
Institutional Laggards.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Oracle | ( ORCL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
13.42 | 42,037 | 41,160 |
| General Motors | ( GM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
48.64 | 5,616 | 5,114 |
Best of luck to everyone. Please use protective stops on all trades.