Tech, Financial Funds Rally
Techs staged a late-session rally
Thursday on hefty volume, lifting their tradable funds. The Financial SPDR broke
to the upside as well. Friday’s payroll report better not disappoint!
The Federal Reserve has tightened
interest rates six times since June 1999. As of Thursday’s settlement, the fed
funds futures contract priced in a 24% chance that the Federal Open Market
Committee will raise the Federal Funds interest rate by a quarter point on Aug.
22. That’s down from 36% as of Wednesday’s settlement.
The Nasdaq 100 Tracking Stock
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rebounded off its lows to close up 4.5%, completing a bullish engulfing pattern
on strong volume. In a bullish engulfing pattern, a security’s trading range
exceeds the prior day’s range, and the close comes above the prior session’s
intraday high. The Qubes were the most active of the index shares on Thursday.
The Internet Infrastructure HOLDR
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pulled off the day’s biggest gain among the exchange-traded funds. The basket
surged 5.8%, forming a bullish engulfing pattern. Among its components, Exodus
Communications
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PowerRating) added 1 11/16 to 46 7/8, Akamai
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PowerRating) 6 3/8 to
75 and RealNetworks
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PowerRating) 3 19/64 to 41 7/64.
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The B2B Internet HOLDR
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gained 4.8%, forming a bullish engulfing pattern. Its components rallied across
the board. Among the HOLDR’s largest holdings, Internet Capital Group
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rose 1 1/16 to 33 5/16, Ariba
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PowerRating) 8 1/4 to 123 1/16 and Commerce One
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2 25/64 to 46 1/64.
For more on B2B stocks, check out my
take on Thursday’s trading action in Getty Images
(
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the News.
The Semiconductor HOLDR
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dived at the open but managed to rebound off the day’s low and recoup the bulk of
its losses for the session on strong volume. It closed down 0.2%.Â
The sector was hurt by a report from
chip-gear maker Kulicke & Soffa Industries
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PowerRating). The company said delayed order
shipments “may impact financial performance” for the current quarter
and the first quarter of 2001. The stock plunged 5 1/2 to 16 5/8 on 23.7 million
shares. The stock’s average daily volume is 2.1 million shares over the past 50
sessions. Shares rebounded off their session low to close near the top of the
day’s range.
Kulicke & Soffa is not a component
of the Semiconductor HOLDR. Applied Materials
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PowerRating), the largest of the
chip-gear makers and a major holding in the basket of chip stocks, lost 3 9/16
to 69 on three times its usual trade.
The Nasdaq’s ability to forge ahead on
strong volume despite the trouble in semiconductors has raised some eyebrows.
For help interpreting this divergence, be sure to read Kevin Marder’s latest
column.
The Finance SPDR
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XLF |
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PowerRating), which
tracks the financial stocks in the S&P 500, rose 2.6%, breaking out of a
cup-with-handle base.
One has to apply the cup-with-handle
with a grain of salt to exchange-traded funds. These securities rise with their
component securities. So volume, a key in assessing cup-with-handle breakouts,
may not show up in the exchange-traded fund itself.
The Energy
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XLE |
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PowerRating) SPDR sank to a
1.3% loss, the biggest decline among the U.S.-focused tradable funds. The
tradable fund formed the mirror opposite of its tech peers. It rallied in the
early session, then gave way as money moved back into tech stocks. The Energy
Spider formed a bearish engulfing pattern.
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