Thursday’s Top Stocks


It rhymes with City and has been heard by traders on more than one occasion, as
they position themselves in Citigroup
(C).
Quite possibly though, those honors
may now belong to Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
. While the Spyder
(
SPY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, Diamond
(
DIA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, and Nasdaq
100
(
QQQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
index proxies all ended the day with ever so slight fractional
gains, it was Citigroup that was flexing some muscle in today’s session, while
Mr. Softy was quickly taking over the former stock’s pseudonym in Wednesday’s
trade. 

Volume was well above average on both major exchanges as the individual
index proxies did manage to notch fresh relative highs before giving back most
of the mornings gains. With advancing issues narrowly beating out decliners, and
52-Week Highs dwarfing the New Lows list, market breadth was still in the bulls’
favor, even though the ETF closing figures were quite modest. After yesterday’s
strong percentage increase, all I can say is, “Can you really blame
them?”

With today’s action, the bull run off the March lows is still in very good
standing, but the bears who have made a habit of hibernating as of late, might
just be raising their paws as the index proxies test significant daily and
weekly resistance levels at current levels. Throw in some market sentiment
figures in the form of VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
readings that are barely off multi-year
lows, and some obscene Investor Intelligence figures, and in my humble opinion,
you have the recipe for a nice bullish pullback. That’s right, bullish, because
it’s these corrective moves within uptrends that we look to “scoop up'”our own
favorite High RS issues, after Mr. Johnny Come Lately gets tired of holding his
heavy, new “weighted”portfolio.

Of course, for the rest us daytraders out there, we’ll continue to
thrive during the daytime hours by leaving the night time to doing our research,
and not worrying about holding a bag full of equities for the
“quacking” ducks
on Wall Street. Sometimes they have a nasty habit of changing their
“suits.” By
focusing on the intraday issues that are best demonstrating relative strength or
weakness, we can participate consistently from both sides without all the hassle
of having to determine ahead of time, who might show up to tomorrow’s party.


Volatility Readings:

Volatility Index Close Net Change Signals/Direction % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average Significance
VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

22

Up .23

None

0% Below

Not At Extreme
VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

29.28

Down .45

CVR 2,6 Sell

2.5% Below

Not At Extreme


Hottest Sectors : Broker / Dealer
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Retail
(
RTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)


Weakest Sectors : Gold & Silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Oil Services
(
OIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)


Thursday’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 Today’s Volume

Avid Technologies


(
AVID |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

33.23

52-Week High, Close Top of Range, strong volume

731k

1,344m
Zoran Industries
(
ZRAN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
19.90 Breakout above handle resistance (C&H
6-Month)
977k 1,216m
Hovnanian
(
HOV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
52.34 52-Week High, close top of range 568k 957k
Sandisk
(
SNDK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
36.22 Pullback / 1,2,3 Close on High RS /
52-Week High
3,804m 8,661m

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 Today’s Volume

j2 Global


(
JCOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

35.01

Failed Daily Cup & Handle (C&H) on volume to close poorly

822k

2,653m

Illinois Tool Works


(
ITW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

62.61

Consolidation at lows, below 50 & 200-Day EMAs

1,189m

833k

Zimmer Holdings


(
ZMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

45.55

Failure at 50-Day EMA resistance, close bottom of range

1,700m

1,346m

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 class=”890430920-15102001″>Closing Basis.




None Today.

Short Reversals Closing
Basis.


None Today.

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 Today’s Volume
Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
41.13 15,067m 20,254m
Goldman Sachs
(
GS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
79.90 4,365m 4,552m
Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
20.17 11,512m 17,434m
Synopsys
(
SNPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
59.90 1,509m 2,970m


Institutional Laggards.

Name Symbol Price Average Volume Today’s Volume
General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
34.70 5,335m 6,627m
3-M Company
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
125.01 2,768m 1,913m
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
24.40 61,381 86,718m

Best of luck to everyone. Please use protective stops on class=”890430920-15102001″>all trades.