Thursday’s Top Stocks
It looked like the fireworks went off a bit early in the equity markets in Wednesday’s trade. With the holiday right around the corner, and tomorrow being a half session, the mood on Wall Street proved to be geared towards early festivities as the ETFs all finished higher on the day, up between 1.25 – 2%. Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded by everyone’s friend, Merrill Lynch…well probably not everyone. The investors whose suit was dropped against the company in yesterday’s session might tend to disagree. Doesn’t anyone besides Martha Stewart use stops? Volume and breadth confirmed today’s rally with solid figures, as the NASDAQ finished with above average trade, while the NYSE was basically on par with yesterday’s numbers. Meanwhile, the real strength in today’s move higher was the nearly 3:1 lead that advancing issues ‘flexed’ over decliners. With ‘Ahnuuld’ on the big screen nationwide today, it’s almost ironic that his immortal words, ‘I’ll be back’, felt wholly appropriate for summing up today’s thrust higher in the market’s ongoing ‘confirmed rally.’
The rally continued in today’s trade, with a whole lot of good breakouts happening on strong volume. Go figure, two weeks of consolidation and pullback work, and yesterday’s ‘notorious’ breakdown below price supports, and the net result has been a very handsome rally. Where does it go from here? Price and volume say higher, while some technicians are saying lower due to some interplanetary galatic thingamajiggy. All I can say is I’m glad to take it one day and one trade at a time, with the only thing that consistently makes any sense to me, namely daytrading stocks.
Today, ‘the present’, was truly a gift indeed. Maybe it was the pre-holiday fervor, or maybe some of it has to do with what we do best, each and every day. By daytrading those High and Low RS issues that trade out of classic patterns during the trading day, we’ll be able to jump on board those vessels leaving the port first, and be equally prepared when the time is right, to be called safely back to shore, after a very nice trip on our ‘Big Green Boat.’
Volatility Readings:
| Volatility Index | Close | Net Change | Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average | Significance |
| VIX ( $VIX.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
21.14 | down .15 | none | 4% below | Not At Extreme |
| VXN ( $VXN.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
31.05 | up .83 | none | 5% below | Not At Extreme |
Hottest Sectors : Software
(
SWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Disk
Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Weakest Sectors : Oil Services
(
OIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Gold
& Silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Thursday’s HELVETICA>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 Technology | ( AVID | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
39.56 | Breakout of ascending triangle daily, to close on volume at fresh 52-week highs |
702k | 1,584m |
| Hutchinson Technology |
( HTCH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
35.10 | Breakout of ascending triangle on above average volume, closing top part of range |
602k | 723k |
| Digital River | ( DRIV | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
21.93 | High volume weekly handle b/o, closing at fresh 52-week highs in upper part of range |
1,253m | 3,284m |
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 |
| Cerner | ( CERN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
20.10 | Low RS issue closing bottom of range on above average volume |
728k | 3,170m |
| Whole Foods Market | ( WFMI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
46.92 | Intraday bottom of range consolidation near daily price pivots on above average volume |
1,323m | 2,192m |
class=890430920-15102001>
class=890430920-15102001>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.
class=890430920-15102001>Long Reversals class=890430920-15102001>Closing Basis.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
class=890430920-15102001>
Short
Reversals
Closing Basis.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
class=890430920-15102001>
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 |
| Mercury Interactive | ( MERQ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
41.73 | 3,655m | 3,521m |
| Network Appliances | ( NTAP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
17.85 | 7,040m | 11,178m |
| Qualcomm | ( QCOM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
37.64 | 14,429m | 11,487m |
Institutional
Laggards.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
| Walgreens | ( WAG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
30.10 | 3,866m | 7,126m |
| Lehman | ( LEH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
67 | 2,828m | 3,277m |
| Biomet | ( BMET | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
28.36 | 2,241m | 2,645m |
Best of luck to everyone. Please use
protective stops on class=890430920-15102001> all trades.
Chris Tyler