Tuesday’s Top Stocks
Things just went from ‘nice and warm’ as stated in the last report–to downright
hot. A plethora of pre-market upgrades in market heavyweights such as Dell, KLA-Tencor, and Applied Materials amongst others, added fuel to the growing
market flames that were already in place. A collective sigh of relief by investors
over the lack of geopolitical news this weekend, combined with the upgrades,
proved to be pretty strong starter fluid as our index proxy friends gapped higher
out the opening gate, and after some lateral intraday consolidation work–closed
near session highs. On the day, the major indices finished up between 1% to
2% on stronger volume (duh). More importantly, today’s price action, which has
all of our ETF friends at fresh highs occurred on heavy, above-average volume.
It looks like the boys and girls of Wall Street are back from the holidays,
and that, my friends, allows us to send out a great big ‘Yahoo!!’
Yahoo! (YHOO) certainly wasn’t alone today, but considering the price action
and the ever-appealing namesake, it probably serves the purpose of summing up
today’s action for the bulls. There were, all said and done–a whole lot of
breakouts, and in general very strong market action. Personally, a pullback
would have been appreciated first–but, as The Stones said, ‘You can’t always
get what you want.’ So knowing what I would like vs. what’s really going on
in the market are thankfully two different things, as this ‘cautious bull’ still
came in prepared with his list of quality issues from which to play the game.
Truth be told, some were just too far gone, or just too darn quick to realistically
do anything about, but there was still plenty of opportunity if you kept to
the basics intraday.
After today’s trump by the bulls, and not so coincidentally, some extended-looking
price action by some of our leading stocks (not everything mind you, but a whole
different story than last week)–I imagine that tomorrow should provide some
better two-way trading action, as you can almost hear the words ‘profit-taking’
rolling off the lips of some of our favorite news anchors. Heck, if I’m wrong
or just plain ol’ too cautious for some–hopefully the one thing that we can
still agree upon is the one thing that got you this far in the first place–namely,
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) |
16.73 | down 1.21 | cvr 2,6 buy | 1% above | not at extreme |
| VXN ( $VXN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
23.90 | down .61 | cvn 1 buy | 0% | not at extreme |
Hottest Sectors : Software
(
SWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Semiconductors
(
SMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Weakest Sectors :Â Biotech
(
BBH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Tuesday’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 |
| Synopsys | ( SNPS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
34.69 | Top of range consolidation on test of daily 4-month Cup and handle |
2,208 | 2,453 |
| Cognizant Technology | ( CTSH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
50.32 | Top of range consolidation on increased, above-average volume pattern b/o |
997 | 2,803 |
| Verity | ( VRTY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
17.20 | Top of range consolidation within 2% of ‘right side of base’ triggers from weekly consolidation pattern |
729 | 534 |
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 |
| Krispy Kreme | ( KKD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
36.16 | Bottom of range consolidation in Low RS issue, approaching test of daily key pattern supports |
831 | 742 |
| Countrywide Financial | ( CFC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
74.45 | Pullback from lows intraday, closing below 50-day ema on increased, above-average volume w/in established weekly range |
1,793 | 2,978 |
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 |
| NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
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 |
| Hewlett Packard | ( HPQ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
23.67 | 11,261 | 9,830 |
| Sina | ( SINA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
40.36 | 8,715 | 14,064 |
| Veritas | ( VRTS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
37.97 | 5,705 | 7,160 |
| Verizon | ( VZ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
36.27 | 7,737 | 14,349 |
Institutional Laggards.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Lowes | ( LOW | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
53.77 | 3,388 | 3,040 |
| Eli Lilly | ( LLY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
70.19 | 3,569 | 5,370 |
| Target | ( TGT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
37.40 | 3,649 | 6,052 |
Best of luck to everyone. Please use protective stops on all trades.