Wednesday’s Top Stocks
Â
While Imclone Systems’ (IMCLE)
Sam Waksal received his sentence to a little over seven years behind bars,
the ETFs sentenced today’s market participants to almost seven hours of ‘inside
bar’ action. Trade on Tuesday was marked by a decrease in volatility as the Spyders
(
SPY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
NASDAQ100
(
QQQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and the Diamonds
(
DIA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) all
took a breather from the percentage moves up and down, typical of recent trade.
The index proxies all finished the day in contracting fashion, but a late day
rally had the market proxies finishing up between .60 and 1.5%, andÂ
reversing early indecision, to close near the highs of the Tuesday’s trade.
Lackluster volume still dominated trade, but market breadth was able to pull out
a reversal alongside our price gains in the ETFs, as advancing issues closed out
solidly over decliners by nearly a 2:1 margin, after showing signs of further
distribution during the morning session.
The tightening of range, can be likened to the
calm before the storm. Will it be clear sailing ahead, or is our fleet of ‘Big
Green Boats’ in for more punishment? With the decrease in volume in the ETFs,
coupled with some nice percentage pullbacks in many of our recent equity leaders
it’s looking more like a resumption of trend to the upside will prevail in the
days to come. Some of the late participants to our ‘confirmed rally’ have most
likely puked their guts out over the sides of our sturdy market vessels, and
that as we all know is a good sign for things to come. We might still have some
other unwanted guests on board, so no need to say full steam ahead just yet, but
until our vessel turns that corner we’ll always have our daytrading.
Keep focused on the High and Low RS issues that
are setting up in predictable patterns. The only way to catch the consistent
waves in the market is to be constantly paddling, and ready to hop on board
quickly as the wave is forming. It doesn’t matter for us if the tide is coming
in, or going out, our big concern is being able to stay ready in the water. Let
the others play in the surf, while we wait for the right conditions that give us
the opportunity to surf those real waves that always seem to pop up out of
nowhere, every day in the marketplace.
Volatility Readings:
| Volatility Index | Close | Net Change | Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average | Significance |
| VIX ( $VIX.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
22.13 |
Down 1.56 | CVR 2 Buy | 0% above | Not At Extreme |
| VXN ( $VXN.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
34 | Down 3.43 | CVR 2,6 Buy | 3% Above | Not At Extreme |
Hottest Sectors :Â Software
(
SWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Broker / Dealers
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Weakest Sectors : Gold & Silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Wednesday’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 |
| TALX Corp. | ( TALX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
20.73 | heavy volume follow thru day on 52-week high, to close top of range |
146k | 421k |
| CheckFree | ( CKFR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
26.94 | Outside reversal bar on daily, with above average volume to close near top of range |
1,705m | 1,574m |
| Mid Atlantic
Medical |
( MME | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
51.29 | Consolidation top of range close, w/ fresh 52-week highs on volume |
537k | 832k |
| Macromedia | ( MACR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
21.91 | Outside day with volume, closing near prior 52-week highs |
1,504m | 1,481m |
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 |
| InterMune | ( ITMN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
23.52 | Consolidating at bottom of range intraday, closing between the 200 and 50-Day EMAs on daily |
742k | 822k |
| Affiliated Computer | ( ACS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
45.67 | Consolidation near lows, below 50 and 200-Day EMA, with volume trending higher today |
2,274m | 1,907m |
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 |
| Entegris | ( ENTG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
13.33 | Hammer reversal on daily with confirming volume after test of technical supports |
453k | 1,134m |
| Microsoft | ( MSFT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
24.68 | 1,2,3 Reversal setup on daily chart, closed well on above average volume |
63,800m | 79,222m |
class=890430920-15102001>
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 |
| Merrill Lynch | ( MER | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
46 | 6,027m | 4,352m |
| Mercury Interactive | ( MERQ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
42.62 | 4,535m | 2,809m |
| Lennar | ( LEN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
69.75 | 1,468m | 2,259m |
| Micron | ( MU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
13.15 | 9,543m | 16,356m |
Institutional
Laggards.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
| Nextel | ( NXTL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
14.08 | 22,467m | 15,684m |
| IBM | ( IBM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
81.70 | 8,460m | 8,669m |
Best of luck to everyone. Please use
protective stops on class=890430920-15102001> all trades.