What The SOX Can Do To Help The Naz

With today being the last day of the trading
week and the day before a long weekend, not much volume is going on in the
markets. The news released this morning was from the Commerce Department.
The report showed that GDP grew at a 5.6% annual rate in the first quarter,
revised downward from the 5.8% first reported in April. Friday’s adjusted figure
was also below the 6% reading that was the consensus prediction among economists
surveyed by Thomson Global Markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
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dropped immediately at the opening bell and has progressively been on a
downtrend. With many traders not showing up today because of the holiday
weekend, there isn’t significant volume to buoy the market upward.

Goldman Sachs came out this morning and
downgraded the Semiconductor sector, causing a big sell-off on the PHLX
Semiconductor Sector Index
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. Semis like Kla-Tencor
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,
Novellus
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and Applied Materials
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are taking a hit today.
Salomon Brothers came out and defended the group, but the damage had been done.
The SOX has fallen below the key 500 support level. This has pushed the Nasdaq
Composite
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lower today. If the SOX rebounds, that may provide a more hopeful tone for the Nasdaq going into the weekend.

The June S&P futures
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are weaker on
the day. Click here for Lewis Borsellino’s take on the S&Ps.

June gold
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is trading lower in
today’s session, a sign of profit-taking. The past couple of sessions,
profit-taking has hit gold in the morning, then a rally takes place. June Gold affects
the movement of the PHLX Gold & Silver Index
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and some of
the gold mining stocks, such as Anglogold
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AU |
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, Barrick Gold
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, Newmont Mining
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and Placer Dome
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.

Noven Pharmaceuticals
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has hit a
two-month high at 24. NOVN has built a base since last July and is now
beginning to rally towards its resistance point at 25.00. NOVN has a

TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 95
.

Nisource
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NI |
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has hit a two-month high at
24.86. NI tried to take out the 25 resistance point on the daily chart, but
now has pulled back. Nisource has a

TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 83.

Patterson Dental Supply Company
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is
breaking out to all-time highs with very strong volume.

The bias in the markets is negative, with the
down-tick volume outnumbering the up-tick volume, and the NYSE Adv/Dec 1442/1587;
Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1272/1897.