What Traders Are Waiting For?

After a worse-than-expected
consumer confidence
number (the worst in nine years), the indices are trading at the lows of the
session. There was a modest rally attempt from 11:00 ET to 12:30 ET, which gave
way to selling. There are no economic numbers tomorrow, so it is possible the
market will drift sideways, waiting for employment data on Friday. Volume is
settling into about an average day of maybe 1.5 mln shares on the NYSE.

The Nasdaq is now negative. There have been limited losses on the Nasdaq Composite
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, as it gives way to further downticks following the consumer
confidence numbers. The Nasdaq broke through its initial support at 1295 and is
now resting at its secondary short term support
at around 1280.

The S&P 500 Index
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was
attempting to rally from its -1.5 Vol Band (871) which is also the 50%
retracement level drawn from the August high to October low on the daily chart.

There are very few positive sectors in the
choppiness today. Gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is the only positive sector with
Semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, Telecom, Airline
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, and
Networking
t
he weakest sectors on
the day.

Watson Pharmaceuticals
(
WPI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

is breaking out of a head-and-shoulders pattern with
increasing volume to hit a six-month high. WPI has a

TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 89
.

Teva Pharmaceutical
(
TEVA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

is breaking out to hit a 52-week-high with very strong volume.

Nasdaq Market Breadth

Adv: 981 UpVol: 960999

Dec: 1947 DnVol: 7313684

Net: -966 Net: -6352685

NYSE Market Breadth

Adv: 936 UpVol: 13548160

Dec: 2215 DnVol: 66936561

Net: -1279 Net: -53388401