Will Bull Also Get Round Two?
Greg Che is on vacation this week and will return
on Monday, July 16. In his absence this column will be written by TradersWire’s
Duke Heberlein.
Bulls ruled Thursday’s trading session, running U.S stocks higher and
squeezing shorts holding over from Wednesday’s market. Projections announced
after the close Wednesday by Microsoft
(
MSFT |
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PowerRating) of a blowout Q4 still
to come ignited rallies across the indices.
When the dust had settled, the Dow ended trading up a whopping 237.97 at
10478.99. The Nasdaq, not one to disappoint the partygoers, added 103.63 to
2075.67, and the S&P 500 added a gain of 27.95 to finish at 1208.13.
Mr. Softee led a rally across the tech sector, closing the day up 5.10 at
71.60. Buying spilled over into the semis, who boasted several big net gainers
throughout the sector. Analog Devices
(
ADI |
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PowerRating) added 5.04 to head into
Friday at 44.24, and Alpha Industries
(
AHAA |
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PowerRating) blasted out of a
momentum gap to hit the finish line at 32.97 — a gain of 6.27. Microsemi
(
MSCC |
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PowerRating)
rose 7.10 to 66.10, and Qualcomm
(
QCOM |
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PowerRating) rose 6.91 to 63.36.
Biotechs were the weak spot in the market, as IDEC Pharmaceuticals
(
IDPH |
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PowerRating)
gapped to the downside on the open and took the remainder of the sector with
it. IDPH lost 9.32 to end the day at 52.16. Protein Design Labs
(
PDLI |
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PowerRating) continued
to be distributed, shedding 1.20 to 61.57. Human Genome Sciences
(
HGSI |
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PowerRating) slipped
2.80 to 45.18, and Genentech
(
DNA |
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PowerRating) dropped 2.55 to 40.20.
The oil service sector
(
OSX.X |
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PowerRating) continues to be a laggard,
slipping 4.60 to close at 88.83. Schlumberger
(
SLB |
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PowerRating) lost
1.51 to 49.74 and Halliburton
(
HAL |
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PowerRating) limped into the close, sliding
1.45 to 31.77.
Taro Pharmaceuticals
(
TARO |
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PowerRating) appeared to slip off the lofty perch
it had built over the last nine weeks as it rose from $50 to $90. TARO dropped
4.90 to 78.36, finishing in an outside-day down on the daily chart.
SmartForce
(
SMTF |
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PowerRating) staged an expansion breakout and recaptured the
50-day moving average, gaining 7.28 to 37.00 at the end of the session.
Finally, eBay
(
EBAY |
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PowerRating) appears to have righted its ship, blowing
out of momentum gap and taking out both the 50-day and 20-day moving average
Thursday. EBAY closed the door up 6.72 at 66.90.