Abet Chichi2

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Boxer: Ugly Day Technically, acNov10
By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader http://www.thetechtrader.com

Today was a definite down day & it was lower all session. The market opened mixed to lower, bounced around for a few minutes and then headed south. At about the lunch hour the market stabilized and went sideways in a back and forth motion in a narrow range for three hours. In the last 90 minutes or so it rolled over and made new lows for the session. Only a late bounce prevented the indices from closing at the lows for the session.

On the surface it didn’t appear that bad, particularly in the Dow and S&P 500, with the Dow down 53 and the S&P down 6. But the Nasdaq had a worse day today, led by the SOX, which lost nearly 16 or more than 3%. The NDX was down 22 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 29.

It was an ugly day technically with advance/declines at 22 to 11 negative on the NYSE and nearly 22 to 10 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2.5 to 1 negative on NYSE with a total volume of 1.2 billion. On Nasdaq we traded about 1.7 billion with nearly 3 to 1 negative.

The negative day today was led by large cap techs and for the most part my personal board has losers on it. Loss leaders were China Yuchai,(CYD), which has been running strong lately, finally getting some profit-taking, down 4 on rumors of a loss of business from a major customer; QLogic (QLGC) was down 1.74; Qualcomm (QCOM) 1.33; eBay (EBAY) 1.41 and Semiconductor Holders Trust (SMH) down 1.04 were the leading point losers on my high-tech board.

On the plus side there were some impressive lower-priced stocks today: deCODE genetics (DCGN) up .56; Curis (CRIS) .70; Alvarion (ALVR) .38 & Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN) up .75 were the leaders on my board. Another stock of note, 8x8 Inc. (EGHT) had a large percentage gain, picking up .80 on heavy volume.

Stepping back and looking at the overall chart patterns, today’s action severely tested a key short-term support at about the 1415 area, closing right there on the Nasdaq 100. Last week’s key lows of 1045 on the S&P 500 were tested before a late bounce. But any lower movement below current levels would break the current pattern to the downside. So it will be interesting to see tomorrow if the market has any life left in it, or if it breaks from here. And if it does, it could be a sharp sell-off tomorrow as well.

Good trading!

Harry