Abet Chichi2

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Boxer: Diary: Mixed to Positive, acJan20
Tuesday, January 20, 2004

By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader
http://www.thetechtrader.com

The market was definitely mixed but to the positive side on Tuesday. The day started out with a move up to a new 52-week high on the Nasdaq 100 near 1560, and a surge to new highs on the S&P 500 as well up around 1143.

But the indices saw a sell-off in the morning, which was fairly hard right into the lunch hour. At that point they held support and reversed and rallied into the last hour before some profit-taking on a late pullback caused the market to come off its afternoon high.

On the day, the Dow was down 72, the S&P 500 down 1, and the Nasdaq 100 was even down less than a point, despite the fact that the Composite was up 7 ½. The SOX was down 2 and most indices I follow were actually down today.

But the curious part was the technicals were strong to the upside, a statistical quirk today. There were about 1.7 billion shares traded on New York, with about 1.1 billion of it to the upside. On Nasdaq, there was extremely heavy volume of more than 2.5 billion, with about 1 2/3 billion to the upside and 876 million to the downside, nearly a 2 to 1 ratio there.

So the technicals were much stronger than the indices today, and give rise to hope that the market may yet probe higher levels before this is all done.

Stepping back and reviewing my personal board, there was a very mixed picture. OmniVision (OVTI) on a 2-for-1 split today was up another 2 points. But most other large-cap stocks I follow were down, with EBay (EBAY) off 1.23, Qualcomm (QCOM) down about 80 cents, Broadcom (BRCM) 66 cents, and Amgen (AMGN) 55 cents.

Low-priced stocks were extremely narrowly mixed today. Only Alvarion (ALVR), which reached a new 52-week high gaining more than a point to over 15, was changed more than a point up or down.

Some others of note on my personal board, low-priced Insignia Solutions (INSG) soared ahead to another new high, up half a point to 3.20. One of our Top 10 Charts for 2004, Qiao Xing Universal Telephone (XING), was up another 62 cents, testing its 52-week high as well. And Navarre (NAVR), also one of our top picks, was up 38 cents.

Some of our top biotech picks did well today, including Dendreon (DNDN) up 31 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the patterns, so far the market after breaking out last week has held key short-term support now down around the 1537-40 zone on Nasdaq 100 and around the 1134-35 zone on the S&P 500.

We’ll see if we can extend this and will be carefully watching support over the next couple days.

Good trading!

Harry

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