On Friday, the Nasdaq hit an intra-day low of 1542. Today it was as low as 1565. The Dow and S&P 500 also came close (but not quite as close as the Nasdaq did).
There was strength today in Airlines, Alloy Steel, Oil & Gas Integrated and Exploration, Machinery Automation, Retail and Metal Product Distributors.
There were some very wide and loose chart patterns recently. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Balchem (BCPC), AGL Resources (ATG), NCI Inc. (NCIT), Stryker (SYK), and St. Jude Medical (STJ) to name a few. This type of trading is so out of the norm for them that you can't help but wonder if it was panic selling. Some of these are companies that have produced steady earnings growth for years and it's rare to see some of them trade so erratic.
Emergent Biosolutions (EBS) hit a new all-time high today. The company developers imunobiotic vaccines against biological agents that are potentially used as bioterror weapons. This might be one to research further since stocks that breakout to new highes when markets start new rallies have a good chance of becoming the new market leaders going forward.
Have a nice evening!
Arthur Daret