The indices had another solid up-session, although they came way off their highs in the last hour after the FOMC announcement's brief spike-up rally.
The day started out with a gap up. They motored strongly all morning, backed and filled mid-day but held support, and then came on after the FOMC meeting, spiked up to 1398 on the Nasdaq 100 and up to 882 on the S&P 500, right near our overhead resistance levels, and then came down in a sharp 5-wave decline in the last hour, bouncing in the last 5 minutes to take back some of the losses.

Net on the day the Dow was up 168.78 to 8185.73, the S&P 500 up 18.48 at 873.64, and the Nasdaq 100 up 20.46 at 1382.50. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 4.88 to 251.55.

The technicals were the story today and were very positive. Advance-declines were 2563 up and just 485 down on New York, better than 5 to 1, and 2120 up and 624 down, or about 3 1/2 to 1 positive, on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 8 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of just under 1.5 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.4 billion and had about a 4 to 1 positive volume ratio.

So, a very strong day technically for the markets, though they gave back a chunk of it in the last hour.

TheTechTrader.com board was much higher. Leading the way on positive drug news was Dendreon (DNDN), which yesterday had a very sharp late hit, but took it all back and then some, closing at 22.94, up 11.13, although that traded as high as over 28 in the pre-market, and 27.40 near the opening, with 48 million shares traded.

Goldman Sachs (GS) led the financials higher, up 6.51 to 127.18. JP Morgan (JPM) was up 1.69 at 34.48 on 84 million, and Morgan Stanley (MS) up 1.99 at 23.07 on 47 million. Bank of America (BAC) was up 53 cents to 8.68 on 454 million, and Wells Fargo (WFC) advanced 49 cents to 19.97 on 142 million.

Hartford Financial Services (HIG) also gained 1.13 to 10.88 on nearly 23 million.

Other stocks of note, Apple (AAPL) was up 1.24 to 125.14. American Italian Pasta (AIPC) was up 1.48 at 30.56.

The agriculture/chemical sector was strong, with Potash (POT) up 3.47 to 85.59 and Mosaic (MOS) up 1.15 to 40.03.

Solars were positive, with SunPower (SPWR) up 2.44 to 25.05 and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) up 1.20 to 17.16.

In the ETF sector, the iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) gained 1.78, and the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) up 1.41. The Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) jumped 1.62 to 29.63.

On the downside, the ultrashorts got hammered again, with the UltraShort Financial ProShares (SKF) down 5.05 to 56.12. FXP fell 1.95 to 20.04, the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) 1.96 to 23.76, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) down 1.07 to 8.20 on 236 million traded, and the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) down 3.08 to 44.60.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had another very strong session, and after holding support yesterday, they ran them sharply higher to new multi-month rally highs today, but a late hit at the end of the session may be indicating that the rally is getting long in the tooth and due for a drop. But the rally continues to press higher, and until it's broken and key support is taken out, we have to assume there's still the possibility of more upside. Those key support zones are 1355-60 on the NDX and 850-55 on the S&P 500.

Good trading!

Harry

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