Market Alert - The Close

The official, according to the market, end of summer, start of the fall. And, no fall, at least not for the large cap indices, particularly NASDAQ, at the start of fall. The Big Name NASDAQ stocks finally all woke up, and that boosted NASDAQ 0.5%. Somewhat disappointing, however, as no one else really followed the big names higher.

SP500 6.50, 0.30%
NASDAQ 26.01, 0.50%
DJ30 0.25%
SP400 -0.17%
RUTX 0.12%
SOX -0.23%

The big names pushed NASDAQ to a new all-time high. RUTX enjoyed a new rally high, still closing in on that old high from 2015. SP400 gapped to a higher high but couldn't hold it.

SP500, DJ30 bounced higher in their 5 week lateral ranges, moving higher but hardly a lot of excitement. SOX faded modestly, but is still holding its trend up the 10 day EMA.

The excitement upside at least, was in the big names. FB surged 2.5%. AMZN 2.1%. NFLX 2.8%. GOOG 1.4%. AAPL was calm, closing flat. They were most of NASDAQ.

Outside the NASDAQ big names, it was fairly quiet. Financial stocks traded modestly lower, continuing short tests of last week's moves higher. Some oil and gas was good, e.g. CWEI, APC. Medical instruments/appliances still pretty solid, e.g. BABY surging 3.5%. Chips were overall solid enough (e.g. LEDS) though MRVL shook us out on an early dip. Retail so-so, mostly holding position though stocks such as JWN sold. China stocks continued higher for the most part, e.g. SINA, and SOHU started a decent bounce on solid trade. ROVI posted another good gain, gapping upside on strong volume.

We bought some AMZN, SOHU, GOOG upside, AVGO downside. Didn't take any gain, letting the moves work as a new group decided to jump into leadership.

Afterhours AMD announces share offerings and shares are under a bit of pressure. PLAY results beat, but guidance is again an issue, e.g. MRVL. MRVL, however, posted a nice rebound to close positive. We will see if PLAY, in a nice recovery, is still an upside player similar to MRVL after its very similar results.

The hated rally continues. As reported this morning, Morgan Stanley gave up on the downside and went bullish with a SP500 2300 call (closed at 2186). New highs on NASDAQ, SOX still trending higher. We will see if the small/midcaps/chips/big name NASDAQ pull the rest of the market with them -- through the dreaded September.

The caveat, and I have to bring it up . . . every upside break to a new high has been sold the next session. Thus NASDAQ and its big name big upside breaks need to make their gains stick and thus pull more money into the market with them as the bears are 'converted' to the upside.

Have a great evening!

Jon Johnson, Chief Market Strategist
InvestmentHouse.com
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