Focus Letter

Market Range Holds as Week Progresses

Good morning! The market had a mixed day on Thursday as the indices continued to correct from the strong decline that took place on Tuesday afternoon. Decliners outpaced advancers by 16 to 15 on the New York Stock Exchange, but on the Nasdaq the advancers held a 15 to 14 lead. Overall, however, the market closed lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw the greatest selling intraday after coming off the larger daily resistance, losing 47.17 points to end the day at 11,270. The S&P 500 close 3.37 points to close the day at 1,301.67, while the Nasdaq dropped 3.20 points to 2,300.15.

Pharmaceuticals and brokers saw some of the strongest declines through the session. Home builders, on the other hand, rallied on strong existing homes sales data. Existing home sales rose 5.2%, beating expectations. Oil services also had a strong session, assisted by rising crude prices. The May crude-oil futures gained $2.14/barrel, marking a 3.5% increase. In other data, initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in a month to 302,000, down 11,000.

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After Wednesday's gradual uptrend, the market gapped slightly lower Thursday morning. Five and fifteen minute 20 sma support helped stall the selling for the first 30 minutes of the day. The gradual upside pace off the support level and the lack of interest in a strong upside correction, shown through light volume along the support, soon gave way to continued selling. While it stalled again at the 10:15 ET reversal period, the Nasdaq managed to make it all the way back to the prior day's lows before it found a good enough reason to really rest.

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Strong volume on the five minute charts and a nice exhaustion bar into 10:30 in all three indices slowed the selling to such an extent as to allow for a larger correction out of the 11:00 ET reversal period. The change of pace in the selling into 11:00 took the market into the 5 minute 20 sma resistance, where it based for about an hour before breaking higher to put in a 5 minute upside equal move as compared to the 11:00 rally.

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An attempt to continue the late morning and early afternoon at 14:00 rally failed as all three indices fell into congestion along the 15 minute 20 sma. The extreme downside on Tuesday helped create this longer trading range on the 30 minute charts and the more gradual upside pace on that time frame off the lows also made it more difficult for the market to break through the numerous resistance levels that have converged at this locale. The increasing upside pace, however, on the smaller 5 minute time frames, and slower decline on Thursday afternoon on the larger time frames, is creating the potential for a stronger upside move on Friday.

UPCOMING MENTORING OPPORTUNITIES:

To further you own knowledge of market activity and technical analysis, you may be interested in participating in one of my upcoming online seminars. Held April 24th-28th, I will be utilizing the Hotcomm platform which will allow participants the same opportunities as they would attending a class on-site. For more information, click on the journal image at the right hand side of my site at http://www.tonihansen.com or email me directly at toni@tradingfrommainstreet.com. To register CLICK HERE.

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