MyHappyTrading's  Instablog

This morning, Gemany reported strong business sentiment and a Spanish treasury bill auction produced better-than-expected results.  In addition, the US new housing starts jumped in November.  The market popped higher at open and continued higher until the close.  It was a broad-base rally with all major sectors up more than +3%!

Besides major sectors, housing stocks continued to be strong:  SPG +3.26%, TOL +6.44%, KBH +10.1%.  Biotechs gained further momentum:  MDVN +4.41%, ONXX +4.03%, CELG +2.86%.  Even fertilizers bounced:  CF +6.21%, POT +4.17%, MOS +5.38%.

Among the tech stocks, AAPL stood out as one of the leaders.  In the Trading Room, I wrote early in the morning that AAPL should go above $390 soon:

December 20, 2011 6:56 AM
AAPL
should see $390+ soon...

We got into AAPL weekly 390 calls and came away with a +119% winner in just 2 hours!

• 08:54 | Ecstatic Plays AAPL ($393.90) Sold to Close 1223C390 Dec 390 calls, at $5.70 +119%
• 06:42 | Ecstatic Plays AAPL ($388.70) Bought to Open 1223C390 Dec 390 calls, at $2.60

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AAPL went higher in the afternoon and closed at $395.95, up +3.59% for the day.

After the market, ORCL reported disappointing earnings; its shares tumbled 10%.  On the other hand, NKE delivered a strong quarter; its shares were up +3% in after-hours trading.

The Dow was up +337.32 points; SPX gained +35.95 points; Nasdaq jumped +80.59 points:

HGX (housing) popped +5.88%.  OIH (oil services) bounced +4.82%.  XME (metals and mining) added +5.28%.  XLF (financials) advanced +3.79%, but still below $13.  GLD (gold) and SLV (silver) also bounced.  USO (oil) was up +3.74%.

SPX

SPX added +35.95 points to close at 1241.3.  It closed above its daily MAs and the MACD turned up.

Nasdaq

Nasdaq jumped +80.59 points to close at 2603.73.  It also closed above its daily MAs.  Its MACD went higher.

The market was very weak yesterday, almost touching 1200 on the SPX.  But, some good data out of Europe quickly turned things around.  It's been this range-bound market's characteristics for the past couple of weeks.  There has been a lot of talks about a holiday rally for 2 weeks.  Is this finally it?  ORCL's weak earnings this evening could exert some pressure on certain tech stocks (IBM was trading lower this evening; CRM and VMW hardly moved today in a strong market).  We have GDP report coming on Thursday, which could determine whether this rally will continue.

Asian markets have been beaten down so much this month.  We could see Asian markets make some solid bounce tonight.  Let's pay attention to Chinese and China-related stocks tomorrow.

Good night and HappyTrading! ™

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