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BTDStocks.com Friday, December 17, 2010 End-Of-Day Update

Dec. 17, 2010 10:05 PM ETDIA, SPY, QQQ, APOL, SH, NUVA, CSCO, PSQ, UUP, EUO, RWM
Please Note: Blog posts are not selected, edited or screened by Seeking Alpha editors.

Stocks traded in a narrow range today and closed mixed with small changes versus yesterday's session. Trading activity picked up but that was mainly due to options expiration today. The only change to the support/resistance levels based on today is we are slightly raising the resistance level on the Nasdaq Composite (QQQQ) (see below-no changes on DJIA (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY)). What was interesting to us in today's session was with the major indexes making small moves investors took that as a good sign for stocks based on the activity in the Volatility Index (VIX). While the indexes moved only between 0.2% gains and 0.1% losses the VIX fell 7.4% and is within striking distance of levels we saw back in April when the market saw its last major correction. Investor complacency is very high. The prudent approach indicates to remain cautious based on the current stock market direction. If you need to own stocks, please see our watch list.

SUMMARY

DJIA: Down 0.1% to 11,492

S&P 500: Up 0.1% to 1,244

Nasdaq Composite: Up 0.2% to 2,643

BREADTH FOR NYSE

Advancing Issues: 1,706

Declining Issues: 1,357

Advance/Decline Ratio: 1.3 to 1

New Highs: 172

New Lows: 12

High/Low Ratio: 14 to 1

SUPPORT/RESISTANCE LEVELS

DJIA: 11,444/11,503

S&P 500: 1,226/1,245

Nasdaq Composite: 2,580/2,644

SECTOR ANALYSIS

Materials was the best performing sector up 0.8% while Industrials was the worst performing sector down 0.3%.

Other Sectors:

Consumer Discretionary Up 0.2%

Consumer Staples Up 0.2%

Energy Flat

Financials Up 0.6%

Health Care Up 0.2%

Technology Up 0.2%

Utilities Up 0.5%

WATCH LIST SYMBOLS

(APOL)-since 10/28/10

(SH)-since 11/12/10

(NUVA)-since 11/12/10

(CSCO)-since 12/2/10

(PSQ)-since 12/8/10

(UUP)-since 12/8/10

(EUO)-since 12/8/10

(RWM)-since 12/16/10

No positions in securities mentioned.

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