Nasdaq, Leaders Hit Amid Chip Sell-Off: Argenx, eBay, TTM Tech In Focus | Stock Market Today

Heat. Heat. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to stock market today for Thursday July 2nd. It's Alyssa Cororm here and a lot of the leading AI names especially in the chip sector got hit hard today. Joining me now to take a look at the action in more detail is my colleague Ken Shrieve. Ken, what do you have for us today? Well, just wow. I'm looking at an all-time high for the Dow Jones today. A nice uh 1% gain. Uh seeing a flat performance for the uh S&P 500, but I'm seeing the Philadelphia semiconductor index down 5%. No, 5.4% decline for the Philadelphia semiconductor index today. Ally, uh quite a wild uh day for the stock market. Uh >> but a less than 1% decline for the NASDAQ composite. uh pretty uh pretty impressive but a lot of damage out there. But let's uh take a look at a biotech stock, Argenics, because uh healthcare and biotech performed pretty well today. Also want to revisit eBay because there were buyers in eBay stock again. And then uh we did get a sell signal. Those contract manufacturers, they were under pressure yesterday big time and they were under pressure again today along with uh broadbased selling in the semiconductor stock. So uh TTMI, we'll take a look at TTM technologies. >> Okay, sounds like a plan. We'll do that first. Let's take a closer look at the major indexes and some key ETFs that explain what went down today. Here's the NASDAQ composite. uh hit of about 8/10en of a percent. It did close off lows on the day though below that key 50day moving average we've been keeping an eye on. You mentioned the S&P action flat on the day. A little bit of a roller coaster here intraday. Some buyers coming in at the close. So we like to see that. the Dow. You talked about all the the big moves yesterday underneath the surface that pretty much cancelled out. Well, today we did get a move to the upside here for blue chips. The Dow up 1%. Let's also check out the Russell 2000 down about 9/10en of a percent, but that uptrend still intact here, Ken. Nicely above that 21day line. RSP, so the equal weighted S&P hitting a high here. So, a lot of crosscurrens in the current market. Ken, start with the NASDAQ. A lot of investors out there trading in the IBD growth style paying a lot of attention to this tech heavy index. >> Yeah. Yeah. And uh I mean gosh, you know, where where to begin? I mean, we lifted off lows uh during the final few minutes of of trading uh or maybe during the final half hour of trading. So that was uh yeah, I mean we saw some some buyers come in late, so that's uh that's a good sign. So we can look at the glass as uh half full. You know, why not? Uh we did close underneath the 50-day moving average. We closed uh below, you know, the the we closed below really all of the moving averages here to end the week on a on a downer. It was uh kind of a disappointing way to end the week after we kind of made that that nice move uh earlier in the week above those above the moving averages. Uh and again I mentioned uh the SOX uh the Philadelphia semiconductor index. Uh that was some pretty uh pretty violent uh uh selling. I think SOX will yeah bring it up. Uh yeah, so this is where this is where all the selling was uh in in the market. I saw a headline on CNBC just a few minutes ago. They they said it was uh you know Tesla and Meta that fueled the the selling in the NASDAQ today. They they had bad days as well, but it was really the the the chip stocks that uh >> that drove the selling, but you can see the stocks uh you know closed just above the uh the 50-day moving average. SMH, which we talk a lot about, the U VANC semiconductor index showed a loss pretty much in line with uh didn't fall as much as the the socks, but same type of situation. Closed just above here. Here I was thinking, you know, we may get a break of the 21-day line for the uh for the SMH today, but uh once it broke the the 21-day line, boy, that selling really accelerated and um yeah, saw a lot of damage. Now, did we see a lot of leading semiconductor stocks uh come down to their 50-day lines? No. But we saw quite a few break their their their 21-day lines uh today. So, probably saw some you know, some profit taking at least partial profit taking signals uh for for people that had some uh you know, some some big gains in some of the big leading semiconductor stocks. So anyway, you know, back uh back to the NASDAQ uh you know, we you know, again, disappointing to to see it uh close below the 50-day moving average, but um you know, and and we did have volume uh pick up the pace a little bit from yesterday, but I would have to say this is a positive as well because you know, we are you know, headed into a three-day weekend. The market is going to be closed tomorrow. So, we had light, you know, preh holiday volume today. You can see volume was uh it it is going to be what we're going to call it a mild distribution day because volume picked up the pace from Wednesday. So the fact that it was higher than the prior session, it is going to be a distribution day. But uh we didn't get a big big huge pickup in in in trading volume. So it wasn't a you know kind of a a massive distribution day uh today. But um yeah, I mean it's a a little disconcerting to see the the the leaders come come off uh as hard as they uh as as they did today. But I mean we can take a look at a couple of leaders maybe like a MRVL and an MXL some of the big big chip leaders and see >> and see what they ended up looking like today. So, you know, MR MRVL, I mean, this was uh, you know, did you get an unequivocal sell signal with a decisive break of the 50-day moving average? You did not. But, you know, a stock that had been respecting that uh that 21-day moving average during its uh during its uptrend, you know, uh after after the the the initial uh breakout, you know, it did uh it did break that uh pretty convincingly today. and volume, you know, wasn't huge, but it picked up the pace again from uh from yesterday and it was the heaviest for a down day and you know, uh for you know, at least a few three or four weeks. So in max max linear uh the same the same the same situation >> 15% these are these are big these are big big percentage declines and uh >> you know when you see percentage declines like this this is uh you know typically it's going to it's going to just take take some time for stocks to recover from from drops like this. It's it's you know it it typically when a stock falls 17% in one day it's not you know just a one day recovery back you know it uh it usually usually takes a little a little bit of recovery time. So we'll see how these two stocks recover. Obviously the chip stocks have been the big big leaders uh during this uh during this bull market uh uptrend. So >> um you know everybody was waiting for the pullbacks. many were were really really super super extended from their uh moving averages. Uh so I think uh where people were probably smart to take uh take some at least some partial profits uh today and maybe some people have been taking taking some gains uh playing it safe a little bit uh you know before uh today. um maybe others hadn't that that that's fine too but um you know I I think you you you you got some got some uh you know got got some messages from from the market uh today just with the the sharp percentage declines and um >> you know but I would say you know even though the selling was focused in the NASDAQ today when you look at the S&P 500 and and the breath on the NASDAQ again you know it was less than 2:1 negative the whole day. So even though there was this really harsh selling in a lot of AI stocks and it was AI stocks too. It wasn't just chip stocks there was a lot of selling in the AI infrastructure p uh AI infrastructure space as well >> your fiber optic stocks look at lummentum you know so your fiber optics and AI adjacent stocks were under heavy selling pressure as well >> but your industrials uh healthc care you know still did very well. So that that caused uh the S&P 500 for a good portion of the se uh session. Really the selling in the S&P 500 never never really got intense and >> breath actually ended positive on the S&P 500 today. And even when the S&P 500 was under selling pressure, uh there were still plenty of gainers, uh industrial companies, healthc care, there were plenty of stocks inside the S&P 500 that were positive today. So breth was always pretty pretty good in the on the NYSC, uh you know, for a good portion of of the day. So uh and even on the NASDAQ, it never it never got worse than uh than 2:1 negative. It was less than 2 to1 negative the whole day. So yeah, that that was a positive as well on the on the NASDAQ. >> It was. And then for the S&P here, we are holding the 21day, the green line. >> So we do like seeing that. And we're still holding the 50-day and that 7,400 level. So in a little bit better of a position here. And RSP equal weighted we looked at earlier. That also looks particularly strong here. small caps down on the day, but the uptrend still holding here. Maybe we do get a test of that 21day line. We'll have to see. But, uh, yeah, that's a look at the indexes today. Yeah, I think I think for I think for growth uh investors I I think the main takeaway for today is that you have to be you have to just be a little more concerned after today's price action about what the leaders uh what the leaders are doing because we're always when we're when we're when we're assessing market health. We're always looking at the action the price and volume action in the indexes. We're weighing distribution days. You know, we're looking at at price and volume and what the indexes are doing. But we're always looking at that alongside what are the leaders doing, you know, and and what uh what are the leading stocks doing? Are they holding support? Are they are they are they behaving right? Are they showing strength and support? Are they holding up well? And you know, so you got your memory and storage stocks, your your microns, your SanDisks. Uh you know, again, holding above their 50-day lines, but you know, selling pressure starting to build in these names. Again, giving up their 21-day lines. I know that was a a line in the sand uh you know for you as as a longtime holder of of SanDisk and and for a lot of other people that that have been holding these uh you know memory and and storage stocks. So, um I think again for for growth investors, uh you you need to be a little more concerned about how the leaders are are acting now. And maybe maybe you don't need to be uh raising a whole ton of cash right now, but you should probably be taking a little money off the table right now and uh and uh playing a little bit of defense and taking some profits in your in your uh in your winners and that's probably a good course of action. Yeah. You know, right now >> totally agree, Ken. I mean, we've seen some fantastic moves here, and I definitely trimmed my SanDisk back today. I feel like even before today, let's see if I can go to the daily, go back a day, see if it'll let me put this up on the weekly. We'll see. Yeah, I feel like even headed into today, it looked like this stock needs to base out, >> you know? So I think that uh the run could continue uh after a base and let's see if it holds the 10 week now but to your point I think trimming back especially just given the severity of the decline right and the character change this was a huge drop >> below the 21day line so best case scenario uh we do we get support at that 50day that 10 week gets some sort of bounce uh but a base makes a a lot of sense here. >> Yeah. Yeah. I uh I totally uh totally agree. And uh but you know, it's uh it was pretty pretty incredible to see some of the some of the movers uh you had some very very bullish uh price action again, not only among several S&P 500 components, but again, here's your your XLV uh your healthcare ETFs. Now, the healthcare stocks have been outperforming uh for a while, but they they did they did very well today. Not just biotech stocks, but healthc care stocks. Uh just look at J&J. Johnson and Johnson in the in the Dow Jones uh today. Beautiful breakout for uh Johnson and Johnson. So, this is really just an extension of a prior uh breakout from a couple of weeks ago, but this one, you know, went over the uh 250 or 260 uh level today. You had Amgen and Amgen and Merc both uh in the Dow uh showing great uh great relative strength. So these are just examples of uh you know uh money uh flowing into uh flowing into the healthc care stocks and uh in in the Dow Jones today. So and look at the move that Apple Apple was actually I think the best percentage gainer in the in the Dow Jones today. Look at that percentage gain from uh from Apple today. Just >> moving uh >> strongly above the uh the 300 level today. So, lots of u yeah lots of uh lots of large cap uh you know industrial u and Apple. I'm not sure what moved Apple today because Meta and Tesla were both were both down sharply today. But um yeah, lots of lots of lots of movers and again lots of big movers in the S&P 500 as well. >> Interesting. I wonder if Apple in some respects is perceived as a flight to safety that's still in tech. >> Yeah, absolutely. I think that's very possible. looking at it through that lens, we'll see. >> Kind of a steady kind of a steady earnings uh grower, too, because if you look at Apple's results, you know, they don't have uh you know, too many too many earnings hiccups, you know, a very steady steady earnings grower. >> Yep. And there's a look at the weekly chart there. Okay. Uh we also just very quickly want to take a look at KRE. This is the regional banking ETF. Ken, thoughts on this? I'd had a pretty good week. Well, I wanted to look at KRE alongside XLF because XLF finally got got moving today. XLF had a very nice move. Uh, you know, broke out finally broke out yesterday, topped topped a buy point and it extended gains uh today was up another, you know, one and a half% or so. And then you look at the the regional banking ETF, KRE, which we have on leaderboard and it's been a nice winner for us. that had a nice move yesterday, but it actually reversed lower today. So, those two ETFs were kind of moved in opposite uh directions uh today. Again, not sure why there. I know XLF has got your your big money centers as top top holdings like you know JP Morgan and and Goldman uh Goldman Sachs and in uh in XLF. So, maybe the some of the regional banks might have been uh you know under some pressure today, but they have been performing you know performing quite well. >> All right. Right. And then you mentioned the impact on growth investors. Here's a look at the FFTY cap force IBD50 ETF down about 4% on the day coming down to the 50-day line. So, uh, for a lot of traders who trade in the IBD style, uh, maybe this is what your your portfolio felt like a little bit today perhaps. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, again, yeah, growth stocks were definitely uh, under under some uh, some pressure today. So, it did uh it did stop right at the right at the 50-day moving average. You see, last time the FFTY tested its 50-day line, hit went all the way down to 37 and and found support. So, it it did uh close off lows a little bit uh today with the uh with the NASDAQ. Still took a hit down about uh 4% in volume, picked up the pace, but it did did stop right at the 50-day moving average. This one's shown a lot of relative strength uh uh lately since uh it did get that uh uh uh name change. It does I do I I do like the name change. It does convey a lot of strength that cap force IBD50. Uh so you know uh we'll see. It's been uh performing well lately. We'll see if support uh see if support holds here. But this is uh you know heavily weighted in a lot of uh chip stocks. It does have some healthcare and biotech in there too. So we'll see if support holds here at the 50 >> day. Okay, let's take a look at ARGX Ken in focus today with this breakout up 3.3% profitable biotech. So definitely one that we want to take a closer look at. >> Yeah, you've probably seen their national ad campaign. Uh see Monica Celis, a former tennis professional. Um she's been or she's a spokesman for Argenics, a spokesperson I should say for Argenics. Uh their flagship drug uh treats myastenia gravis which is a kind of a neuromuscular uh uh muscular neuromuscular disorder. Um and she suffers from it but that's their flagship drug treats myia gravis and uh very profitable company here. Here you can see big annual earnings estimates and great uh topline growth as well. uh relative strength rating of 78 uh because you know it's kind of forming this big long sideways base here but uh you know it's got a good uh good composite rating a great DPS growth rate very profitable company here so we have this in our our newly aligned industry groups this is in the profitable biotech uh group because they uh generate a lot of uh profits and uh look at the topline growth in in recent uh quarters here they've uh really been generating a lot of a lot of revenue new. Um, and I like the uh like the breakout here. The relative strength line along with the relative strength rating is still a little bit off highs, but uh this one could get uh could be ready to get going here. Highriced stock, but um like the look of the uh the breakout here. So, this is uh another biotech uh performing well and uh topped topped a buy point uh today and is still in the 5% buy zone. And we've been familiar with this company for a long time because it's been profitable for a long time. It's been kind of in and out of our uh growth screens and because it's uh you know showing renewed relative strength and the relative strength rating is improved. Uh you know it's starting to appear back in our screens again. I think that yeah the composite rating is 80 87 I believe. So yeah it's looking uh looking pretty good here. Argenics argu and uh I just want to quickly point out that I like how the weekly chart really smooths things out. You know, it's it's always important to take a look at that weekly chart because you do have a little bit more volatility on the daily. You can see that outside day downside reversal. Wonder if that was news related, Ken. But the stock did bounce back pretty quickly here. So is now above the high of that day. So, that's good to see. >> Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure what what that was a pretty volatile uh a pretty volatile down day there. And that could have been I don't I'm not sure what what news that was. Uh but it did uh it did recover and uh it did it did break out today. But, uh we probably check and see what caused that downside reversal, but uh good breakout uh today. And uh I see the accumulation distribution rating is still at A. So, um, you know, whatever fueled that downside reversal, the stock has been able to to overcome it here. >> It sure has. Okay, let's go over to eBay. Look at this base formation and starting to get a little momentum here. Ken, on the right side, shares at 3.2%. What do you think? I feel like we've been talking about eBay more and more lately. >> Yeah, I brought it up. Yeah, I brought it up a couple of weeks ago and uh you know, I first talked about it because Ryan Cohen, remember he initially approached uh eBay, he's the CEO of GameStop and he approached eBay and wanted to buy them for close to to 60 billion and eBay, you know, kind of dissed him and said the offer wasn't credible nor serious. And but then he he turned around and he he told his board that he said, "You know that that huge pay package you uh you offered me 35 billion. It was performanceladen and incentive laden." And he he gave it back to the GameStop board and said, "I don't want it. I want to focus on uh pursuing this eBay deal." So apparently he's still intent on inquir on acquiring eBay and we'll see what uh we'll see what comes of it. Um, apparently he thinks there's a lot of a lot of synergies. Uh, so he's not he's not done yet. We'll see. We'll see what happens. But, um, anyway, I brought eBay to stock market uh, today a few weeks ago when it was um, kind of coming down and testing the the 50-day moving average. Now, it is starting to kind of round out the right side of a of a base here. And, uh, I still think it looks interesting. And this is kind of a another maybe a safety net in this market because eBay is another you look at that earnings stability uh rank of four. Yeah. Right there in that uh top left the earning stability rank of four and then that's on a scale of 1 to 99 with one being the best. So uh stocks with low uh low ranks are good here. So, eBay has a a great long-term record of uh stable earnings and we like to see that and uh yeah, I think this is a a good one to follow, especially as it works its way higher back towards that 120 level and uh just a stable track record of of earnings. Uh they have a huge uh collectibles uh business. Obviously, they still have their their online listings and but uh you know very very strong collectibles business and uh business is booming there and um you know we'll we'll we'll see something could come of uh this this GameStop story but like the base that's setting up here and uh we'll see if it we'll see if it can get going. >> Sounds like a plan. Let's round things out with a look at TTMI. This is TTM technology. So a great example of a sell rule that was triggered today. The stock down 13% slicing below that 50-day line for the first time since uh you know that late March early April time frame. It had gone on a really great run, Ken, over the last couple of months. But this this sell signal pretty clear here today. >> Yeah, this is the uh this is the exception in in the market. It's certainly not the the rule. I mean, we we've seen isolated instances of of uh you know, leaders going through their 50 days. Uh it just hasn't been happening much, but TTM is I consider TTM a big leader in the contract manufacturing group. The fundamentals here are outstanding. They're they're really known in this group for their next generation circuit boards that they they supply a lot to the defense aerospace and defense uh stocks. But uh yeah, decisive break of the 50-day moving average. Now, I will say volume did not really expand heavily to the downside. Now, we we did not get a rush of institutional selling uh as the stock broke through the 50-day line. You can see volume was pretty much average. So, uh, even with the NASDAQ, again, this preh holiday trading here, so we didn't see a whole lot of volume to the downside and on the NASDAQ today, uh, in this mild distribution day and even in a lot of stocks that were falling in, you know, big percentage declines today, just not a lot of heavy volume. So, that that's good as well. Uh, but TTM, you know, there were a few stocks uh, in the group today. Sanmina as well, SNM, I believe, was having some uh problems around the the 50-day moving average, but this was um you know, this was a a bad a bad break today. And uh you know, if you start seeing more of this, this is normally going to be problematic for the for the broad market as well when the leaders start to to roll over. But again, we're just not seeing a whole lot of this uh right now. I think it is problematic when leaders start to to break their their 21-day lines. we're seeing more of that because that ultimately brings tests of the 50-day line into uh into play. But um you know the good news is that we're not seeing you know multiple breaks of the 50-day lines at this point in a a pre-H holiday week. So volume was light. So I think the market is still, you know, we're not we're not doomed yet. Uh we're we're we're seeing some plenty of plenty of yellow flags out there and and the action in the leaders is starting to become more of a concern, but uh we're just in a volatile we're just in volatile times right now. So we have to still be open to different different scenarios, but we have to recognize signs of weakness when we when we when we see them and just uh kind of listen to the market's message uh every day. And you know, today wasn't a great day, but we try to glean positives uh where we where we can. But um you know, in the uh in the contract manufacturing group, this is the one group that uh really looks to be uh in in trouble. I will say Flex, we got to tip our hat to Flex Fle that one is barely barely holding. I thought that one was still holding a little a little a little holder holding a little above support, but that one uh yeah, that one is >> on the ropes still. But >> yeah, >> so this is the this is the group. This is uh this is uh this is a leading group too. So this is the the one group in the market that is under the most uh the most pressure for sure. >> Very good analysis there, Ken. And I would say for flex that even though you are still above that 50-day, you are now uh below that prior marked low. So that's another thing that we that we like taking a look at. And you can see this just the relative strength taking a dive as well here. So >> yeah, >> not uh not good. But hey, for active traders, there's there's a reason why we look at these marked lows, we look at the moving averages, and you know, we ma we actively manage positions, right? So, >> yeah, good stuff. >> It's a it's a smart thing to do in uh in volatile markets and we are in we are in volatile markets. That's uh that's all there is to it. >> Yeah, we sure are. But >> you and the leaderboard team have done a great job of staying ahead of the rotation with all that medical exposure. So, >> appreciate it. >> Hot area. >> Yeah, >> we like it. Good stuff. All right. Thank you, Ken. Hope you have a great holiday weekend. Happy 4th. >> Yeah. Happy 4th to you and everyone else. Thanks. >> All right. That is it from us for today and for this week. since tomorrow. Uh the stock market is observing the July 4th holiday. So are we uh no market action. So no IBD live or stock market today video, but we will see you on Monday morning on IBD liveinvestors.comdive for all the details on our daily morning live stream starting 10 minutes before the opening bell. And then we'll also see you back here tomorrow, Monday after the close. will mention though I will be out next week. So the team of course has you covered and I will see you the following week everyone. Happy 4th of July.