TODAY'S OPEN

Healthy Start to a Shortened Trading Week:
PICTURED BELOW: The Nasdaq Composite rose to a new high close for the year with gains today backed by higher volume. The volume increase behind the gains offers investors a hint that institutional money managers have a healthy appetite for buying stocks, creating a favorable market environment where investors have better odds.

Yesterday, the major market averages were helped to a positive close by modest gains from the influential Retail ($RLX +0.98%), Broker/Dealer ($XBD +0.81%), and Bank ($BKX +0.45%) indexes. The Nasdaq Composite was pushed to a new high close for the year as the tech sector traded with a positive bias with the Software Index ($GSO +1.11%) outpacing the Networking ($NWX +0.87%), Internet ($DOT +0.61%), and Semiconductor ($SOX +0.27%) indexes. There were modest gains for the Healthcare ($HMO +0.29%) group and the Biotechnology Index ($BTK +0.04%) ended flat. Meanwhile, commodity linked areas backed down as the Gold & Silver Index ($XAU -1.77%) led the Oil Services ($OSX -0.98%) and Integrated Oil ($XOI -0.77%) indexes to the downside.

Also, the April gold futures closed below a key support area today which may be the start of a near-term correction in the market. After the market market made a new recent high of 677.8 in the overnight session and failing to rally through, the market sold off and closed below the 666.5 support from the uptrending channel going back to the beginning of the year. Technically, the market is ripe for a downside correction even though the long term trend is still pointing up.

David Fry's Daily Market Outlook from SA

Take Your Time and Pick Your Spots from Gary Kaltbaum

Dr. Brett's Market Synthesis: ES Pivot Points for Wednesday:
Pivot Level: 1459.25; R1: 1466.25; R2: 1471.00; S1: 1454.50; S2: 1447.50

7 Stocks You Need to Know for Wednesday TradingMarkets.com Wednesday's list includes: Chemed (CHE), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Euronet (EEFT).

Stocks in focus for Wednesday from Marketwatch: Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trading in Wednesday's session are Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Analog Devices Inc., TJX Cos., and Whole Foods Market Inc.

Upgrades / Downgrades / Initiations from MarketWatch

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