3 Nasdaq Stocks for Short-Term Traders
While Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) were making their presences known at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) continues to impress, many market pundits and observers spent the first half of the week all but heralding the death of Android.
Fittingly, shares of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) were in pullback mode, selling off for three days in a row, and trading within a dollar or two of making it four in a row on Tuesday. The stock has since been trading sideways after the initial pullback dropped GOOG into technically oversold territory for the first time since late November.
And while Google may have more room to trade lower (the stock’s big dollar value alone a tempting target for investors looking to trim), the fact that the stock has already retreated to 10-day closing lows (Monday) means that a growing number of traders will be looking for opportunities to buy discounted shares.
What is interesting about Google is how it may anticipate a similar correction in Apple. Like Google, shares of Apple have also recently rallied to significant, new highs. And, predictably, traders in Apple have begun to do what traders and investors in Google have done: take profits and lock in gains.
The question is whether or not the selling in Apple, which has finished lower for two out of the past three days, will provide a clear pullback opportunity – as the pullback in Google did – or will instead continue to clip higher, becoming even more extremely overbought in the short-term.
Heading into trading on Thursday, Apple has a modest, positive edge of just under half a percent. And after opening with a “consider avoiding” 3 out of 10 rating on Wednesday, selling in the stock has helped moderate AAPL’s rating to a neutral 5 out of 10. And while a 5 out of 10 is still some distance from a “consider buying” 8, 9, or 10 out of 10, the two-point intraday upgrade in the stock is a hint of what could happen if additional profit-taking enables AAPL to trade even lower over the next few days.
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David Penn is Editor in Chief of TradingMarkets.com.