Today on the Marketbeat: 2 Steps down, 3 Steps Up...Option Expiration Madness

Market #'s @ Closing Bell

S&P: +1 to 843

DOW: +12 to 8212

NASDAQ: +23 to 1511

RUS2K: +4 to 837

TSX/S&P: +105 to 8,793

VIX: +2.66 to 51.8

Internals:

Core Sector List: 12/4 to the Bulls

NYSE

BREADTH: 1.1/1 to the Bulls

AD LINE: +250 Ticks (after being down 2400)

NASDAQ

BREADTH: 2.1/1 to the Bulls

AD LINE: +420

Today on the Marketbeat: 2 Steps down, 3 Steps Up...Option Expiration Madness

Wow, What A day....As the last trading day before Jan option expiry came to a close, we witnessed one of the most exciting days of trading of 09 so far. The day started very similar to the other trading days of this week: lower. However after a solid amount of lunchtime choppage around the S2-3 area, the Market witnessed a huge surge in the last 2 hours of trading. This surge pushed the market up to breakeven levels on the S&P and Dow even going in the green. The full # of the swing from low to high was: 30 ES points, and nearly 300 YM points. VEry exciting day as oversold levels gave into a quick late day rally accorss the board.

Under the hood was even more exciting as you could litterally watch the internals battle back and forth during this surge time. The BReadths and AD Lines were most active, With the Breadths turning around from +10/1 negative levels to finsih flat/slightly bullish. The AD LINES tacked on minor gains but considering the NYSE AD LINE was down 2400 ticks and closed up 250 ticks is a phenomenal turn around.

With Options expirary after tomorrows close, Make sure if your in any front month options positions to roll them over or close them out.

Ill leave you today with some internals snapshots: (Click to enlarge)