nasdaq
Grim coronavirus statistics out of the US are dimming sentiment on the Nasdaq 100, as the index slumps to a lower open on the day. Global coronavirus cases have now topped 10 million people, and the US has retained its number one spot as the country with the highest case load and the numbers continue to spike unabated in several states.
Numerous pharmaceutical shares are down on the day as the race to find a suitable cure or vaccine candidate continues. Cleveland BioLabs has taken the hardest hit, plunging nearly 40% while Intercept Pharmaceuticals is down 38.47%. The effect of the selloff on these stocks was enough to dwarf the unbelievable performance of BioHitech Global Inc, which is up nearly 142% on the day as at the time of writing. The surge in the BioHiTech Global Inc stock is due to upbeat earnings expectations, as well as its recently announced collaboration with Altapure to produce the AP-4 aerosol disinfectant that has been shown to kill the coronavirus in the air and on surfaces.
The Nasdaq 100 is down by 0.5% on a day of muted trading as the markets prepare for a week thin on market-moving news, heading into the Independence Day weekend.
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The Nasdaq 100 is still trading within the ascending channel on the daily chart, with today’s candle finding support at the channel trendline and pushing up from there to meet intraday resistance at the 9867.1 price level (last week’s intraday lows). Further recovery depends on price ascending beyond this price level with two daily candle penetrations that close above this price level.
If the Nasdaq 100 can achieve this, the recovery is restored with 10156.5 being the immediate target. Failure of the recovery move as a result of the inability of the index to breach 9867.1 puts the channel trendline under pressure. A breakdown of the channel as well as the immediate horizontal support at 9730.2 allows the index to target the 9626.4 support line, with 9452.0 and 9264.4 lining up as further downside targets.