ON THE RANGE

Markets continue to trade mixed and in a fairly tight range with the NDX/NAZ leading and the RUT/VALUE lagging.

Strong sectors include gaming, internets, oils, biotechs and drugs while airlines, trannies, semis and banks lag.

NYSE internals -375

NAZ internals- -490

OEX- 55 WINNERS- led by AMGN CI LEH EK BDK NXY HAL TGT MMM; LOSERS- S ATI CBS CAT TXN AA WFC XRX CSCO;

NDX- 45 WINNERS- led by XMSR SIRI AMGN WYNN CTSH RIMM ERIC INTU JNPR; LOSERS- LVLT LRCX VMED SNDK EXPD NTAP APOL UAUA S SPLS RYAAY;

VIX FLAT;

The crummy performance of the RUT may be a good tell of things to come as the markets continue to trade range bound.

Support at the 200 day SMA on the SPX near the 1460 area and capped above by the 1480 50 day /50% retracement level. Also, checking the chart, the SPX now in a defined range between 1490 above and 1430 below. That has been the range for almost the last month.

Other stuff:

Banks act poorly - led lower by C CFC JPM MI MTB WB WFC;

Brokers- mixed- BSC BX LEH NDAQ higher- BEN CME GS ICE NMX NYX TROW lower;

Healthcare- primarily green led by ABT COV DGX JNJ LLY NVS SGP SNY;

Oils- primarily green on the heels of record crude prices- APA CNQ COP DVN FTO HAL HP NBR NXY PXD PWE SU TSO XEC XTO - all higher by 1% or more;