An absolutely nowhere day, perfectly directionless, one of those eerie pre-options expiration “pegging” exercises maybe?

Notable New Lows: Newmont Mining (NEM), JDS Uniphase (JDSU), Conexant Systems (CNXT), and Doral Financial (DRL) — I wouldn’t buy that for a dollar (closed at $1.00 exactly).

Notable New Highs: ENERGIES, Benjamin! Energy SPDR (XLE), Oil Services HOLDR (OIH), Transocean (RIG), Schlumberger (SLB) … also Boeing (BA), Crocs (CROX), and Ctrip (CTRP) — I hate myself for not buying Ctrip since we use the service constantly and I’ve recommended the stock far and wide since Day One — I don’t know what’s the matter with me, this inability to take my own advice on CTRP.

DUSA Pharmaceutical (DUSA) was the stock du jour. Probably everyone caught it and Dummies worldwide were filled with delight. I suspect that my lessons have generated tens of millions of dollars in profits for folks since I wrote them — let’s not talk about the losses, lol.

Buffett and Lampert were obviously forwarded the 15 Ideas letter since JNJ and C were both in there, or do great minds just think alike? ;-)

Choppy day until 1:30 PM (on the dot) when buyers showed up in force.

Notable New Lows: Starbucks (SBUX), Newmont Mining (NEM), and that sad sap Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) — $2.69 and falling.

Notable New Highs: Brazil (EWZ), Mexico (EWW), Pepsi (PEP), and American Express (AXP).

Compuware (CPWR) was the stock du jour but it traded down down down after the initial blast-off bar giving dummies no opportunity to lose money in it until the lunchtime lull — probably would have second thoughts about getting long by that time given the action.

OK morning and through lunch time, but then some serious selling hit the market in the afternoon and continued into the close. Aggressive risk management (moving stops up) on any longs established in the morning would have saved day traders some money.

A number of Notable New Lows: Starbucks (SBUX), Whole Foods (WFMI), JDS Uniphase (JDSU), US Airways (LCC), Liz Claiborne (LIZ), and Komag (KMAG).

Quite a few Notable New Highs as well: the Dow Industrials (DIA), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), McDonald’s (MCD), Nokia (NOK), Monsanto (MON), and Crocs (CROX).

When I sent out the 15 Ideas letter back in mid-March, a generous donor, Trader Eyal, emailed me then and said, “Do you realize that over half of these ideas are Dow Industrial Average component stocks?” I didn’t realize that at the time, but the implications were pretty clear!

Winn-Dixie (WINN) was the stock du jour, and was front and center on the screen of every day trader around the globe.

Kind of a nowhere day until the afternoon when more selling kicked in.

WFMI was again the stock du jour and gave a nice low-risk spot to get short around noon.

Good strong buying all day long. So much for that possible “major reversal.” ;-)

The FXI is very near its all-time high and the new China SPDR (GXC) just started trading recently, so I thought I’d feature their charts.

China-related stocks making Notable New Highs: iShares MSCI Hong Kong (EWH), Sinopec (SNP), Chalco (ACH), Huaneng Power (HNP), China Yuchai (CYD), Yanzhou Coal (YZC), Guangshen Rail (GSH), and Sinopec Shanghai (SHI).

And interestingly a couple of China-related stocks making Notable New Lows: Fuwei Films (FFHL) and Actions Semiconductor (ACTS).

Here’s more information on the SPDR S&P China ETF (GXC):

The SPDR® S&P China ETF, before expenses, seeks to closely match the returns and characteristics of the total return performance of the S&P®/Citigroup® BMI China Index (ticker: STBCCNU) … The S&P®/Citigroup® BMI China Index is a float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that defines and measures the investable universe of those publicly traded companies domiciled in China that are legally available to foreign investors … Gross Expense Ratio = 0.60%

I didn’t participate in the IBKR auction (fortunately), but I will buy some shares at some point. Here are some interesting stats from a press release:

— The auction clearing price was $33.00.
— The offering price was $30.01.
— A total of 13,504 bids were received in the auction.
— A total of 8,282 bids were successful.
— A total of 145,514,807 shares, in total, were bid for at prices equal
to or in excess of the offering price.
— The pro rata fill rate for bids was 27.5%.

Selling from the start of the day which accelerated after 11 AM and turned into a cascade as the day progressed. I can think of just four other times in the past year and a half where the action was this bad — only the rout on March 13, 2007 was worse. Maybe this day will mark a significant reversal? Apple (AAPL) nevertheless remains on the new highs list.

Whole Foods (WFMI) was the stock du jour — it actually blew up after hours on Wednesday. Dummies would have been frustrated (and losing money) attempting to short it during the regular hours session. Remember that The End of Whole Foods’ Fabulous Run happened last August.

The last several days look like difficult times for day traders. Anyway, short funds fill the new lows list, including the short Dow fund with its great ticker symbol, DOG. Notable new highs include Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), Brazil (EWZ), and a slew of metals stocks — the Metals and Mining SPDR (XME) is a good way to get exposure here, though old guys like me still hold the Basic Materials SPDR (XLB).

Dendreon (DNDN) opened down over 50%. The perils of biotech. Day trading dummies should have been able to make a few bucks here, assuming shares were available to short (unlikely?).

Wow, super-strong day, continuous buying from the get-go … the best tone I’ve seen in six weeks.

A few notables from the new highs list: Mastercard (MA), Verizon (VZ), Yum (YUM) — if you ever tried to get a seat in a KFC or Pizza Hut in China you’d understand why it’s at a new high, Dentsply (XRAY) — one of the great ticker symbols if you buy stocks based on tickers, and Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL). The new highs list goes on forever….

I’ll feature Chipotle (CMG) as the stock du jour, a new high on over 10 times average volume — Howard rejoices.

Sellers in control again, but a burst of buying after 2 PM shook things up — still not a nice day.

Circuit City (CC) prominently on the new lows list. On a semi-related note, read Barry’s recent post about The Hedonism Index if you haven’t already. My wife has long been a fan of favoring the luxury goods makers (as an investor not a consumer, thank god, though she does have a thing for Salvatore Ferragamo). She’s says it’s still “early days” as an investment theme.

This News Corp./Dow Jones thing really shook up all the newspapers: New York Times (NYT), Gannett (GCI), McClatchy (MNI), etc. were all unusually active.