NASDAQ 100's Update, In focus: LRCX, EBAY, CTRP, BIIB, VRTX

Published on Thursday, 18 October 2012 13:35 Written by Gerard Lerod

New York, October 18th (TradersHuddle.com) - The NASDAQ 100 Index is lower trading at 2742.16, which represents -1.21% versus its previous close. The index is mixed for the session with slightly less than 50% of its components trading higher.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) is the NASDAQ 100's top performer today with the stock trading at $36.38 representing 8.34% from its previous trading session. Shares of Lam Research, the maker of semiconductor processing equipment have defined support at $31.17 and resistance at $35.08.

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) is also among the top performers, and it is trading at $50.42 representing 4.61% from its previous close. eBay, the owner of paypal and operator of an auction marketplace, has calculated support and resistance levels at $46.12 and $50.24 respectively. The other top performer of the NASDAQ 100 is Ctrip.com (NASDAQ:CTRP), which is trading at $19.5 representing 4.45% from its previous close.

The NASDAQ 100's worst performers include Biogen Idec (NASDAQ:BIIB), which is trading at $148.83 or -3.22% from the prior close. Shares of Biogen Idec, the Cambridge, Massachusetts based biotechnology company focusing on neurology, oncology, and immunology have defined support at $147.90 and resistance at $157.18. Also among the worst performers Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX), which is trading at $52.25 representing -3.15% from the previous session.

The NASDAQ 100 is underperfoming the Dow Jones but is pretty much equal with the S&P 500. The Dow Jones Industrial Index is currently trading at 13547.1, which represents -0.07% from previous close, the S&P 500, on the other hand, is trading at 1456.98 that represents -0.27% from its previous close.