Rumor Mill Caps Gains

Stocks posted some nice gains on Tuesday, but finished well off their highs after rumors of more earnings warnings surfaced.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ surged 15 to 282, and the Nasdaq rose 61 to 2204, 50 points off its high. The S&P 500 climbed 12 to 1253, 14 points off its high, and the Dow added 28 to 10,591, 100 points off its high. Volume rose to 1.09 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.98 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 18 to 11 on the NYSE, and 23 to 14 on the Nasdaq. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar at http://www.wsrn.com/apps/earnings/internet.xpl and reported earnings at http://www.wsrn.com/apps/earnings/ireported.xpl. For after hours quotes and news, visit our after hours trading site at http://www.afterhourstrading.com.

Gains were capped by rumors that JDS Uniphase and Nokia might warn.

Amazon.com slipped 11/16 to 11 15/16, 2 points off its high, after Dow Jones reported that the company's alliance with Wal-Mart might not happen anytime soon.

Extended Systems was halted on news that it may be acquired by Palm .

New Focus , off 2 1/4 to 19, issued an earnings warning and blamed its shortfall on inventory build-up at customers like Corning , up 1.45 to 31, and Corvis , down 29/32 to 8 1/8.

Portal Software rose 3/4 to 7 3/4 on contract wins with Nokia and Time Warner Cable.

Homestore.com added 11/16 to 27 5/8, 5 points off its high, after being added to the Goldman Sachs Recommended List. But getting dropped from that list didn't seem to hurt Yahoo , which climbed 3/16 to 22 3/8.

Veritas , up 7 7/8 to 67 11/16, provided much-needed support by reaffirming its outlook.

Check Point rose 6 to 65 7/8 at the start of a meeting with analysts. Internet Security rose 4 1/4 to 47.

Vignette soared 1 23/32 to 6 7/8 after wooing away Siebel Systems' vice president of sales.

B2B stocks were strong, led higher by Commerce One , which soared 3 9/64 to 18 1/16.

Some technical comments on the market: Note: We are now including charts in the technical market commentary. If you can't get the charts via the e-mail newsletter version, try this link: http://www.afterhourstrading.com/column.html

Buyers finally showed up today, but they aren't showing too much resolve just yet; the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were both stopped by downtrend lines from September today. As we've said before, the Dow must close above 10,650, the S&P above 1275, and the Nasdaq above 2318 for any sort of a bottom to be considered in place. To the downside, critical support is 10,292 on the Dow, 1214 on the S&P 500 and 2071 on the Nasdaq.

The Nasdaq gapped up above its January 31 downtrend line this morning (first chart), but ran into the middle of three downtrend lines from September at 2256 (second chart). The last time the Nasdaq gapped above its January 31 downtrend line, it gapped back below it the next day on an earnings warning from Nortel, forming a nasty "island" reversal (see arrows in the first chart). The Nasdaq barely finished above its open today, forming an inverted hammer, or a potential reversal, just as it finally got going. To the upside, 2250 is first resistance, and a close above 2318 would give the index a higher high. The Nasdaq now has two gaps that will likely be filled at some point, at