Stocks Rise Ahead Of Fed Decision
Stocks rose on Monday ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates due out Tuesday afternoon.
The ISDEX
AskJeeves
VeriSign
Blue Martini
Intraware
Internet security stocks Network Associates
Copper Mountain
Sina.com
Cobalt
eBay
Some technical comments on the market: Once again, a rally looks like it could be about to fizzle. The boundaries of the recent uptrends in the S&P 500 and 100 indexes are beginning to converge, suggesting that this rally may be losing steam. A decline below 1490 could carry the S&P 500 back to the 1450-1460 range. The S&P 500 is just below a downtrend line (1506) extending from the 1553 and 1517 peaks, and the S&P 100 turned back at its recent high (820) this morning. As we've noted before, this rally has been largely unconvincing, as volume has been low, follow-through rallies have barely met the minimum requirements, and there have been at least a few days of institutional selling. Volume and breadth could improve from here, but the market is more likely to go back and do it again until it gets it right. The Nasdaq is just above its 200-day moving average (just above 3950), but as we noted on Friday, this so far has looked like a pretty weak crossing attempt. Interesting to note that the Nasdaq struggled in the 3982 range this morning, the peak from late April/early May; no one has a longer memory than the guy or gal who's losing money. The Nasdaq may be forming a bearish flag pattern in the daily chart since gained 12 to 776, and the Nasdaq rose 47 to 3977. The S&P 500 added 9 to 1500, and the Dow climbed 41 to 11,087. Volume declined to 330 million shares on the NYSE and 575 million on the Nasdaq. Breadth was even on the Big Board, while advancers led 19 to 16 on the Nasdaq. The Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday, and the almost universal opinion is that the Fed will leave rates unchanged. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar and reported earnings. For after hours quotes and news, visit our new after hours trading site.
rose 2 to 21 1/2 on news that Ford
will use the company's question answering service for Ford's e-commerce and e-support services.
gained 7 1/16 to 166 13/16 on a Merill Lynch upgrade from Accumulate to Buy and a $210 price target. Merrill called the company's valuation "compelling" compared to other Internet infrastructure companies.
recovered 2 3/16 to 32 1/16 after losing 10% Friday on rumors that the company may lose another major contract. The company announced an alliance with Indian software services firm Mastek to build e-business applications.
gained 2 1/2 to 67 after Goldman Sachs began coverage of the recent IPO with a Recommended List rating.
gained 11/16 to 7 1/2 on news of an alliance with Documentum
.
, up 1 39/64 to 21 3/8, and Symantec
, up 1 3/16 to 51 5/8, gained on a Barron's mention that the stocks trade at discounts to their strong growth rates.
gained 4 5/8 to 68 5/8 on news that seven semiconductor technology suppliers have agreed to incorporate the firm's technology into next-generation chipsets for Voice over DSL integrated access devices.
rose 7/8 to 22 3/8 after announcing that it expects to break even in 2002, with the bulk of revenues coming from online advertising, despite a small online ad market in China.
gained 1/2 to 5 5/16 on news of an alliance with GE Capital Auto Financial Services.
, up 2 1/4 to 127 7/16, and Yahoo
, up 2 1/4 to 127 7/16, recovered from heavy profit-taking on Friday.