Stocks Continue Free Fall
Stocks fell Friday on signs that consumer confidence may be stabilizing, as traders worried that the Fed won't cut rates as aggressively as hoped next Tuesday. The Producer Price Index showed that inflation is tame, however.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/
The Producer Price Index for February came in weaker than expected, giving the Fed room to cut rates, but the Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey continued to show firming in consumer confidence, which Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has said is key to avoiding recession.
Earnings warnings continued to pour in from technology companies. Oracle
Nuance
eBay
Check Point
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
The Nasdaq found support today at what could be its lower bullish falling wedge boundary, using closes only, so we'll continue to call that pattern in play (first chart). The Nasdaq 100 also has a lower wedge trendline around today's lows (second chart), although that index could fall a little further and maintain that line. Today's low of 1877 on the Nasdaq corresponds with pretty stubborn resistance from mid-1998 in the 1850-1870 range (third chart), so that makes a pretty important level. The next level support level below 1850 would likely be 1770. The Nasdaq 100 broke a bear flag yesterday (fourth chart), with about 300 points of potential downside; not a pretty pattern. However, given that the last decline on the Nasdaq indexes may have been an exhaustion move, that bear flag might not work out. We hope. To the upside, the Nasdaq needs to clear 2028, the July 1998 high, fill a down gap at 2042-2053, and get back above 2070, the redrawn 1990 logarithmic trendline. After that, the upper boundary of that falling wedge is around 2100, and next resistance after that is 2252. We are still expecting a significant turn in the market within the next week. One smart cycle watcher got his first monthly buy signal on the Nasdaq 100 today since October 1998, and is also getting a weekly buy signal. As he put it, if the market doesn't rally even a little next week, it's in "deep doo doo." Either way, a significant moment is at hand.
fell 10 to 214, and the Nasdaq lost 40 to 1899. The S&P 500 fell 15 to 1158, and the Dow dropped 98 to 9933. Volume surged to 845 million shares on the NYSE, and 1.08 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 18 to 10 on the NYSE, and 23 to 10 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.
slipped 5/16 to 14 3/8 after matching lowered estimates of 10 cents a share and predicting flat growth next quarter. B2B stocks got hit after Oracle's application software sales came in lower than expected, and Robertson Stephens downgraded the group. i2
slipped 1/8 to 17 11/16, Ariba
fell 13/16 to 10 1/4, and Commerce One
lost 1.01 to 9.15.
surged 3 5/8 to 28 5/8 after beating estimates but guiding future estimates lower. Compaq
, up .21 to 18.71, and Computer Sciences
, which plunged 20.88 to 33.22, also issued earnings warnings.
plunged 7 9/16 to 9 7/16 on an earnings warning. Speechworks
fell 5 1/16 to 7 1/4.
lost 1 1/16 to 33 9/16 despite Goldman Sachs reiterating Recommended List and saying the company should beat estimates.
continued to come under pressure, losing 3 to 60 3/16.