Paul Shread

The market continues to levitate here despite some extreme overbought readings. In the long run, that’s a sign of strength, but in the short term, the market sure could use a breather. If we’re right about the market being in a fifth wave up here, the previous wave four low is one possible downside target: […]

Forget Alcoa and GE . For technology investors, earnings season begins this week, with many of the sector’s biggest bellwethers set to report. IBM , Intel and Yahoo will report Tuesday night, followed by eBay , Apple and AMD on Wednesday, and Google on Thursday. And that’s just a few of the tech names reporting […]

Network Appliance’s latest virtual tape library (VTL) appliances offer compression and high performance, but the company is holding off on adding data de-duplication until it can do so without affecting performance. Virtual tape “needs to be really, really fast to get the backups done,” says Krish Padmanabhan, general manager of NetApp’s heterogeneous data protection business […]

The Dow (first chart below) has held up remarkably well at lofty levels, but it seemed to tire a bit today while strength in techs and small caps propped up the market. We’re wondering how much farther the blue chips can run in the face of exceptionally overbought readings, and 12,000 seems as good a […]

News that Microsoft’s Vista operating system may ship on time gave the tech sector a boost on Friday. The news helped Microsoft’s shares and also benefited the likes of HP and AMD . Microsoft gave back some of its gains later in the day on comments from an S&P analyst that its shares are fully […]

So far, extreme overbought conditions have led to a five-day consolidation and another big move higher. That’s impressive strength. That said, the flat consolidation in the Dow and S&P (first two charts below) over the last week suggest that we may be in a wave 5 up in Elliott wave terms, suggesting the possibility of […]

News that the economy is not too hot and not too cold sent the Dow to another record high on Thursday. Strong earnings reports from consumer companies and a Fed Beige Book survey that showed the economy was just right provided the excuse buyers were looking for to send the market higher after a week-long […]

The Dow and S&P (first two charts below) continue to wind up in a very tight range here. Since the consolidation is occurring at a high after an uptrend, odds favor that the patterns will resolve to the upside, but keep an eye on the bottom of the short-term ranges in case the market has […]

Solid gains in the chip sector helped save the stock market from a steep decline on Wednesday. Stocks ended the day modestly lower on earnings and inflation worries, along with the crash of a small airplane in New York City. But a gain of more than 1% in the chip sector helped limit losses. Rambus […]

The market is winding up pretty tight here in anticipation of its next move. Sentiment hasn’t gotten too frothy yet, but the market is very overbought here and could use a breather, with selling pressure (-DI) nowhere to be found on the Dow (first chart below). The Dow is trapped between 11,800 and 11,880, with […]

Stocks edged higher Tuesday as investors turned cautious ahead of third-quarter earnings reports. And with good reason. After the close, Alcoa missed estimates and Legg Mason warned. Wednesday will see the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes, Thursday the Fed’s Beige Book summary of economic conditions, and Friday GE’s earnings report. Technology earnings reports will […]

Freed from having to fret about the bond market, stocks showed some resilience today despite more geopolitical turmoil — a familiar theme lately that has translated into higher prices. The Nasdaq (first chart below) has taken the lead since the Dow (second chart) hit a new all-time high last week, as lagging sectors begin to […]