Paul Shread

Downside remains hard to come by, as buyers stepped in again today to pull the Dow (first chart below) back from the brink. 11,470 is first support, with 11,400 below that, and upside resistance can be found at 11,525-11,533, 11,580-11,600, 11,640-11,670 and 11,722-11,750. The Nasdaq (second chart) has support at 2210 and 2200, and resistance […]

Stocks lost ground for a second day Friday on fears of an economic slowdown. An unexpectedly weak report on manufacturing in the Philadelphia region on Thursday, coupled with continuing weak reports from the housing sector, has shaken investors’ belief that the Federal Reserve has been able to engineer a soft landing. But one reason for […]

Data storage has been a healthy market the last few years, holding up even as server sales stalled earlier this year. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Wall Street has suddenly warmed to storage companies again after a two-year drought. CommVault on Friday became the second storage company in two days to go public, following […]

Short, sharp pullbacks have turned out to be buying opportunities as of late; will this one be any different? Until some major support levels begin to give, the bulls have the benefit of the doubt. The biggest might be 11,480-11,510 on the Dow (first chart below); a break of that could ignite some selling. To […]

News that HP CEO Mark Hurd may become embroiled in the company’s leak scandal sent HP shares 5% lower Thursday and set the tone for the broader market. HP plans a news conference after the market close Friday to address the issue, which has already claimed chairwoman Patricia Dunn. Hurd has been viewed as instrumental […]

Riverbed Technology made a strong debut on Wall Street Thursday, pricing above its anticipated offer range and then opening even higher than that. All that for a company that remains a long way from profitability. Riverbed plays in the market for wide-area data services (WADS, although Riverbed prefers the acronym WDS), which includes wide-area file […]

The rally has been choppy and internals unimpressive (just 63% upside volume on the NYSE today), but the indexes continue to grind higher. The big attraction drawing the indexes back to these levels, of course, is the Dow’s all-time high of 11,722-11,750 (closing and intraday). So can the bulls push the index through those levels […]

Stocks hit fresh multi-year highs Wednesday on strong earnings from Oracle and news that the Federal Reserve once again left interest rates unchanged. Better than expected results and guidance from Oracle sent that company’s shares 11% higher, pacing technology gains, while the broader market shook off modestly hawkish comments from the Fed to close solidly […]

Quite a shakeout today, but stocks held on well considering. It will be interesting to see how the slowdown and currency fears that sparked today’s sell-off play out in the weeks ahead. They could be fodder for an October sell-off — or yet more proof of the market’s impressive resilience this year. For a look […]

Shares of Oracle surged 8% in late trading Tuesday after the company overcame its historically weak fiscal first quarter to post better than expected results. Coming on top of stellar fourth-quarter results three months ago, the company’s aggressive acquisition strategy appears to be paying off. Sales and earnings were up nearly 30% from the year-ago […]

The indexes continue to levitate here, and while that’s a positive, the rally has been choppy and is up against major resistance here and thus could be vulnerable to a correction. Plenty of news the next two days could help the indexes decide. The Nasdaq (first chart below) faces tough resistance at 2250-2260, while support […]

Oracle will try to top its stellar results from three months ago when it reports fiscal first quarter results late Tuesday. Analysts expect August quarter earnings of 16 cents a share from Oracle on sales of $3.47 billion, up 19% from the year-ago quarter. Still, analysts are somewhat cautious ahead of the company’s seasonally slow […]