Paul Shread

Storage industry consolidation continues apace, with three mergers announced overnight Tuesday. Emulex announced plans to acquire storage chipmaker Sierra Logic, while Rackable Systems picked up Terrascale Technologies, and Exabyte agreed to a combination with Tandberg Data. Emulex will pay $180 million in cash for Sierra Logic, which has made a name for itself by getting […]

We’ll stick to our view that the S&P (first chart below) is “wedging out” over the last week or so until either the upper or lower trendline breaks. A move above 1306-1307 would be bullish, while a move below 1297 and then 1292 would be bearish. With a lot of economic news coming in the […]

Investors shook off fresh evidence of a slowing economy and a hawkish Federal Reserve to focus on falling oil prices, sending stocks higher on Tuesday. Faced with a steep drop in consumer confidence and Fed meeting minutes that said the Fed may raise interest rates again, traders instead cheered sub-$70 oil prices, as tech stocks […]

A sharp drop in energy prices sent stocks surging Monday, and technology and Internet shares led the way higher. Google and eBay both rose after announcing a multi-year partnership, and Amazon gained 3% on a $500 million buyback. Google also targeted Microsoft in a separate announcement. Intel and Nvidia gained on upgrades from Friedman Billings […]

ONStor and 3PAR unveiled new storage offerings on Monday that they hope will give users an alternative to Network Appliance and EMC. ONStor said its new Pantera Clustered NAS system undercuts the price of midrange solutions from NetApp by 50 percent. And 3PAR unveiled the InServ E200 Storage Server, which the company said compares favorably […]

Google has so much cash it’s in danger of being regulated as a mutual fund. Google last month asked the SEC for an exemption from the Investment Company Act of 1940 that would allow it to seek higher returns on its cash without being regulated as a mutual fund, according to news reports. The search […]

Friday’s tone will likely be set by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is set to deliver a major speech on the U.S. economy. Given his recent market-friendly speeches, we’d be surprised if he made an about-face tomorrow, but other Fed officials have turned hawkish in recent days. Heading into the speech, the major indexes are […]

eBay shares lost 4.5% Thursday on a downgrade, while the rest of the market treaded water ahead of a major speech by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Piper Jaffray downgraded eBay to ‘underperform,’ saying the company is facing rising costs and declining buyer activity. “We believe the core problem is with lack of activity from buyers, […]

The tug of war over the last five trading sessions is threatening to go to the bears, who are close to sending the indexes lower out of their recent consolidations. The Nasdaq (first chart below) needs to recover 2145 and then take out 2155 to the upside. The index is sitting on important gap support […]

Merger news did little to help the tech sector on Wednesday. IBM’s acquisition of Internet Security and the latest expression of interest in Gateway did little to rescue the sector from a broad market sell-off on weaker than expected home sales. Gateway shares jumped 13% on a $450 million offer for its retail business from […]

So far the bulls are resisting profit-taking efforts nicely; as long as that holds, the indexes have a good chance at more upside. Whichever way the indexes break out of their current consolidations could dictate the direction of the next move. That makes 2138 important support on the Nasdaq (first chart below), and 2160 and […]

Tuesday was a mixed day for the chip sector. AMD shares got a lift from an upgrade and bullish comments, helping to prop up tech stocks during the day, but National Semi fell in late trading after the company lowered guidance for its August quarter. AMD shares jumped 6% after Bear Stearns said its sees […]