Paul Shread

The back-to-back 80% upside volume days on the NYSE the last two days are a potentially bullish development, coming two weeks after a 90% downside day. The big question is whether sellers have been exhausted enough for sustained buying to kick in, and only time will tell. The big test will be how the Nasdaq […]

Sun Microsystems’ plan to cut 11-13% of its workforce ran into skepticism on Wall Street Thursday. Shares of Sun slipped 1.7% on a day when the Nasdaq gained 1.9%. The consensus opinion of Wall Street analysts appeared to be that the job cuts and other measures didn’t go far enough to return the company to […]

Kasten Chase, a pioneer in data security, announced Wednesday that it is filing for bankruptcy and ceasing operations. The company was attempting to transition from a secure modem business to storage security, but the storage business didn’t ramp up fast enough. In the first quarter of 2006, Kasten Chase reported sales of $100,000 and a […]

Stocks capped their toughest month in more than a year on an upbeat note Wednesday, gaining ground despite the threat of more interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. Falling oil prices on hopes for talks between the U.S. and Iran encouraged buyers, who briefly sent stocks into the red after Federal Reserve meeting minutes […]

Sun Microsystems dodged a sharp sell-off on Wall Street Tuesday on optimism that the company may soon announce significant layoffs. UBS analyst Benjamin Reitzes upgraded Sun shares Tuesday morning, saying the company could cut as many as 5,000 jobs in a major restructuring to be announced by July. A few hours later, Sun announced plans […]

Caringo came out of stealth mode Tuesday with an impressive pedigree and plans to offer content addressable storage (CAS) for as little as $2,000. Caringo was named for founders Paul Carpentier, Jonathan Ring and Mark Goros, who serve as the startup’s CTO, president and CEO, respectively. Carpentier was the chief architect of FilePool, which was […]

More than five years after it was first considered for inclusion in the S&P 500, Juniper Networks finally got the word late Thursday that it will be joining the index. Juniper shares climbed 2% Friday on news that it will be added to the S&P after Alberston’s is acquired by Supervalu and CVS sometime next […]

eBay paced an overdue stock market rally Thursday on a partnership with Yahoo and an upgrade from Prudential. The search and advertising deal, designed to better compete against Google , sent eBay’s beaten-down shares 12% higher. Prudential upgraded eBay on the deal, saying its 30% decline this year had made for an attractive valuation. The […]

The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is whether stocks have had enough of a washout for a good bounce. Certainly options traders are showing some healthy fear, and the indexes are all pretty oversold and at some major support levels. But stocks are in the weakest part of the year in the weakest part […]

Stocks fended off another bout of selling on Wednesday to end the day modestly higher. The Nasdaq, which had tumbled 8% in the previous 11 trading sessions, ended the day half a percent higher in a volatile session. The techs opened 1% higher and then lost all that plus another 1% before recovering in the […]

HP on Wednesday unveiled a virtual tape offering that sells for a bit over $6,000, bringing VTL technology within reach of small and mid-size businesses (SMBs). Dianne McAdam, director of enterprise information assurance at the Clipper Group, said HP doesn’t have much competition for its new VLS1002i, perhaps just Overland’s REO offerings. “There is a […]

The indexes continue to grapple with some solid support zones here, but they have yet to turn that support into a sustained bounce. The Dow (first chart below) has strong support between 10,960 and 11,040, and resistance is 11,200, 11,225, 11,250, 11,280 and 11,330. The Nasdaq (second chart) has support at 2150-2156, with 2125 and […]