Paul Shread

Stocks ended their best first quarter in years on a down note Friday. While the indexes continued their recent bout of selling on inflation concerns, they nonetheless ended the quarter up 4-6%. Comments from Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig that interest rates are close to neutral eased interest rate fears somewhat, as bond yields […]

A strong showing on the Nasdaq (first chart below) today, with 2328-2333 support holding nicely. The Nasdaq 100 (second chart), meanwhile, did a little damage to the bearish case by clearing 1717 on an intraday basis, but a stronger move above that level would be even better. 2315 is the next big support on the […]

Google showed this week that it’s learning how to play the game. The company announced late Wednesday that it will sell as much as 5.3 million shares worth about $2 billion ahead of its inclusion in the S&P 500 Friday night. Google shares lost 1.7% Thursday on the news, but the move appears to be […]

Small caps remain strong here, but big caps continue to lag. The Nasdaq (first chart below) hit a new five-year high today, while the Nasdaq 100 (second chart) continues to lag badly. The Nasdaq doesn’t have much resistance until 2500 at this point, so we’ll see how the Nasdaq 100 handles its resistance, starting with […]

The Nasdaq recouped all of Tuesday’s losses and then some on Wednesday, hitting a five-year high on strength in Apple and Google . Apple and Google have fallen sharply since reporting disappointing first-quarter results, but Apple jumped 6% Wednesday on new EU antitrust issues for Microsoft , and Google continued its run ahead of inclusion […]

Traders expecting anything new from the new Federal Reserve were in for a surprise today. The Dow and S&P (first two charts below) continue to struggle at two-year trendlines, with both indexes falling back below today. That makes 11,230 on the Dow and 1305 on the S&P important first resistance levels here. The Dow should […]

Red Hat capped a rough day on Wall Street Tuesday with better than expected results after the close. Red Hat’s earnings of 13 cents a share were a penny ahead of estimates. Sales rose 37% to $78.7 million, beating $78.26 million forecasts. Subscription revenue rose 44% to $66.7 million. Margins also improved in the quarter, […]

Tech stocks edged higher Monday ahead of the first Federal Reserve meeting under new chairman Ben Bernanke, while blue chips spent the day under water. The Fed is expected to continue its nearly two-year campaign with another quarter-point rate hike on Tuesday. Investors are hoping that the Fed will signal that the rate increases will […]

The most interesting index the last few days has been the Dow (first chart below), which is wound up in a very tight symmetrical triangle. A break above 11,317 or below 11,244 could be worth a good move for the index. The next important levels are 11,350-10,426 to the upside, and 11,210 to the downside. […]

Google’s long-awaited addition to the S&P 500 and merger talks between Lucent and Alcatel boosted tech shares on Friday. Google shares jumped 7% on news that the company will finally added to the S&P 500 as of March 31. Google’s addition to the S&P 500 shows that the company has reached maturity in the eyes […]

A startup founded by former Microsoft employees is using its knowledge of Exchange to make sure that the messaging platform stays up and running. Azaleos this week unveiled a new disaster recovery solution for Exchange, Azaleos Full Fidelity Disaster Recovery. The company also boosted its Exchange management solutions to provide assured Exchange backups, 99.999% uptime […]

“Inside days” on the major indexes today, reflecting indecision. With the next big piece of news coming from next week’s Federal Reserve meeting, stocks could be range-bound for a few days here, unless tomorrow morning’s housing and durable orders data is enough of a surprise to move stocks sooner. The Nasdaq (first chart below) is […]