Paul Shread

The stock market managed to post modest gains Friday despite 3% drops in the shares of Microsoft and Google . Google and Microsoft posted strong results late Thursday, but investors sold shares of both Friday after the tech bellwethers offered cautious guidance for the current quarter. Traders also shook off another attempted terrorist attack in […]

An interesting turn of events today, as the intraday dip-buying that had been so profitable lately failed. As soon as traders think they have it figured out, the market changes. Or as Joe Granville once remarked, as soon as you think you have the keys to the market, they change the locks. The question is, […]

Shares of Microsoft and Google fell late Thursday after the two bellwethers delivered results and guidance that were less than investors were hoping for. Google reported second-quarter earnings of $1.19 a share on net revenues of $890 million, trouncing estimates handily. But the stock fell 6% in after-hours trading after the company reminded analysts on […]

The Nasdaq (first chart below) is approaching levels it hasn’t seen since mid-2001; above 2191-2200, 2251 and 2328 are very significant levels. Support is 2173-2175, 2164, 2150-2154 and 2144. The S&P (second chart) also needs a monthly chart at this point, and from that it appears that 1244-1250 is the next big hurdle. Support is […]

eBay returned to form after the close on Wednesday, posting earnings and guidance that were well ahead of Wall Street expectations. eBay’s pro forma earnings of 22 cents a share topped analysts’ estimates by four cents, and sales surged 40% to $1.09 billion, also ahead of forecasts. eBay also boosted its full-year guidance to 82-83 […]

QLogic is making a bold play to attract small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to Fibre Channel SANs with a new line of low-cost software, HBAs and switches. The new SAN Express line is designed for QLogic channel partners to migrate SMBs from direct attached storage (DAS) to SANs. The product line features SANbox Express 1400 switches, […]

The Nasdaq (first chart below) is approaching its January peak and multi-year high of 2191, but the techs will have to overcome some late selling to get there. Support is 2164, 2150-2154, 2140-2144, 2135 and 2128. The S&P (second chart) is once again pushing 1229-1233 resistance. Support is 1225-1226, 1223-1224, 1220 and 1217. The Dow […]

Riverbed Technology hopes to make further inroads into the market for WAN optimization and wide area file services (WAFS) with the release of the second generation of its Steelhead product. Riverbed claims that Steelhead 2.0 “offers distributed enterprises the most complete and best-performing Wide-area Data Services (WDS) solution available today.” The new release offers improved […]

With last week’s internals eroding, stocks were due for a breather. The good news is that put trading was quick to jump today, a hopeful sign for the bulls that a pullback can be contained. The Nasdaq (first chart below) faces resistance at 2152, 2160, 2164 and 2192, and support is 2140-2144, 2135, 2128, 2113-2116 […]

Judging from its second-quarter results, divesting its PC business may have been a good move for IBM . IBM reported second-quarter results after the close on Monday, and while revenues declined 3.6% from the year-ago quarter to $22.27 billion, diluted earnings shot up 10.9% to $1.12 a share, beating analysts’ estimates by nine cents. Gross […]

Despite today’s gains, the indexes couldn’t take out yesterday’s highs, setting up those levels as firm resistance at this point and one more sign that the market may need a breather here. The Nasdaq (first chart below) faces resistance at 2164 and 2192, and support is 2145, 2135, 2128, 2113-2116 and 2100-2106. The S&P (second […]

IBM heads a long list of top technology and Internet names reporting quarterly results next week. IBM will kick off the busiest week for earnings reports when it releases its second-quarter results after the close on Monday. Analysts are looking for Big Blue to report earnings of $1.03 a share, up two cents from the […]