Paul Shread

The Nasdaq (first chart below) continues to chew through resistance, taking out the important 1973 level today. Next up is 2000, and 1973 and 1955 are support. The S&P (second chart) faces resistance at 1117, 1120, 1126 and 1130, and support is 1112, 1110 and 1107. The Dow (third chart) is the weak link here, […]

Dell continued its disruptive ways on Wednesday. Dell partnered with EMC on a new low-cost storage system that could reset price points in the storage industry. And Piper Jaffray offered an analysis of Dell’s pricing strategy on its new printer line. Priced 50-66% below comparable printers from HP , the Wall Street firm said Dell’s […]

The best thing about today was the strong internals, which suggests that buying interest may have finally returned. The Nasdaq (first chart below) faces its next big test at 1970-1973, and 1953 should now be strong support. The S&P (second chart) broke above a rising resistance line today, another bullish development. We’d now like to […]

Tech stocks had their best day in two months on Tuesday, raising hopes that the market’s four-month correction has run its course. eBay hit a new all-time high, and Yahoo hit its second straight 52-week high. (Don’t ask about Amazon.com , which would need to gain 40% to get back to its 52-week high set […]

So much for the end of expiry resolving this indecision. The indexes continue to consolidate near the lows, suggesting the possibility of another leg down, but they could also be trying to bottom. The Nasdaq (first chart below) has gapped up for five straight days without having much to show for it. A break above […]

Speculative fever hit the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) sector for the first time in months on Monday. Starting the day off was a positive cover story on VoIP in Barron’s, followed by Lucent’s $295 million acquisition of VoIP switch start-up Telica. The result was the biggest day in months for stocks like 8X8 and […]

The major indexes remain stuck in trading ranges (see charts below). Now that options expiry is no longer an immediate influence, we may get some clarity on market direction next week. The high put-call readings have been nothing short of extraordinary, but haven’t resulted in a convincing turn up yet. The indexes are so far […]

The market for IPOs has been struggling lately, but not so for Blue Nile . The online jeweler gained 15% Friday, for a two-day gain of 31% from Thursday’s $25 opening price. So why is the market embracing Blue Nile? In a word: value. With $1.65 in trailing 12-month earnings, NILE came public at just […]

Only one more day until expiry. The put-call ratio has had one of its most sustained high readings on record. That’s bullish for the intermediate term, but as we’ve said, we continue to wait for evidence of a turn. And it should be interesting to see what happens Monday, when all the puts at QQQ […]

The economy has been recovering nicely for a year now, but the telecom equipment sector still appears to be struggling. Ciena plunged 14% Thursday on a wider than expected loss and cost-cutting plans that don’t appear to be enough to return the company to profitability. ADC Telecom lost 6% after narrowing its loss from a […]

iVivity’s backers have stepped up with $26 million to help the intelligent storage networking company bring its products to market. The third-round funding was led by new investors Grotech Capital Group and JK&B Capital. Mellon Ventures was also a new investor to the round, which included previous investors H.I.G. Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Kinetic Ventures, […]

Expiry weeks are notorious for producing volatility, but today was over the top. The bulls had downtrend line breakouts on all the major indices today (see charts below) and blew it. Clearly, the market’s not done with its bottoming process yet. At this point, we’d like to see a 90% downside day to exhaust sellers […]