Paul Shread

The Dow (first chart below) formed a bearish evening star today. With the lukewarm response to earnings the last couple of weeks, is the market finally getting ready for a correction? Support on the index is 10,550, 10,500 and 10,450, and resistance is 10,625 and 10,673. Time finally caught up with the Nasdaq (second chart), […]

Microsoft beat estimates and raised guidance after the close on Thursday, but investors fretted about a huge increase in stock-based compensation. Earnings of 34 cents a share beat 30-cent estimates, and revenues of $10.15 billion exceeded $9.74 billion forecasts. Microsoft also raised quarterly and full-year guidance above forecasts, but investors focused instead on the huge […]

Adaptec is combining iSCSI and Serial ATA to deliver the company’s first external storage solutions. Adaptec next week will formally unveil solutions for Fibre Channel and IP SANs, Direct Attached Storage, and components and software, building on its acquisition of Eurologic to offer end-to-end storage solutions. The Adaptec iSA1500, an iSCSI-to-Serial ATA storage array, leverages […]

The Nasdaq (first chart below) closed the day right on its December uptrend line. A gap down in the morning, particularly one that takes out the 200-week moving average at 2114, would be a negative. 2100 and 2080 are support levels below that. First resistance is 2128-2130, and 2150-2163 is major resistance. The S&P (second […]

If you blinked today, you missed the correction. Nice recovery off the lows today, although a plunging VIX (options volatility index) and a very low equity put-call ratio should give the bulls some pause here. The Dow (first two charts below) is heading into major resistance at 10,673, the 2002 peak. That should be formidable […]

eBay investors could be forgiven for wondering if there ever was a Nasdaq bear market. The Nasdaq may remain about 60% below its all-time high, but eBay recently set a new all-time high, clearing its early 2000 peak of 63.75. And it’s headed higher after hours after beating estimates and raising guidance. eBay’s earnings of […]

The Dow (first two charts below) formed a bearish engulfing candlestick today, opening above Friday’s trading and closing below it, while the S&P (charts three and four) and the Nasdaq (charts five and six) formed candlesticks that resemble bearish “hanging men,” closing below the open on a gap up (on the S&P, best viewed on […]

Motorola and AMD beat estimates after the close on Tuesday, but investors appeared unimpressed. AMD blew out 3-cent estimates with 9-cent earnings, and revenues of $1.21 billion topped $1.08 billion forecasts. Motorola’s earnings of 17 cents a share topped estimates by 4 cents, and revenues of $8 billion beat $7.73 billion estimates. Despite the strong […]

SAN filer start-up ONStor and utility storage company 3PAR have partnered to set a new storage performance benchmark record. The companies’ products working together on a dual node installation, the configuration most commonly found in corporate data centers, delivered the highest throughput ever recorded on an industry-standard file services benchmark. “It’s the configuration that probably […]

Today was about as simple as it gets: new highs all around, and on rising volume to boot. That suggests more gains ahead for the market. The one negative is that all indexes closed at 100 on short-term stochastics; that’s overbought. Also, there was a lot of options hedging this week; that could cause some […]

The Nasdaq (first two charts below) is approaching its 200-week moving average at 2128, a major resistance level. The techs have been in one tight trading range for the last week. First resistance is 2122-2125, and support is 2092-2095 and 2077-2080. The S&P (charts three and four) continues to be stopped at its broken December […]

Better than expected earnings from IBM and a strong manufacturing report saved the market from a sell-off on Thursday. IBM surged 5% after beating estimates, offsetting lukewarm reports from Intel , Yahoo , Apple and QLogic . Rumors that Osama bin Laden could be captured also boosted the market in a volatile session ahead of […]