Paul Shread

Applied Materials beat estimates and raised guidance after the close on Wednesday. Earnings of 6 cents a share beat estimates by a penny, and revenues of $1.22 billion bested $1.13 billion forecasts. The company predicted a 20% sequential increase in orders and a 5-7% jump in revenues for the January quarter, both above expectations. AMAT’s […]

Adaptec and PMC-Sierra propelled 3 gigabit per second Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) closer to reality this week, with the first 3 Gb/s transmission and interconnect, respectively. Adaptec claims it has become the first company to achieve full first-generation Serial Attached SCSI speeds of 3 Gb/s in tests of an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) that […]

There was some good fear for much of today, with a high equity put-call ratio for much of the day, but it didn’t last until the close. Still, sentiment has improved in the last couple of days. Now if only the PC ratio would stay high all day, and the market close in oversold territory. […]

Applied Materials and Dell will provide the latest barometers of IT spending when they report quarterly results this week. AMAT, which reports Wednesday after the close, is expected to report a year-over-year decline in earnings, from 9 cents a share in the year-ago quarter to 5 cents a share in the quarter ended Oct. 31. […]

Sun Microsystems is expanding its Grid computing offerings beyond raw compute power to include collaboration, data Grids and visualization. The new “Grid Everywhere” strategy, announced Tuesday, lets customers take a “building block” approach to Grids, says Steve Perrenod, HPTC group manager for Sun. “We believe it’s important to have a wide variety of offerings,” says […]

Platform Computing has Grid-enabled Microsoft Excel, allowing for speedy processing of complex Excel spreadsheets by the financial services industry. The Adapter for Microsoft Excel is now a standard feature of Platform Symphony Suite, which accelerates online and batch operations for financial services applications. The new feature allows for supercharged processing of compute-intensive Microsoft Excel spreadsheets […]

VCs just can’t seem to get enough of Topspin Communications. The intelligent server switch start-up has snagged $20 million in third-round funding, in an oversubscribed round that involved all the company’s previous investors and resulted in a 40% jump in valuation. “These guys look like they may sweep the floor and nail all the major […]

Selling pressure appears to be picking up, with new lows continuing to creep up, but the good news is that sentiment is improving, with a .78 reading on the equity put-call ratio today. Another down day might be enough to get the market into oversold territory, and then it’s up to Applied Materials on Wednesday […]

IBM bucked a down market on Monday, rising 2% on a glowing cover story in Barron’s. IBM could be a big beneficiary of an expected recovery in corporate computer spending next year, the article said, and Steven Milunovich of Merrill Lynch told Barron’s that Big Blue has been gaining market share in servers, even against […]

Today’s candlesticks were ugly across the board, bearish dark cloud cover almost everywhere you look. On the plus side, the internals were very strong for a down day, with new highs rising on both exchanges and stable advance-declines and upside/downside volume. About the only negative in internals is that new lows crept up a little, […]

RAIDCore has unveiled its first products – low-cost, high-performance RAID controllers – and announced a $5 million funding round. Based on Serial ATA (SATA) technology, the RC4000 Series RAID Controllers provide enterprise-class RAID storage solutions for about 30% less than competing models, according to RAIDCore marketing VP Mark Taylor. “We are about 30% lower than […]

After an 80% run-up in 13 months, Nasdaq 2000 was too round a number for profit-takers to ignore. The Nasdaq came within eight points of the 2000 level for the first time since January 2002 on news that the economy finally started to add jobs in September and October. But concern that the Federal Reserve […]