Paul Shread

StorageTek is overhauling Virtual Storage Manager, its virtual tape storage solution — and is making it clear that this is not just another product upgrade announcement. “We’re not talking a minor point upgrade here,” a company spokesman says. “It’s a major step for VSM.” The new VSM 4 boasts 2-4 times the capacity and performance […]

The biggest news today was the new high in the Dow Transports (see first chart below). That’s a positive, but now the Dow and the S&P (second and third charts) must confirm with new highs above 9352 and 1015. Support is 9140 on the Dow and 994 and 982 on the S&P. The Nasdaq (fourth […]

Earnings season officially kicked off tonight with better than expected results from Dow component Alcoa , but for the tech sector, earnings season won’t begin until Yahoo reports tomorrow night. Yahoo has led a resurgent Internet sector with a 115% year-to-date return and an earnings rebound that has been equally impressive. Yahoo is expected to […]

Tech stocks rocketed Monday after Goldman Sachs said it sees a rebound in IT spending and Microsoft was said to be considering a huge one-time dividend. Microsoft rose 3.5% on reports of a possible one-time $10 billion dividend, pacing a 3.4% gain by the Nasdaq. But more important for the tech sector were comments by […]

Note: The Market Close and Technical Analysis will return Monday, July 7. Happy holiday. Quite a reversal today, as investors continue to see every bit of news in the most positive light imaginable. It will be interesting to see what the upcoming earnings season does to that mentality. The Nasdaq (first chart below) put in […]

PeopleSoft continued to spurn Oracle’s advances on Tuesday. In an open letter to shareholders, PeopleSoft’s board of directors said Oracle’s $6.3 billion hostile takeover offer poses “extraordinary risks” for PeopleSoft shareholders and undervalues the company. The board reiterated its argument that an Oracle takeover would face likely rejection by the Justice Department. Coupled with the […]

Delivering on a promise made in March, Microsoft has released its Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) software initiator package, which includes the Microsoft iSCSI initiator service and the Microsoft iSCSI initiator software driver. Available as a free download at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/, the software driver is designed to work on Microsoft Windows 2000 client and server […]

We’re still waiting for the market to make up its mind here, with all three indexes perched just above support (see charts below). The Dow and S&P (first two charts) are oversold on stochastics, while the Nasdaq (third chart) has gotten back to the mid-range. The Nasdaq needs to hold 1620 tomorrow; 1598 is next […]

Intel was the focus of the IT world on Monday. First, the chip giant unveiled new Itanium and Xeon chips – and no less than a half-dozen companies announced new products for them. And Salomon Smith Barney upgraded Intel’s stock to Outperform while remaining lukewarm on the chip sector in general. SSB said it thinks […]

McDATA may be giving competitors Brocade and Cisco fits in the storage switch space, according to new analyst reports. Michael Jung of SG Cowen recently reported that IBM continues to lower list prices on Cisco’s MDS storage switches, indicating that IBM faces a “challenge to spur demand for Cisco’s storage switches. Our price analysis shows […]

Internals held up nicely today, and volume declined, so we have a market that holds together on down days but doesn’t have enough broad-based buying on up days to sustain a rally. Which side will win? The Nasdaq (first chart below) has a very clear trading range between 1598 and 1686; whichever way that breaks […]

Tech stocks started out strong Friday after CS First Boston analysts said they expect Microsoft to make its quarter when it reports earnings next month. And an uptick in PC sales could lead to earnings upside in the year ahead, the analysts said, echoing comments by Deutsche Bank on the PC sector. However, the CSFB […]