Paul Shread

The S&P and the Nasdaq (first four charts below) continue to consolidate below the major levels of 957 and 1600, a break above which would be bullish if the indexes can hold on. 950 on the S&P and 1550 on the Nasdaq are the first resistance levels. 938, 930 and 920 are support on the […]

Stocks surged Monday after an influential analyst upgraded shares of Cisco Systems . Tim Luke of Lehman Brothers said early indications are that Cisco has maintained April’s strong pace into May. Luke raised his rating to Overweight from Equal Weight and set an $18 price target. Cisco gained 4.5% to 16.67. The Nasdaq surged 21 […]

The S&P (first two charts below) is closing in on some major resistance just under 960 – its Sept. 2000 downtrend line and neckline of a multi-year head and shoulders top. If it can break above that and hold, this rally could turn into a cyclical bull market, particularly if the Dow (third chart) can […]

Tape library manufacturer Spectra Logic recently conducted a benchmark test that the company claims shows iSCSI backup performance is essentially equal to Fibre Channel in terms of performance for Microsoft Exchange database backups. “These results validate expectations that iSCSI presents an important new opportunity for IT organizations to implement storage consolidation at a fraction of […]

A nice reversal today, but it came on lower volume than yesterday, and the failure of either exchange to register 80% upside volume is a negative. That said, for now price may be pointed higher, and with all the puts out there, that’s not too surprising. The short sellers are the one thing propping up […]

After spending the last couple of years dampening investor expectations, Intel unexpectedly raised them on Friday. The chip giant reportedly told German financial daily Handelsblatt that it sees strong demand in China and is expecting a rebound in the battered chip industry this year. The company also said its wireless Centrino chip is meeting expectations. […]

Tech stocks fell Thursday after Goldman Sachs and Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan raised concerns about the pace of corporate investment. A Goldman Sachs IT Spending survey taken in mid-April cast doubt on IT spending intentions for the remainder of the year, and Greenspan told a banking conference that an “awful lot” of investment has been […]

The Dow (first chart below) gave up 8522-8530 support; that’s now resistance again, and 8420 is now critical support. The S&P (second chart) is so far hanging on. 920 and 912 are critical levels; below those levels a top of some sort is likely in. Resistance is 925, 930 and 935-945. The Nasdaq (third chart) […]

Sandial Systems is announcing its entry into the storage networking market with what it claims is an innovative “backbone” approach. The SAN switch company also announced a key customer addition — athletic shoe manufacturer New Balance, which Sandial states is “one of several Global 2000 customers working with Sandial to construct storage network backbones that […]

Cisco Systems embodies the central dilemma for investors in the current market: how much is flat growth worth, even among the best companies? For Wednesday, at least, investors decided that a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 25 is enough, as Cisco declined 2.5% despite better than expected results and a modest uptick in orders. With analysts […]

Option players continue to show skepticism, which is a positive for the bullish case, but the important Investors Intelligence survey sounded a cautionary note today when bulls climbed above the important 55% level, and bears below the important 25% level, signs of too much bullish sentiment out there. It appears to us that the only […]

The S&P (first chart below) was stopped at the critical 940 resistance level. 919-920 is critical support. If the index is going to top out, this would be as good a place as any. The Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100 (second and third charts) cleared their December highs, but only the Nasdaq was able to hold […]