Paul Shread

World markets plunged Tuesday after a massive, coordinated terrorist attack with hijacked U.S. jetliners collapsed both towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and severely damaged the Pentagon in Northern Virginia. Reports of attacks at the State Department and the U.S. Capitol in Washington were apparently unfounded. The Federal Aviation Administration closed all major […]

Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center this morning, collapsing both towers in an apparent massive, coordinated terrorist attack. A plane later crashed into the Pentagon, and other unconfirmed explosions were reported in Washington. Thousands were feared dead in the attacks. A plane later crashed about 80 miles south of Pittsburgh. According to witnesses, […]

The stock market started out very weak on Monday, but managed to end the day with small gains in the Nasdaq and S&P 500. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ rose 2 to 144, and the Nasdaq climbed 7 to 1695. The S&P 500 rose 6 to 1099, and the Dow slipped less than a point to 9605. […]

The S&P 500 is poised this morning to become the first of the three major stock indexes to undercut its low from March and April. With the futures trading down 12 points this morning after closing 4 points below fair value on Friday (making the futures down 16 points this morning), the index should easily […]

Blue chips plunged Friday on a weaker-than-expected jobs report, but tech stocks fared better on Intel’s reaffirmation of revenue guidance. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ slipped 1 to 142, and the Nasdaq lost 17 to 1687. The S&P 500 fell 20 to 1085, and the Dow plunged 234 to 9605. Volume rose to 1.4 billion shares on […]

Intel’s news last night wasn’t bad, all things considered. The problem is that this downturn may not be about technology earnings anymore. As we said two days ago, the market has been spending the last month pricing in a decline in consumer confidence and spending. And yesterday, the market took another beating when the NAPM […]

News that the government won’t seek a breakup of Microsoft did little to help a market worried about economic weakness on Thursday. And Intel’s reaffirmation of revenue guidance after the close was met with a collective yawn. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ fell 5 to 143, and the Nasdaq dropped 53 to 1705. The S&P 500 lost […]

It’s funny what the stock market will rally on these days. Two weeks ago, it was Cisco’s reaffirmation of two-week old earnings guidance that sent stocks soaring in a one-day rally. Yesterday it was Microsoft’s reaffirmation of its earnings guidance … for June 2002. The presentation by Microsoft CFO John Connors was such a non-event […]

Stocks battled back from a steep sell-off on Wednesday after Microsoft reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ fell 4 to 149, and the Nasdaq lost 11 to 1759. The S&P 500 slipped 1 to 1131, and the Dow rose 35 to 10,033. Volume surged to 1.36 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.94 […]

The market has been engaged in an interesting tug-of-war the last two days. On one hand is the first genuinely hopeful manufacturing data since the economy fell off a cliff last November. And on the other is a few weeks of data suggesting that consumer spending may be weakening. Strong rallies have collapsed two days […]

News of a merger between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq and better than expected manufacturing data sent stocks to strong gains on Tuesday, only to give them all back by the close. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ fell 5 to 154, and the Nasdaq lost 34 to 1770. The S&P 500 slipped fractionally to 1132, and the Dow rose […]

A lot was made last week of a rare buy signal in the technical indicator known as the Arms Index, only the eighth buy signal in 34 years. The Arms Index is the 10-day moving average of the TRIN, which measures buying and selling pressure on the New York Stock Exchange. A TRIN reading above […]