Paul Shread

A historic loss from JDS Uniphase and a weaker-than-expected GDP reading weighed on stocks on Friday. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ rose 3 to 205, and the Nasdaq climbed 6 to 2029. The S&P 500 rose 2 to 1205, and the Dow lost 38 to 10,416. Volume declined to 1.02 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.58 […]

Stocks shook off an earnings warning from Hewlett-Packard on Thursday to end the day higher. Qualcomm and VeriSign beat estimates after the close, but JDS Uniphase missed estimates. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ rose 7 to 202, and the Nasdaq climbed 38 to 2022. The S&P 500 rose 12 to 1202, and the Dow added 49 to […]

Two Internet stocks blew out earnings estimates last night and were trading 10% higher in the premarket this morning. However, we’ll spare you the customary “Party Like It’s 1999” line. This is 2001, and it takes a real company with real fundamentals to get a lift like that in this market. And GoTo.com and Homestore.com […]

A rare chart pattern that predicted huge declines in Juniper Networks and Nokia last fall is showing up again in some stocks. The pattern is called the Broadening pattern, and it is among the most bearish of chart patterns. The conditions required to create the pattern almost never occur at market bottoms. The pattern in […]

Blue chip stocks led the market sharply lower Tuesday on negative testimony from Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. Amazon plunged on a revenue warning and profitability concerns, and Lucent announced massive job cuts. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ fell 5 to 194, and the Nasdaq lost 29 to 1959. The S&P 500 dropped 19 to 1171, and the […]

About the best news to come out of Amazon.com’s earnings report last night is that the company doesn’t look like it will run out of cash anytime soon. But that’s about where the good news ends. For the record, Amazon reported a pro forma loss (excluding certain charges) of 16 cents a share, 6 cents […]

Amazon.com beat earnings estimates after the close on Monday, but the stock traded down after the company lowered forward guidance. Stocks fell during the day on the lingering effects of Microsoft’s warning. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ slipped 2 to 200, and the Nasdaq lost 40 to 1988. The S&P 500 lost 19 to 1191, and the […]

Some Monday morning musings after a weekend of catching up: Even stock analysts, a notoriously optimistic bunch, have now given up on a rebound in corporate earnings this year. According to Chuck Hill of First Call, S&P 500 earnings will likely fall 17% this quarter from the comparable period a year ago. Companies are beating […]

Stocks survived an earnings warning from Microsoft on Friday to end the day only modestly lower. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ slipped 1 to 202, and the Nasdaq lost 17 to 2029. The S&P 500 lost 4 to 1210, and the Dow declined 33 to 10,576. Volume declined to 1.15 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.63 […]

Finally, some good news. eBay met estimates last night with no accounting tricks, no “impaired investment” writedowns, no “restructuring” charges, just good old-fashioned growth. Forget the headline 12-cents-a-share, 3-cents-better-than-estimates number. Knocking out a 3-cent charge, which is, after all, real money lost, the company met estimates of 9 cents a share, up 200% from a […]

eBay rose after hours on Thursday after topping estimates, but Microsoft fell on an earnings warning. Stocks gave back strong gains during the day, but managed to finish the day up. The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ rose fractionally to 204, and the Nasdaq climbed 30 to 2046. The S&P 500 climbed 7 to 1215, and the Dow […]

The economy’s lousy, corporate earnings are terrible, and the most aggressive rate cuts by the Federal Reserve since 1929-1930 have failed to help. Looks like it’s time to buy stocks. At least that’s what investors plan to do this morning, with the index futures all above fair value, and in the short-term, they’re probably right. […]