Paul Shread

It wasn’t pretty, but the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq all managed to hold support today. The S&P (first chart below) held on better than the other indexes, forming a rising channel at today’s low of 1261. That line is at 1262 and rising for tomorrow. If that goes, 1256-1257 is next, with 1247 and 1234 […]

Today was a clear loss for the bulls, as the Dow and S&P (first two charts below) gave up their month-old uptrends today. The next support levels for the Dow are 11,400 and 11,320, and the index needs to get back above 11,580 to reverse the breakdown. The S&P could be okay if it reverse […]

Stocks tumbled Monday on more financial fears and jitters ahead of quarterly results from Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD). Worries about the future of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM), Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) sent financial shares plunging and the broader market 1.5% lower. Tuesday will be even busier […]

Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) posted strong quarterly results on Tuesday, evidence that storage spending continues to hold strong in the face of an economic downturn. Just about every aspect of the storage switch market leader’s product lineup held up well in its July quarter, including 4 Gbps and 8 Gbps Fibre Channel switches, director-class switches, embedded […]

A nice save by the bulls today, as the Dow and S&P (first two charts below) found support at their main uptrend lines. Those lines will be at 11,480 and 1277 and rising as of tomorrow. To the upside, both indexes need to take out those upper trendlines — at 11,910 and 1318 and climbing […]

Tech stocks survived another blue-chip drubbing on Wednesday, as strong earnings reports from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) provided the latest evidence that tech spending is holding strong in the face of a year-long credit market meltdown. Nvidia and AMAT rose 10% and 5%, respectively, after issuing upbeat outlooks, holding the Nasdaq […]

Good news from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and AMD (NYSE: AMD) couldn’t overcome another drubbing in the financial sector on Tuesday. Intel edged higher after saying its quarter remains on track, and AMD gained 2 percent after releasing a new graphics card. The news helped the chip sector (PHI: SOX) finish with its seventh straight gain, […]

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) sent tech stocks higher on Monday after a Citigroup analyst issued an upbeat report on the stock. Amazon shares gained more than 9% after analyst Mark Mahaney said Amazon’s Kindle could become “the iPod of the book world.” Mahaney said Amazon could sell as many as 380,000 of the devices this year, […]

Some very positive developments on the inflation front — just look at the dollar and commodity charts (first two charts below). Now all we need are some signs that the credit market troubles are easing — and some forceful upside buying that appears to be more than just sector rotation. Still, for now at least, […]

A big jump in the U.S. dollar and a big drop in oil prices sent stocks soaring Friday, as investors cheered signs that inflation pressures are easing. The news was good for a 2.5% gain for the major stocks indexes, which notched six-week highs on positive inflation trends that have been building since mid-July. The […]

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) fueled a rally in semiconductor shares on Thursday, but the rest of the market got crushed under the weight of a huge loss at insurance giant AIG (NYSE: AIG). Intel shares rose nearly 4% after Citigroup said it found strong demand for the company’s Atom chips in field checks in Japan. The […]

Better than expected quarterly results from Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) sent the Nasdaq to its highest level since June 25 despite lingering worries about the housing and financial crisis. Cisco’s strong quarter and assertions that the economic downturn will be short-lived sent its shares 5.7% higher and the Nasdaq 1.2% higher. Cisco even managed to […]