Paul Shread

We’ve had plenty of elements for a major market low, such as extreme bearish sentiment and oversold conditions, but we continue to lack one piece that would cement a bottom: a day or two of 80-90% upside volume. Until we get that kind of forceful buying, the market will remain vulnerable, but that doesn’t mean […]

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) had good news for technology investors late Tuesday, posting better than expected earnings and revenues and suggesting that the downturn may be shorter than feared. Cisco said its July quarter sales grew a better than expected 10% to $10.4 billion, and earnings of 40 cents a share were a penny better […]

Stocks fell Monday despite a broad decline in commodity prices, as lingering financial worries and an uptick in the closely-watched personal consumption inflation indicator had traders on edge before the Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday. And the Fed won’t be all that traders are worried about on Tuesday. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) will report its […]

Another day of job losses and weak earnings reports got August off to a rough start on Wall Street Friday. Nortel (NYSE: NT) and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) suffered double-digit percentage declines after the two said they face tough going amid economic headwinds, and General Motors (NYSE: GM) fell 8% after posting a huge second-quarter […]

With a whole lot of news on the agenda for tomorrow and the indexes in a precarious position, it could turn out to be a pretty pivotal day for stocks. As we’ve been saying since the low earlier this month (called quite nicely by the Demark sequential indicator), we have yet to see the kind […]

Not much went right for U.S. stocks on Thursday, but the surprise was that only blue chip stocks felt the pain. A weaker than expected GDP report and a spike in weekly jobless claims to the highest level since April 2003 had blue chip stocks on the defensive all day, but the Nasdaq was in […]

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Wednesday’s Wall Street trading session was that oil and stocks managed to rise at the same time, in stark contrast to recent months that saw sharp stock market declines on rising oil prices. A much better than expected ADP private sector employment report helped brighten investors’ moods — and […]

NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) is extending its primary storage data technology to its competitors’ arrays (see NetApp Dedupes Customers and Dedupe: It’s Not Just for Backup Anymore). By adding the free feature to its V-Series family of storage virtualization solutions, NetApp says users can use the technology to reduce redundant data on storage systems from the […]

Falling oil prices and an uptick in consumer confidence sent stocks soaring on Tuesday, while a big write-down at Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) raised hopes that the troubled credit markets may finally be nearing a bottom. Merrill’s plan to sell collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) for 22 cents on the dollar suggested a firm bottom for […]

The big question today is whether Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) put a floor under the credit markets, and a quick glance at the ABX indexes (see first chart below) looks encouraging, as many charts in the sector turned up sharply after Merrill set a price on its CDO holdings. That said, we’re still looking for […]

Another day of worries about the health of the U.S. financial and housing sectors sent stocks tumbling more than 2%, capping the worst three-day stretch for the Dow since January. And tech stocks didn’t fare much better. Of the 25 most heavily-traded Nasdaq stocks, 23 ended the day lower, with only Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) […]

Stocks are once again as oversold as they were at the January and March bottoms and again two weeks ago. Can they put together a bounce that will be any more lasting than the last few times? Only if we can see some forceful upside buying that would suggest sellers are finally sold out enough […]