Paul Shread

A 12% surge in shares of Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) did little for the stock market on Monday, as fears of more financial sector losses undid an early rally and sent the Dow and S&P to fresh two-year lows. Yahoo shares shot higher after Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it is open to talks with a new […]

Stocks ended Thursday’s trading session mixed on worse than expected U.S. jobs data and a European Central Bank rate hike. In a shortened pre-holiday session, the Dow was up 73 to 11,288, the S&P tacked on 1 to 1262, while the Nasdaq slipped 6 to 2245. Trading was rocky, with breadth nearly 2-to-1 negative, on […]

The bears are overcoming a lot of historical strengths, not the least of which is the usual strength of stocks in presidential election years and 10-year bearish extremes in sentiment measures like the weekly Investors Intelligence survey, which today matched its March lows of 45-32 bears-bulls. In the short-term, we’d note a couple of minor […]

Record high oil prices and comments from Merrill Lynch that bankruptcy is a possibility for GM (NYSE: GM) sent stocks plunging once again on Wednesday. The day’s trading officially sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average into bear market territory, down more than 20% off its October all-time high. And investors may have more to worry […]

On a day that European manufacturing began to contract and business confidence fell in Japan, global financial markets got a hopeful sign from the most unlikely of places: U.S. manufacturing and General Motors (NYSE: GM). An unexpected uptick in U.S. manufacturing last month and a drop in auto sales that wasn’t as bad as feared […]

The worst June for stocks since 1930 and the worst first half since 2002 ended mixed on Monday, with blue chips flat and tech stocks sharply lower. By any measure, it’s been a rough year for stocks. The Dow had its worst June since 1930, down 10.2% for the month. The major indexes had their […]

The Dow and S&P 500 fell to their lowest levels since March on Friday, as financial worries continued to send stocks skidding. Ford (NYSE: F) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) were the latest to get hit by mounting credit concerns, and bank stocks fell to their lowest level since the 2002 lows. Tech stocks have […]

Note: The Market Close and Technical Analysis columns will be on hiatus next week and will return June 30. The bank stocks started this decline — and with any luck, they’ll end it soon. The bank sector (first chart below) is coming up on a very important support area, its 2002 and 1998 lows. The […]

After weeks of being led lower by financial stocks, tech stocks finally regained the high ground on Thursday and even helped blue chip stocks eke out a small gain. Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) led the way, rising 2% to a new all-time high of $147.55 ahead of its earnings report next week. Citigroup’s (NYSE: […]

Upgrades for Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) were no help for the Nasdaq on Wednesday, thanks to more troubles in the financial sector. The Nasdaq’s most active stock was Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB), which plunged 27% after cutting its dividend and raising more capital. With no end in sight for […]

Despite a number of positives — like commercial long positions in the S&P and more bears than bulls in the weekly Investors Intelligence survey for the first time since mid-April — stocks just can’t get going here. The action remains very much in keeping with historical action after market panics. How long it will take […]

Higher than expected wholesale inflation data and more worries about the health of financial firms sent stocks tumbling once again on Tuesday. Tech stocks were led lower by Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE), which lost 3.4% on sales guidance that was potentially below Wall Street estimates. But Mentor Graphics (NASDAQ: MENT) was a big winner, soaring […]