Paul Shread

The S&P (first chart below) ended the day right on its March uptrend line, but the Dow (second chart) had no such luck, ending the day below that same line. The Nasdaq (third chart) remains a long way from its uptrend line, at 2440 and rising. 2550-2600 remains tough resistance for the techs, but their […]

Investors could be forgiven for looking past HP’s (NYSE: HPQ) quarterly results, given the company’s plans to dramatically remake itself by acquiring EDS (NYSE: EDS), but the numbers were pretty impressive nonetheless. HP pre-announced better than expected quarterly results last week when it announced plans to acquire EDS, and provided more details on its April […]

A strong rally in stocks came unglued Monday after SanDisk CEO Eli Harari told Reuters he sees record high oil prices hurting consumer technology spending. Harari made his comments in an interview at the JP Morgan technology conference in Boston. He said memory chip pricing has stabilized, but there are still inventories to work through. […]

The market remains choppy, but at least it’s heading in the right direction. As we noted earlier this month, the pattern after a financial panic tends to be a choppy rise as bulls slowly regain confidence, and that’s so far what we’re seeing, as the indexes push to new highs, hit resistance and then fall […]

Stocks ended a strong week little changed on Friday, as traders balanced rising oil prices and falling consumer confidence with an unexpected jump in home construction. The Nasdaq ended the week 3.4% higher and at its highest level since early January, as traders continue to bet that the worst of the credit crisis is behind […]

Stocks posted strong gains Thursday on merger news coming out of the tech sector. Topping the news was billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s proxy fight with Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), but the day’s biggest gainer was CNET (NASDAQ: CNET), which soared 43.5% on news that it will be acquired by CBS (NYSE: CBS). In other deals, Comcast […]

The Nasdaq (first chart below) is leading the rally here, a show of relative strength that could be good for the rest of the market, since the tech sector tends to lead. If the Nasdaq can get through 2550, a gap at 2570-2600 is next. Support is 2516 and 2500. If the S&P (second chart) […]

HP (NYSE: HPQ) shares tumbled 5.5% Tuesday, for a two-day drop of more than 10%, on worries that the company is overpaying for EDS (NYSE: EDS). Since the deal combines a fast-growing, high-margin tech sector darling with a slower-growing, low-margin services company, investors have good reason to worry. HP will be hard-pressed to achieve anything […]

With an acquisition of EDS (NYSE: EDS) in the works and quarterly earnings coming out on Thursday, HP (NYSE: HPQ) promises to be the biggest newsmaker in the technology sector this week. Both companies confirmed late today that they are in “advanced discussions” on a “possible business combination,” but that there is no guarantee a […]

The Dow and S&P (first two charts below) are right on support here; much lower than 12,743 and 1385 and 12,500 and 1370 come into play. To the upside, 12,800 and 13,000-13,100 and 1400-1406 and 1430-1435 are the levels the bulls have to beat. The Nasdaq (third chart) looks quite strong compared to its blue […]

Massive losses at insurance giant AIG and plans by Citigroup to shed half a trillion dollars in assets sent blue chip shares tumbling on Friday, but the tech sector managed to escape much of the sell-off on some strong earnings reports. Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN), RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK), Activision (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Sonus Networks (NASDAQ: SONS) […]

Investors fed up with the daily flood of bad news from the financial sector might do well to look at the likes of Priceline.com, which soared to a new 52-week high late Thursday on better than expected results and guidance. Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) rode strength in its Booking.com and Agoda.com international businesses to 34% sales […]