Paul Shread

Bulls continue to push higher in the wake of the recent Dow Theory bull signal, with the S&P (first chart below) trying to break out of a multi-month trading range here. Resistance on the S&P is 1406 and 1435, and support is 1370 and 1360. The Dow (second chart) has support at 12,743 and 12,530, […]

A disappointing earnings report from Microsoft wasn’t enough to keep stocks down on Friday, as the S&P notched a multi-month high and the Nasdaq suffered only slightly. Microsoft shares fell 6% after the only part of the company’s business to exceed Wall Street expectations was Xbox sales. Yahoo, meanwhile, slipped ahead of a key deadline […]

Even before Microsoft released its quarterly results late Thursday, stocks were already headed lower. Stocks finished the day with strong gains, yet ended 1% off their highs after turning lower in the final hour of trading. The jitters ahead of Microsoft’s earnings report turned out to be prescient, as the software giant released mixed results […]

Aside from a few exceptions like Nokia, AMD and Texas Instruments, first-quarter technology earnings have so far been surprisingly strong. Apple, Amazon.com, EMC, VMware, Yahoo and Broadcom were the latest tech bellwethers reporting better than expected results on Tuesday and Wednesday, and while investor reaction to the reports has been mixed, so far the trend […]

Investors are having some misgivings after last week’s Dow Theory bull signal, but the history of pullbacks after Dow Theory buy signals suggests that any pullback should be relatively shallow — even if it lasts a while. As we wrote in November, bear signals tend to be followed by a sharp countertrend move (a rally) […]

VMware became the latest tech company to blow past Wall Street estimates late Tuesday when the company reported that sales grew 69% in the first quarter. VMware’s revenues of $438.2 million were $16 million ahead of Thomson Financial forecasts, and earnings of 22 cents a share were in line with expectations. The server virtualization company […]

Investors hoping that Intel’s blow-out results last week were good news for rest of the chip sector received a bit of a letdown late Monday when Texas Instruments reported quarterly results that were generally below analysts’ expectations. TI reported earnings of 43 cents a share after factoring out tax benefits, and sales rose 3% from […]

The Dow (first chart below) finally cleared 12,743.2, confirming the Transports’ (second chart) higher high and generating a Dow Theory bull signal, the first since mid-2003. November’s bear signal wound up producing a 50-point loss in Dow points, but since the market fell 10% after that bear signal, it’s hard to call it a failure. […]

An unexpected earnings blowout from Google and results from Citigroup that weren’t as bad as feared sent stocks soaring on Friday. Google shares soared 20%, or nearly $90, to $539.41, its best one-day gain ever. Surprisingly strong results from IBM, Intel and Google and the lack of complete disasters at financials like Merrill Lynch and […]

Google and IBM rose Thursday on better than expected results, but the biggest surprise was that investors were willing to look past disappointing results from AMD and Merrill Lynch to bid shares of those companies higher too. Stocks started lower Thursday morning, as strong earnings from IBM weren’t enough to overcome a bigger than expected […]

Stocks soared Wednesday on better than expected results from Intel and JP Morgan, and IBM kept the rally going after hours with strong earnings and upbeat guidance. The news was good enough to ease slowdown and credit market fears, but investors still have to get through quarterly results from Merrill Lynch and Citigroup the next […]

The Dow (first chart below) looks like it may be ready for another assault on 12,743.2. A close at that level or higher would confirm the Transports’ (second chart) higher high and generate a Dow Theory bull signal, reversing November’s bear signal and signaling that the worst of the credit crunch may be over. On […]