Paul Shread

The bulls are still a long way from turning this market around, but they have a couple of positives today, if they can build on them. First, we had lower volume on today’s decline than we did on Friday, and much lower volume than the 6-7 billion share days we saw on the NYSE at […]

Investors got fresh evidence Monday that a U.S. economic slowdown is hurting technology spending. Texas Instruments said in its mid-quarter update that its first-quarter results will come in below expectations. TI said it expects revenue for the quarter to come in between $3.21 billion and $3.35 billion, below its previous forecast of $3.27 billion to […]

EMC has made an offer to acquire Iomega, its latest play for dominance in the fast-growing consumer and small business storage market. Iomega has rejected EMC’s offer as inadequate, while EMC is suggesting it’s open to further discussions between the two. EMC offered $3.25 a share for publicly-traded Iomega, a 22 percent premium to Friday’s […]

With stocks retesting their January lows, it will take more of a bid under the market than we saw today to keep from breaking those lows. There were some positives today, such as outperforming financials, techs and small caps, that could suggest that downside momentum is drying up. And put-call indicators are at or near […]

National Semi and Ciena helped tech stocks hold up a little better than the rest of the market on Friday, but it was still another ugly day for stocks. News that employers cut 63,000 jobs last month and that Washington Mutual may be seeking an emergency cash infusion sent blue chip stocks more than 1% […]

Stocks are approaching their January lows here; can they hold on this retest? Sentiment is in the bulls’ favor, as we’ve stated ad nauseum, but so far that’s done little to create higher prices. Today’s spike in the CBOE equity put-call ratio (first chart below) was the biggest in 3 1/2 years, the latest evidence […]

Stocks closed at new lows for the year Thursday after the eight-month-old credit crisis claimed a fresh round of victims. A default at Thornburg Mortgage cut shares of the jumbo mortgage lender in half, and other banks began cutting back on mortgage portfolios and liquidating positions as credit market troubles began to spread to safer […]

Stocks managed to end the day with modest gains Wednesday despite more downbeat economic news and a lack of a bailout for a key bond insurer. The Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book” summary of economic conditions and declines in service sector activity, factory orders and the ADP employment report painted a picture of a weakening economy, […]

It’s probably a bit of a stretch to give the storage industry credit for helping end the Curse of the Bambino, but data storage technology did provide a critical boost at the right moment. In game four of the 2004 American League Championship Series, with the Boston Red Sox trailing the archrival New York Yankees […]

A steep sell-off Tuesday on worries about Intel’s margins and Citigroup’s losses turned into a slight gain for the Nasdaq by the close after Cisco Systems reaffirmed its long-term growth forecast. Intel traded 3% lower for much of the day after warning that NAND flash pricing pressures are hurting margins, but managed to follow the […]

Brocade moved to bolster its services business today with the acquisition of Herndon, Virginia-based Strategic Business Systems (SBS). Rob Buergisser, Brocade’s director of services, support and solutions, said SBS’ government consulting business was a key reason for the deal. About 60 percent of the company’s consultants hold a federal security clearance. The deal also gives […]

Tech stocks lost ground for a third day Monday, as economic concerns continued to weigh on the market. Weak manufacturing, auto sales and construction data continued the drumbeat of downbeat economic news, combining with worries about inflation and credit market troubles to send stocks sharply lower in the early going. But monthly inflows helped limit […]