Paul Shread

Google found out just how jittery investors have become when they sent the company’s shares plunging in after-hours trading Thursday for results that were just shy of Wall Street estimates. Google’s revenues after traffic acquisition costs rose 52% in the fourth quarter to $3.39 billion, just below $3.45 billion estimates. Earnings were $4.43 a share […]

The S&P (first chart below) was unable to close above 1370 today, the bottom of a 15-month trading range that was broken earlier this month, which could leave the index vulnerable to a pullback. If the index can close above 1370, 1406 becomes the next big hurdle for the bulls. To the downside, 1350, 1338, […]

The Federal Reserve gave investors exactly what they wanted on Wednesday: another half-point interest rate cut on top of last week’s three-quarter-point emergency rate cut, but stocks nonetheless ended the day with modest losses on concern about possible credit rating downgrades of bond insurers. The major indexes jumped more than 1% following the Fed’s announcement, […]

A warning from EMC that 2008 will be a tough year for IT spending hit EMC and VMware shares on Tuesday, but the rest of the market gained on hopes for another big rate cut from the Federal Reserve. EMC’s quarterly results were solid, but comments by CEO Joe Tucci that the IT spending environment […]

Stocks posted strong gains Monday on hopes that another bleak housing market report will lead to another aggressive rate cut by the Federal Reserve this week. Traders were pricing in a greater than 80% chance of a half-point rate cut from the Fed when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday. The Fed cut rates […]

Better than expected results from a number of top technology names boosted stocks in the early going Friday, but sellers soon took over to send the market sharply lower. Despite extreme volatility, Wall Street managed to finish the week with small gains in the Dow and S&P and just a 0.6% loss in the Nasdaq, […]

Another day, another good sign for the bulls. New 52-week lows on the New York Stock Exchange have dropped from 1,098 to 79 in two days, one of the signs we were looking for to suggest a possible trend change. A dramatic shift that suggests that selling momentum may be drying up, but one that […]

After leading the tech sector higher during the day, Microsoft kept the rally going after hours Thursday with another quarter of better than expected results and guidance. Microsoft shares rose 4% in late trading on top of a 4% rise during the day after the company posted a 30% sales increase to $16.37 billion, beating […]

At this week’s lows, the market has been as oversold as any in the last 70 years, just based on the depth of the decline in a short amount of time. A weekly close below 11,847 on the Dow would be even better, giving us that oversold reading on a weekly closing basis, but stocks […]

The market finally got the interest rate cut it was looking for today, but did it come too late? A half-point rate cut a week ago, when the S&P 500 (first chart below) was still above 1370, would have been better than a three-quarter-point cut after the breakdown, but there are nonetheless some positives here […]

A surprise interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve may have rescued the stock market from a steep decline on Tuesday, but it was no help for Apple shareholders. Apple shares plunged in late trading Tuesday after the company issued a much weaker than expected outlook for the current quarter. Apple posted 35% December quarter […]

Better than expected results from IBM, AMD and GE helped for all of about an hour on Friday. The stock market opened sharply higher, peaked about 45 minutes later, and then spent the rest of the day on the defensive to end the worst week for stocks since July 2002, with the S&P 500 off […]