Paul Shread

EMC’s acquisiton of Mozy two months ago put the storage world on notice that the online backup market was maturing. A pair of moves today by IBM and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) confirms the trend. IBM announced that it is acquiring Arsenal Digital Solutions, one of the oldest players in the online backup space, and […]

Tech stocks lost ground for a third day Tuesday, as traders awaited critical economic data a week before the Federal Reserve meets. Dell lost ground again despite restarting its share buyback program to the tune of $10 billion, and blue chip stocks slumped after analysts downgraded the financial sector. With employment and retail sales data […]

Tech stocks fell for a second day Monday, as Dell’s cautious outlook continued to weigh on the sector. Dell followed Friday’s 13% decline with another 2.4% loss. Blue chip stocks fell after weak auto sales and manufacturing data added to slowdown concerns, despite an early boost on word of a government plan to help subprime […]

Dell shares fell 7% late Thursday despite much better than expected quarterly sales, as traders focused on margin pressures and a cautious outlook from the company. Dell’s third-quarter sales rose 9% from the year-ago quarter to $15.65 billion, well ahead of $15.34 billion estimates. But pro forma earnings of 35 cents a share merely met […]

Stocks had their best day of the year and their best two-day gain in five years after weak economic reports and dovish comments from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn gave investors hope that the Fed will cut interest rates when it meets Dec. 11. Investors still have to hear from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke […]

The bulls are giving it another shot here, and this one looks a little more promising than the last couple of attempts. For starters, we had a higher low in the NYSE advance/decline line (first chart below) when the indexes made lower lows on Monday, a positive divergence that suggests accumulation by buyers. And today, […]

Stocks recovered much of Monday’s big decline Tuesday on news of a $7.5 billion investment in Citigroup from Abu Dhabi. The news helped investors forget about credit market troubles and a tumbling housing market for a day, and an upgrade of Intel helped boost the tech sector. Investors also shook off comments from Federal Reserve […]

A better than expected start to the holiday shopping season was good for all of a 30-minute rally Monday before credit and housing market concerns sent stocks plunging once again. After starting the day out modestly higher, the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq all ended the day about 2% lower, extending a brutal slide that began […]

The most brutal month of November for stocks in at least seven years continues apace, and to add insult to injury, the Dow closed below its August low last Wednesday, giving the first Dow Theory sell signal since the 2000-2003 bear market. For those who don’t know, Dow Theory is based on the century-old work […]

An early rally on strong results from HP turned negative on Tuesday before stocks recovered to close in positive territory. The major indexes were up more than 1% in the first 90 minutes of trading before 25% losses in shares of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae caught up with the market. At their lows, the […]

So much for November and December being the strongest months of the year for stocks, as the major indexes have plunged through one support level after another this month. The S&P 500 (first two charts below) is now sitting on 1427-1432 support. Below that, 1416 and 1410 are the last hopes for avoiding a complete […]

HP posted quarterly results late Monday that soundly beat analysts’ estimates, but after another rough day in the stock market, investors didn’t seem to be in much of a mood to cheer. HP’s sales rose 15% to $28.3 billion, well ahead of $27.4 billion Thomson Financial estimates, and earnings of 86 cents a share were […]