Markets Mixed At Midday

The Nasdaq digested its strong gains on Friday, while blue chip issues continued to lag.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ added 7 to 387, and the Nasdaq tacked on 6 to 2646. The S&P 500 slipped 6 to 1320, and the Dow fell 70 to 10,539. Volume rose to 583 million shares on the NYSE, and 1.3 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by 13 to 12 on the NYSE, but advancers led 22 to 12 on the Nasdaq. The Producer Price Index and retail sales came in stronger than expected, fueling fears that the Fed may not cut interest rates as much as expected. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar at http://www.wsrn.com/apps/earnings/internet.xpl and reported earnings at http://www.wsrn.com/apps/earnings/ireported.xpl. For after hours quotes and news, visit our after hours trading site at http://www.afterhourstrading.com.

Ariba plunged 7 1/2 to 35 7/8. The company blew away estimates with earnings of 5 cents a share, 3 cents better than expected, and raised forward guidance. But analysts downgraded the stock on concern about slowing sequential revenue growth and a doubling in receivables. i2 slipped 1 9/32 to 49 15/32, and Commerce One fell 2 3/4 to 21 15/16.

DoubleClick surged 3 7/32 to 14 1/2 after beating reduced estimates but guiding first quarter results lower. Full-year projections were above analysts' expectations.

Looksmart slipped 9/16 to 2 1/2 after warning of lower than expected results.

Earthlink slipped 3/32 to 7 7/8 after trading as high as 8 5/8. The company's high-speed Internet services will benefit from the merger of America Online and Time Warner approved by the FCC last night.

Digital Island rose 3/16 to 4 15/16 despite announcing the departure of President Leo Spiegel, who is headed for Mission Ventures, a venture capital firm.

Broadcom , up 9 7/8 to 125 11/16, continued to rise despite disappointing earnings news from major customers Cisco and Motorola .

Some technical comments on the market: Note: We are now including charts in the technical market commentary. If you can't get the charts via the e-mail newsletter version, try this link: http://www.afterhourstrading.com/column.html

The Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100 may have hit about all the resistance they could handle this morning. The Nasdaq squeezed above its September downtrend line (first chart) at 2660, only to pull back within it. A close of 2713, breaking that line by 2%, would be bullish. Also, the Nasdaq reached the upper trendline of a rising channel (second chart). The lower boundary of that channel is now at about 2350, and would be the maximum downside expected on any pullback. The index set a higher high on this move to complete a cycle of a higher high and higher low, but the S&P and Dow did not follow, a negative. As we've said before, healthy markets move in sync.

The Nasdaq 100 may be forming an inverted head and shoulders bottom. But the neckline of that pattern and the index's September downtrend line both met at about 2600 today, giving the index a little more resistance than it could handle. A close of 2650 could carry the Nasdaq indexes to 3000.

The ISDEX took out critical resistance at 385, but it needs to close above 400.