Waiting For The Fed
Stocks rose Monday afternoon after spending the morning mixed, as traders waited for the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates due out at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/
Optical networking stocks rose despite lowered full-year guidance from Corning
Ariba
PSINet
Palm
Check Point
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A nice looking market today, but it's hard to get too excited until the Fed's decision - and the market's reaction - at 2:15 p.m. tomorrow. The Nasdaq now has a nice lower trendline at 1867 today (1857 tomorrow), the lower boundary of what could be a bullish falling wedge (first chart). The Nasdaq 100 also has a lower wedge trendline forming (second chart). Sellers seem to be running out of energy lately, and the chart patterns and price action have so far supported that view. The Nasdaq is also holding above pretty stubborn resistance from mid-1998 in the 1850-1870 range (third chart), so that could add to support in this range. The next support level below 1850 would likely be 1750-1770. Also adding to the trend exhaustion case is that the Nasdaq 100 hasn't had the kind of rapid descent that would be expected after it broke a bear flag last week (fourth chart), but we'll wait until tomorrow before disregarding that pattern. To the upside, the Nasdaq needs to clear 2028, the July 1998 high, fill a down gap at 2042-2053, and get back above 2070, the redrawn 1990 logarithmic trendline. After that, the upper boundary of that falling wedge is just under 2100, and next resistance after that is 2252. We are still expecting a significant turn in the market this week, and due to the importance of the Fed news, the market's reaction tomorrow afternoon should tell us if we will get that turn. But the market is at its most oversold levels in recent memory.
rose 3 to 215, and the Nasdaq added 19 to 1910. The S&P 500 rose 8 to 1159, and the Dow climbed 80 to 9903. Volume dropped to 482 million shares on the NYSE, and 718 million on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 14 to 13 on the NYSE, and 18 to 14 on the Nasdaq. 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.
, which rose 1.31 to 24.49. Corvis
climbed 7/32 to 8 5/8 on news that it had introduced the highest capacity transport system to date. Bit Ciena
fell 3 13/16 on news that Cisco
was moving into the metro space.
rose 1/4 to 10 7/16 on a deal with IBM
. i2
lost 1/8 to 16 7/8, and Commerce One
rose .09 to 9.17.
plunged 17/32 to 3/16 after the company retained Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to explore alternatives and said its common stock has no value because of company indebtedness.
added 3/16 to 13 3/4 after the company said a lawsuit filed by NCR last week against Palm and Handspring
has no merit.
continued to come under pressure, losing 4 13/16 to 52 15/16. Openwave
, off 1.75 to 23.80, hit a new low on an analyst downgrade.