The Nasdaq fell to new lows on Monday, as the longest bear market since 1937-1942 continued to maul investors.
The Nasdaq fell 36 to 1184, undercutting its July low of 1192. The S&P 500 lost 11 to 833, and the Dow dropped 113 to 7872. Volume declined to 1.35 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.44 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 23 to 9 on the NYSE, and 25 to 8 on the Nasdaq.
After the close, Palm warned.
During the day, Microsoft fell 5% on CEO Steve Ballmer’s comments that business remains tough in Europe.
JDS Uniphase lost 12% on a warning.
QLogic fell 4% despite reaffirming guidance.
Dell lost 2.6% on a New York Times article claiming balance sheet deterioration at the company. Salomon Smith Barney came to Dell’s defense, and the stock finished off its worst levels. Dell will host an analyst meeting October 1.
Serena lost 16% on a negative report by Off Wall Street.
Netflix gained fractionally on positive analyst comments.
Some technical comments on the market: Note: To see the charts in the text email newsletter, click on the internetstockreport.com story link at the top of the newsletter.
The Nasdaq (first chart below) is on the brink here, closing right above its 200-month moving average at 1176.88. Below that level, the next strong supports are 1080 and 1000. A move above 1192-1206 would be a good sign that a bounce has started. The SOX, the semiconductor index (second chart), looks like it’s on its way to 217-220. 243-250 is now resistance. There’s not much in the way of strong support between here and the July lows on the Dow (7532, third chart) and the S&P (775, fourth chart). 7600-7700 is potential support on the Dow, and 775-807 and 814 are potential supports on the S&P. Resistance is 8030-8050 and 8200-8300 on the Dow, and 844-854 and 870-875 on the S&P. And finally, last Thursday was not a 90% downside day on the Nasdaq; the index lacked the 90% points lost in addition to the 90% downside volume it did achieve, according to Paul Desmond of Lowry’s Reports. That gives us only one 90% downside day on the NYSE and none on the Nasdaq; major bottoms have historically had 5 on average, according to Desmond’s award-winning work.
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