Another Weak Day For Stocks

April 24, 2002

Stocks fell once again on Tuesday, but Amazon.com gave investors hope with better than expected numbers after the close.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ fell 5 to 137, and the Nasdaq lost 28 to 1730. The S&P 500 fell 6 to 1100, and the Dow dropped 47 to 10,089. Volume rose to 1.33 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.94 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 16 to 15 on the NYSE, and 18 to 16 on the Nasdaq.

In a very busy after hours session, Amazon and Expedia beat and raised estimates, and Ticketmaster matched estimates. Cymer and Varian also beat estimates and raised guidance, as did Websense , CheckFree and Netscreen . Fairchild , Coherent , Integrated Device and Oak also beat estimates.

Also after the close, Kronos and Check Point matched estimates. Missing estimates were Nuance , Hutchinson , Vignette , Openwave , Newport , Entrust , Micromuse , and Applied Micro .

During the day, EarthLink , Hotel Reservation Networks , Corning , Neoforma , Altera , JDA Software and Silicon Labs fell on their earnings reports.

Creative Tech , Kemet and EDS rose on their earnings reports.

Qualcomm fell on nervousness ahead of earnings Wednesday morning.

Micron fell on news of a possible debt downgrade.

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 Dow (first chart) remains firmly in a downtrend. 10,030-10,050 could provide support, but 9940 looks like a much better support at this point. 10,220 is the level to beat to the upside. The S&P (second chart) has support at 1098 and then the 1074-1085 level comes into play. Resistance is 1105 and 1123. The Nasdaq (third chart) held 1725 support; if that goes, 1696-1715 is next. Resistance is 1750 and then 1770-1780. The S&P 100 (fourth chart) and Microsoft (fifth chart) are flirting with major breakdowns here and must bounce.

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