Bears Take A Break, Await Earnings Reports

Technology and Internet stocks rebounded from steep losses on Monday, as traders awaited the quarterly deluge of earnings reports.

The ISDEX gained 17 to 691 after trading as low as 642, and the Nasdaq slipped 5 to 3355, about 120 points off its low. The S&P 500 dropped 6 to 1402, and the Dow declined 28 to 10,568. Volume dropped sharply due to Columbus Day and Yom Kippur, to 718 million shares on the NYSE and 1.4 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by 15 to 12 on the NYSE and 23 to 14 on the Nasdaq. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar and reported earnings. For after hours quotes and news, visit our after hours trading site.

Yahoo added 4 1/8 to 85 3/8 after trading as low as 75 5/16. The company, which has sold off on earnings concerns, will announce results tomorrow.

Amazon.com dropped 1 3/8 to 30 3/16, but up from a new 52-week low of 27 3/8, after CEO Jeff Bezos said the company will continue to diversify. Technical note: A nice recovery from a new 52-week low. As long as the stock doesn’t close below its previous low of 27 7/8, the stock is technically okay.

BroadVision surged 3 7/8 to 22 1/8 on an alliance with i2 , which rose 11 5/8 to 172 3/4. Ariba recovered 7 3/4 to 121 1/2, and Commerce One added 3 3/4 to 64 1/2. VerticalNet gained 3 15/16 to 25 11/16 on positive comments from Lehman Brothers and Prudential Securities.

Vignette soared 7 1/8 to 25 13/16 on a Dain Rauscher Wessels Strong Buy Aggressive rating. Akamai stormed ahead 7 11/16 to 43 7/8 on a Thomas Weisel Strong Buy rating following the stock’s 60% decline.

ScreamingMedia.com gained 1 1/4 to 8 1/8 on a CS First Boston Buy rating and $30 price target.

HomeSeekers.com plummeted 1 3/8 to 5/8 after the company’s auditors issued a statement questioning the company’s ability to remain a “going concern.”

Inktomi recovered from the abyss, adding 5 3/8 to 96 3/8 after trading as low as 84 3/8. As we said last week, the stock may be forming a descending triangle, similar to one that Priceline broke down out of at 32. A close below 87 would be a big negative for Inktomi.

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The Nasdaq found support today at its October 1999 trendline and recovered nicely. Tech and Net stocks are technically very oversold and due to bounce soon. As we’ve said many times, more bear markets end in October than begin in this month, so let’s hope earnings support a sustainable recovery here. To the upside, we want to see the Nasdaq get back above 3400, a small downtrend within a downtrend, then 3521, its previous bottom, and then 3600, its main downtrend line. Believe it or not, that downtrend chart is actually a positive: bear markets tend to form clear downtrend channels only toward the end. Earlier “panic” phases, like the April and May sell-offs, do not form parallel trendlines. So that’s more evidence that we cou

ld be forming a bottom of some significance here. Of course, it doesn’t mean that we can’t keep going lower if buyers don’t find a reason to come in soon.

The Dow found support at its April trendline on Friday (the lower black line; note that the index could either be forming a head-and-shoulders top [bearish] or an ascending triangle here [bullish], hence the importance of holding that April trendline at 10,500). To the upside, the Dow needs to take out its downtrend line at about 10,650. The S&P 500 needs to take out its downtrend line at 1415, but could have downside to 1380, based on the 40-point rectangle the index broke at 1420. The ISDEX broke 650 support before recovering nicely; below that, next support is 600, and then the May low of 560. To the upside is 700 resistance (the index turned back at 699 today), and then the 735 level.