Blue Chips Stage A Comeback

Blue chip stocks staged an impressive comeback on Thursday, but technology shares lagged.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ slipped 1 to 111, and the Nasdaq lost 3 to 1460. The S&P 500 added 11 to 1018, and the Dow climbed 114 to 8681. Volume declined to 1.47 billion shares on the NYSE, but rose to 2.03 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 19 to 11 on the NYSE, but decliners led 18 to 17 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.

After the close, McLeod rose after saying it has no plans to file for bankruptcy.

During the day, eBay rose 1.03 to 45.07 after the company said business has returned to normal after slowing in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Networks were weak after Sonus warned. Sonus plunged 3.57 to 2.83, and Cisco and Juniper hit new 52-week lows.

Brocade fell 1.41 to 14.28 after Morgan Stanley cut estimates on the company.

Citrix Systems soared 3.87 to 22.25 on positive comments from Merrill Lynch and CS First Boston.

IBM , off 1.30 to 90, continued to lose ground on earnings worries.

Exodus remained halted after filing for bankruptcy. Excite@Home lost .05 to .12 on fears that it will soon follow.

Some technical comments on the market: Note: We include 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 Dow made it interesting today. It broke down out of a bear flag, but managed to climb back in to the pattern by the close (see first chart below). However, the TRIN never got low enough today to show any real buying pressure on the NYSE, making the rally suspect. The S&P 500 (second chart) came nowhere near to back-testing its breakdown. Tomorrow morning should be interesting, with the 9:45 a.m. release of the Michigan consumer sentiment survey the most important economic report of the week. The Dow once again will have little downside tomorrow without breaking down again, and the S&P looks like it has upside potential to about 1025 in the first 30 minutes of trading. Key support is 998 on the S&P and 8471 on the Dow. The Nasdaq (third chart) would need to get to about 1525 to test its broken uptrend line, and 1418 is support. The market is becoming short-term overbought, particularly on the Dow and S&P; not a good thing heading into a cycle turn on October 2-3, because it raises the odds that that turn will be down.

Special report: For a free introduction to technical chart patterns and an overview of last year’s action in the stock market, visit http://www.internetstockreport.com/guest/article/0,1785,2571_500051,00.html.

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