Shares of eBay climbed after hours on Tuesday after the company beat earnings estimates. Stocks rose during the day on neutral comments from Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, but shares of Akamai dropped on concern about lockup expiration.
The ISDEX gained 20 to 784 and the Nasdaq rose 47 to 4029. The S&P added 10 to 1474, and the Dow tacked on 14 to 10,699. Volume rose to 953 million shares on the NYSE, but was unchanged at 1.46 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers edged decliners 14 to 13 on the NYSE and 21 to 18 on the Nasdaq. July’s Consumer Confidence reading came in stronger than expected. The major economic reports for the week are the second-quarter Employment Cost Index on Thursday and the GDP on Friday. Amazon.com reports earnings after the close tomorrow. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar and reported earnings.
eBay rose 1 1/8 to 56 1/4 in regular trading and added another $1 after hours. The company reported earnings of 5 cents a share, 2 cents better than expected, and revenue nearly doubled to $97.4 million. AskJeeves
beat estimates by 4 cents with a 51-cent loss, but the stock slipped after hours after rising 9/16 to 17 in regular trading. Vignette
beat estimates by a penny with 1-cent earnings, but the stock dropped to 40 after hours, after rising 1/2 to 43 5/8 ahead of earnings.
In regular trading on Tuesday, Akamai Technologies fell 22 5/8 to 85 1/4 despite reporting a second-quarter loss of 50 cents a share, 7 cents better than estimates. Investors were concerned about lockup expirations over the next several weeks. A 2.8 million-share lockup will expire on Aug. 1, and 58 million on Sept. 13. Merrill Lynch began coverage with a near-term Accumulate/long-term Buy rating.
GoTo.com reported a second-quarter loss of 23 cents, 8 cents better than estimates. But the stock fell 3 7/16 to 16 11/16 after Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette lowered its price target to $80 from $160.
Amazon.com lost 1 1/8 to 37 7/16 on news that COO Joseph Galli is leaving to become CEO of VerticalNet
. VerticalNet CEO Mark Walsh is expected to become chairman. Shares of Red Hat
lost 2 3/4 to 21 on news that CFO Harold Covert resigned.
FreeMarkets rose 1/8 to 53 5/8 after the company reported a second-quarter loss of 34 cents a share, 7 cents better than estimates. The company’s revenue number of $19.4 million was well ahead of estimates, and Merrill Lynch raised its rating from Accumulate to Buy. Aether Systems
rose 5 5/8 to 174 1/2 after beating estimates.
ValueClick soared 2 1/8 to 12 3/8 after reporting second-quarter earnings of 6 cents a share, a nickel better than estimates. But MP3.com
, which also beat estimates by a nickel with a second quarter loss of 8 cents a share, fell 2 1/16 to 10.
Cobalt Group lost 9/64 to 6 11/16 after reporting a second quarter loss of 27 cents a share, 9 cents better than estimates. Net Perceptions
beat estimates by a penny with a second-quarter loss of 16 cents a share and lost 7/8 to 14 1/4.
FreeShop.com lost 7/32 to 5 1/16 after missing estimates by a penny with a second-quarter loss of 25 cents a share. Onvia.com
beat estimates by 11 cents with a loss of 48 cents a share, but the stock fell 1 9/16 to 9 7/16.
VeriSign fell 5 1/16 to 179 9/16 despite bullish comments from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Mary Meeker. The company reports earnings after the close tomorrow.
PlanetRX.com gained 27/32 to 1 3/4, but down from an intraday high of 2 3/4, on news that the company has received $50 million in financing.
Ariba gained 7 1/8 to 123 7/8 on news of an alliance with IBM and Cisco. But competitor Commerce One
continued to struggle, falling 1 11/16 to 49 and negating the stock’s recent breakout.
Navisite , up 2 13/16 to 42 13/16, and Data Return
, up 3 to 30 5/8, gained on positive comments from Merrill Lynch. Merrill predicted 40% growth for the Internet infrastructure space for the next decade.
The IPO of Web hosting firm Interland had a lukewarm reception, declining to 11 1/8 after pricing at 12. Evoke was unchanged at 8 in its debut. But Blue Martini
fared much better, pricing at 20, opening at 37, and closing at 54 1/2.
Some technical comments on the market: The S&P 500 came close to negating yesterday’s rising wedge breakdown this morning. The trendline broken yesterday has risen to about 1475 (it’s rising at a rate of about 2-3 points per day), and the index turned back at 1476 today. A failure to penetrate that trendline would be bearish. Yesterday’s break gives the index potential downside to 1361, where the wedge began in May, but the 1460 and 1440 areas could provide some support. Critical support on the index is 1380, the October 1998 trendline. The Nasdaq needs to get back above 4100 quickly to negate its breakdown out of a rising wedge yesterday. The break gives that index potential downside to 3042, where the wedge began. The index found support today at 3950, its recent trendline with previous points at 3700 and 3820. Below 3950, support on the Nasdaq could be found in the 3900 range, but important recent support on the Nasdaq is at 3820-3830. The ISDEX negated its recent breakout yesterday, falling back below 790, but came back today to finish just below that number. The ISDEX could find some support at 725, a weak trendline from May. Below that, 700 has proven strong support; a break of that level could carry the ISDEX all the way down to 600. To the upside, there is 790 resistance, and the index turned back recently at 840, just below its 50% retracement level of 845. If Net stocks can get past 850 resistance, they could go to 880. The Dow is forming a 200-point trading range bound by 10,675-10,875. A break of either level should determine direction on the Dow. The index finished just above 10,675 yesterday. The upper boundary of the Dow’s bearish diamond pattern is 11,000, and the lower boundary is 10,200-10,300.
