EMC, Nokia Boost Stocks

Stocks rose Thursday on better than expected results from EMC and Nokia.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ rose 5 to 181, and the Nasdaq gained 20 to 1942. The S&P 500 climbed 3 to 1132, and the Dow rose 65 to 9796. Volume rose to 1.5 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.91 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by 17 to 13 on the NYSE and 20 to 15 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, Qualcomm , PeopleSoft , JDS Uniphase and VeriSign fell on disappointing guidance. PMC-Sierra and Gateway edged higher on their results. BMC matched estimates, and Sanmina missed and warned. RSA fell on its earnings report.

During the day, stocks also rose on testimony from Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan – even though it was essentially the same testimony stocks had fallen on two weeks earlier. Fed officials had been saying that Greenspan’s previous speech was misinterpreted as too bearish on the economy. Traders are taking the clarification to mean that the Fed may be done cutting interest rates. The FOMC meets again next week to set rates.

EMC and Nokia led stocks higher on better than expected results.

Also posting strong gains on their earnings reports were SanDisk , webMethods , LSI , Cirrus and Siebel .

QLogic , Citrix and F5 fell on their reports. Corning rose on its report, while Broadcom and KLA-Tencor were little changed on their reports.

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.

Not a terribly impressive recovery today for stocks, as the indexes gave up half their gains by the close. The Nasdaq (first chart) formed a bearish gravestone doji star right on its 200-day moving average. A gap down tomorrow below 1936 could create both an island reversal and an evening star, both bearish reversal patterns. To the upside, 1960 is tough resistance. The 1860-1880 level is strong support. The S&P (second chart) faces very tough resistance in the 1132-1140 range. 1125 is first support, and below 1110, the index is likely to go a lot lower. The Dow (third chart) was the best looking index today, forming an imperfect morning star bullish reversal pattern. 9734 should now be support, and 9598-9680 is critical support. The 9830-9860 level is tough resistance. Finally, in one sign that complacency is reaching an extreme, the put-call ratio (fourth chart) closed at its lowest level in more than a year today.

Special report: For a free introduction to technical chart patterns, visit http://www.internetstockreport.com/guest/article/0,1785,2571_500051,00.html.