Intel rose after hours Thursday after announcing it will meet estimates this quarter. Nasdaq futures traded up 2%, on top of a 2% gain during the day.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ added 3 to 269, and the Nasdaq surged 46 to 2264. The S&P 500 rose 6 to 1276, and the Dow added 20 to 11,090. Volume edged higher to 1.27 billion shares on the NYSE, but declined to 1.62 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 15 to 14 on the NYSE, and 20 to 16 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.
Intel rose more than a point after hours after saying revenues will be “slightly below the midpoint” of the range it provided on April 17. But Handspring
fell on an earnings warning.
During the day, Microsoft rose 1.32 to 73.68, breaking out of a 10-month base.
Chip stocks surged 7.7% after National Semi , up 3.07 to 31.04, beat estimates with a breakeven quarter and said the worst may be behind the industry. Broadcom
, up 5.14 to 40.71, warned but said it is seeing an improvement in orders that could lead to a rebound later this year.
S1 , the best-performing Net stock last month, soared 2.35 to 13.85 on an alliance with IBM
.
Loudeye soared .58 to 1.79 on a deal with Napster.
Check Point rebounded 3.31 to 52.50 on comments from First Union that the sell-off in the stock was overdone.
Salomon Smith Barney handicapped the winners and losers from the SuperComm conference. The firm was cautious on Redback , Juniper
and Nortel
, and positive on Cisco
, Extreme
and Foundry
.
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 Nasdaq broke through 2252 resistance today and is clearly headed higher tomorrow. Tonight we’re going to take a look at the bigger picture since the April lows and see what’s forming, because at least for now, the chart patterns forming off the lows look mainly bearish. The Nasdaq (first chart) and Nasdaq 100 (second chart) could be forming either bearish rising wedges (the black lines), or head and shoulders tops (the blue lines). Our best guess is that they’re rising wedges, and that those upper trendlines will be reached in the near-term, but that’s just a guess based on the surprising strength in the market. However, at least one cycle watcher is expecting a significant peak in the June 18-June 26 timeframe. Those patterns make 2100-2150 on the Nasdaq and 1760-1850 on the Nasdaq 100 important support. A look at two possible outcomes: the Nasdaq 100’s bearish rising wedge rally of last summer (third chart), and the Dow’s bullish negation of a rising wedge at 10,300 in mid-April and subsequent nicely-formed uptrend (fourth chart). We’ll watch the charts for clues as to how these patterns will resolve. Also notice that the S&P 500 (fifth chart) and S&P 100 (sixth chart) could be forming head and shoulders tops within otherwise nicely shaped uptrends. Note that the Dow and S&P 100 bounced off their uptrend lines today.
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.
