Downgrades to Intel and drug stocks led the broader market lower on Monday. Shares of Web hosting companies were active on merger news.
The ISDEX lost 6 to 829 and the Nasdaq fell 66 to 4167. The S&P 500 dropped 13 to 1507, but the Dow added 5 to 11,244. Volume declined to 360 million shares on the NYSE, but was unchanged at 770 million on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 14 to 11 on the NYSE and 20 to 16 on the Nasdaq. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar and reported earnings. For after hours quotes and news, visit our new after hours trading site.
Intermedia Communications , which owns 54% of Web hosting firm Digex
, rose 9 5/16 to 32 3/16 after confirming that it will be acquired by WorldCom
. Digex, which had run up in anticipation of a buyout, fell 10 1/8 to 74 3/8. Exodus, which had been rumored as a possible Digex suitor, was off 2 7/8 to 63 5/16. But other firms rose on the news. Data Return
gained 2 5/16 to 21 13/16, NaviSite
added 2 1/16 to 46 3/4, and Equant
rose 5 3/16 to 45 1/16.
Earnings warnings continued to hit Internet consulting firms. iXL , off 2 1/16 to 6 5/16, fell on an earnings warning and news that company President William Nussey resigned. Xpedior
fell 2 to 8 13/16 after announcing that third quarter revenues will decline 10% sequentially. But Scient
regained 15/16 to 22 15/16, and Diamond Technology Partners
recouped 5 1/2 to 61 1/4.
America Online lost 1 to 56 3/8 on reports that federal regulators may require the company to open its cable systems in some markets before approving the merger with Time Warner. GoTo.com
rose 3 11/16 to 23 3/16 on a multi-year $50 million agreement with AOL.
MicroStrategy gained 3 7/16 to 34 13/16 after naming WorldCom Vice Chairman John Sidgmore chairman of the company’s Strategy.com unit.
B2B stocks continued to defy gravity, this time on positive comments from Salomon Smith Barney. i2 gained 8 1/4 to 187 1/2, and Commerce One
rose 5 21/32 to 71 21/32, breaking through 70 resistance.
Some technical comments on the market: Another day, another broken rising wedge on the S&P 500. As the last break of a rising wedge didn’t lead to much of a sell-off, we won’t worry about this one unless the S&P begins to head lower. First support is 1505, followed by 1500 and 1490. To the upside, the lower broken wedge boundary (1509) is likely to rise to 1511-1512 by day’s end, and above that, the index has met with strong resistance around its all-time closing high of 1527. The more important pattern here seems to be the Nasdaq 100. It has the only pure rising wedge pattern of the major indexes, not a single questionable breach to the upside or downside. The upper boundary stopped Friday’s rally, and the lower boundary (4000) stopped today’s selling. A break below 4000 on the Nasdaq 100 could lead to a wider sell-off, so it’s the one level to keep an eye on. The lower boundary of the Nasdaq Composite’s rising wedge is 4100. The Nasdaq turned back Friday below its July peak of 4289 and its important 62% Fibonacci level (4337). The ISDEX is trapped in a tight trading range between 850, its 50% retracement level, and 820, the lower boundary of a bearish rising wedge. The upper boundary of the wedge is around 860. The Dow continues to struggle with its April secondary high of 11,287. 11,100 is the first important support, but the more important support is 10,900, the upper boundary of the Dow’s bearish diamond pattern, which th
e index broke out of last month.
The market came into September on a strong note, but September is traditionally the weakest month of the year. Complacency is relatively high, with a low put/call ratio (.53, but up from last week’s readings, which got dangerously close to .40). The volatility index (VIX), which has been dangerously low recently (under 19), spiked up above 21 today, a potential sign of a short-term top here. We’ve had major topping patterns on the Dow and S&P 500, but they were negated to the upside, so there’s some hope here. We’ll watch those patterns for signs that they may be coming back into play. Critical support is 10,500 on the Dow and 1400 on the S&P 500.