Juniper Sinks Stocks

Juniper Networks spoiled Intel’s party on Friday, as the router maker upstaged Intel’s positive earnings preannouncement with an earnings warning.

Traders were also unnerved by a software glitch that caused the New York Stock Exchange to shut down for more than an hour in the morning.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ lost 9 to 259, and the Nasdaq dropped 48 to 2215. The S&P 500 declined 12 to 1264, and the Dow fell 113 to 10,977. Volume fell to 859 million shares on the NYSE, and 1.42 billion on the Nasdaq, but the decline was largely due to the NYSE shutdown. Decliners led 17 to 13 on the NYSE, and 21 to 15 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.

Juniper plunged 8.47 to 38.16 after announcing that earnings will be 8-9 cents a share, well under 24-cent estimates. The company also declined to provide guidance beyond the June quarter. Cisco fell 1.25 to 20.57, Avici lost .90 to 9.42, Ciena dropped 5.60 to 56.24, and Tellabs fell to a new 52-week low of 30.92.

Intel slipped .47 to 30.67 after saying revenues will be “slightly below the midpoint” of the range it provided on April 17. Traders took the reaffirmation as good news initially, but then the stock lost ground after the Juniper warning. Handspring , off .90 to 8, issued an earnings warning.

i2 added .85 to 24.09 on rumors of contract wins.

Verity surged 4.04 to 23.35 on a positive earnings preannouncement.

Openwave fell 2.15 to 40.15 after Chairman Alain Rossmann, the “Father of WAP,” resigned to security start-up Secret Seal.

NetZero and Juno announced they will merge, forming a new company called United Online. Both companies will become wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Liberate surged 1.55 to 9.53 on a Wall Street Journal report that the company plans to scale back its interactive TV service in favor of a less complex version, which could help the company with AT&T.

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 (first chart), the S&P 500 (second chart), and the S&P 100 (third chart) all broke their most recent uptrends today (the lower black trendlines), and also kept the potential head-and-shoulder tops intact. Those potential tops make 1250 on the S&P 500 and 642 on the S&P 100 critical support. The Nasdaq (fourth chart) and Nasdaq 100 (fifth chart) are forming similar topping patterns, making the 2100-2175 range on the Nasdaq and 1760-1850 on the Nasdaq 100 important support. Finally, also on the Nasdaq (sixth chart), notice how MACD and PPO, two very good trend indicators over the last year, are giving sell signals but are trying to turn up (the arrows). Also note the declining volume since the May 22 top. That could support the formation of a right shoulder on a head and shoulders top, or it could just make the whole move since then a bull market correction, with perhaps one more downleg coming. When that downtrend line on the volume indicator breaks, the next big move should come. Next week is options expiration, typically an up week, but the following week could potentially mark the beginning of a strong move 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.