Internet and technology shares posted strong gains on Thursday, and the Nasdaq closed just below its 200-day moving average.
The ISDEX gained 17 to 770, and the Nasdaq rose 79 to 3940. The S&P 500 rose 16 to 1496, and the Dow added 47 to 11,055 despite weakness in Hewlett-Packard, which fell despite beating estimates. Volume declined to 860 million shares on the NYSE, but rose slightly to 1.41 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 15 to 12 on the NYSE and 21 to 18 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.
Portal Software , weighed down all week by concerns about the company’s earnings report, beat estimates after the bell by 2 cents with 3-cent earnings. The stock gained 5/16 to 56 7/16 in regular trading and rose to 60 after hours.
Fiber optics stocks were strong in Thursday’s trading. Corning rose 12 9/16 to 289 1/2 on news of a 3-for-1 stock split. Ciena
rose 15 15/16 to 179 3/16 after reporting earnings of 19 cents a share, 2 cents above estimates.
drkoop.com gained 25/64 to 1 3/16 on speculation that the company could find a buyer.
iXL gained 1 7/16 to 12 1/2 on news of an expanded partnership with BEA Systems
.
Yahoo slipped 3 1/8 to 130 7/8 on a Prudential Accumulate rating and $155 price target. The firm said Yahoo has entered the second phase of its growth cycle, with good but slowing growth.
Telescan rose 1/8 to 5 1/4 on news that it will be acquired by GlobalNetFinancial.com
, off 2 7/16 to 10 3/4, for 0.5 GLBN shares for each TSCN share.
In a sign of how times have changed for Net stocks, iTurf announced that it will rejoin parent company Delia’s
. iTurf, which fell 25/32 to 2 7/32 on the news, was spun off in April 1999 at $22 a share and traded as high as $66. For more on the story, click here.
Excite@Home rose 7/8 to 14 7/16 on news that Cablevision
had dropped claims again the company.
Copper Mountain , off 4 1/2 to 62 3/8, continued to drop on concern that the company may lose a key Lucent contract, despite a report on CNBC that the rumors appear to be unfounded.
eBay continued to gain on CEO Meg Whitman’s keynote address Monday night at Pacific Crest’s E.Conference, rising 5 3/4 to 63 1/4. Whitman discussed the company’s ambition to become a global trading platform. Weakness in European competitor QXL.com
is also helping.
Ariba gained 5 1/16 to 142 1/2 despite a Sands Brothers downgrade to Buy from Strong Buy. The firm thinks Commerce One
, up 7/16 to 49 1/8, will outperform Ariba in the short-term.
CYNET gained 9 cents to $1.1875 on news of a $2 million investment from Compaq.
Streamline.com slipped 1/64 to 5/8 a day after losing more than half its value on news that the company will need additional financing in the next few weeks to continue operations.
Kana Communications , up 1 7/8 to 39 7/8, continued to gain after recent alliances with IBM, Cisco and others.
Some technical comments on the market: The Nasdaq did it, but barely. The index gained more than 1% on rising volume on day 10 after its reversal, the last possible follow-through day. Nasdaq volume barely exceeded yesterday’s total. The Dow and S&P also barely
met the minimum requirements for follow-through days, so it would be hard to imagine this rally going very far or being very strong. With few exceptions, volume has been higher on down days than up days. The Nasdaq once again finished below its 200-day moving average (3945). At the rate it’s been rising, the 200 DMA will probably be 3950 tomorrow. Tomorrow is an options expiration day; the last two have been down days.
The Nasdaq has been stuck in a narrowing trading range and has yet to establish firm direction either way. The index may be forming a bearish flag pattern in the daily chart since bottoming at 3521 recently, giving the index potential for more downside, as much as 600 points. A break below 3700 would be a warning sign. The ISDEX also may be forming a bearish flag pattern here, signaling potential further downside on that index. Key resistance is now around 800, the lower boundary of a broken bearish rising wedge. Support on the ISDEX is at 693-700, 650 and 600; a break below 700 would just about break the bearish flag pattern. The S&P is once again back above 1480-1490 resistance and is just below 1500. The Dow needs to stay above the 10,950-10,975 area to preserve the upside breakout of the diamond formation, and so far it has done that. Resistance on the Dow is just under 11,200. Hewlett-Packard seems to be part of a trend: companies that beat estimates, but do so through investment gains while analysts find the company’s core business to be uninspiring.
