It wasn’t much, but the Nasdaq’s 5-point gain on Tuesday was enough to secure the index’s longest winning streak since December 1999.
The Nasdaq has risen eight straight days 30 times since 1971, but Tuesday marked the first time that the index has accomplished the feat since Dec. 15-27, 1999.
If the index closes in the green on Wednesday, it will mark the first time since July 1998 that the index has risen on nine consecutive days, but some late-day news suggests that investors may be looking to take some profits.
Network Appliance met estimates with 17-cent earnings after the close, but the high-flyer slumped 6% in after-hours trading, as investors were apparently looking for more. And Computer Sciences
beat estimates by two cents a share with $1.09 earnings, but the stock was unchanged after hours.
Blue chips lost ground Tuesday on a GM debt downgrade and suggestions that the Federal Reserve plans to continue raising interest rates.
The Nasdaq rose 5 to 2061, the S&P 500 gained a fraction to 1194, and the Dow climbed 19 to 10,503. Volume declined to 1.66 billion shares on the NYSE, but rose to 1.74 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a few issues on the NYSE, and by a 16-14 margin on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 48% on the NYSE, and 60% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 83-24 on the NYSE, and 70-49 on the Nasdaq.
PalmSource and PalmOne
both posted strong gains on a licensing deal.
JDS Uniphase rose on an acquisition.
TiVo soared 18% on an upgrade.
Applied Signal fell 17% after missing estimates and announcing an acquisition, and Open Solutions
lost 11% on its results.
