News that the U.S. slowdown might be spreading to Japan weighed on stocks on Monday. Telecom equipment stocks continued to fall in the wake of Juniper Networks’ earnings warning.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ lost 10 to 249, and the Nasdaq dropped 44 to 2170. The S&P 500 declined 10 to 1254, and the Dow fell 54 to 10,922. Volume was again light, rising to 992 million shares on the NYSE, but declining to 1.39 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 18 to 12 on the NYSE, and 22 to 14 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.
Robertson Stephens gave investors a preview of how far Juniper’s earnings estimates could fall after Friday’s earnings warning, cutting 2001 estimates from 93 cents a share to 50 cents, and 2002 estimates from 91 cents a share to 38 cents. Juniper, which declined to provide forward guidance beyond the June quarter, fell another 2.72 to 35.30. Nortel
and Tellabs
hit new 52-week lows on earnings worries of their own.
Check Point dropped 3.81 to 46.18 on rumors that the company could lose its firewall business with Nokia
. Lehman Brothers said an expected deal with IBM
could make up for any lost business.
Vitesse lost 1.79 to 22.89 on rumors that the company could cancel a CIBC conference appearance tomorrow. TIBCO
fell 1.47 to 14.50 at the start of a two-day conference.
Adobe rose .26 to 42.49 on UBS Warburg comments that the company could beat estimates when it reports earnings on Thursday.
Merrill Lynch made positive comments about Brocade , which climbed 1.01 to 46.10, but said Network Appliance
, down .87 to 17.84, is showing few signs of recovery.
Dupont Photomask dropped 5.60 to 46.40 on an earnings warning.
Remedy soared 12.19 to 30.53 on news that it will be acquired by Peregrine
.
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, the S&P 500 and the S&P 100 provided support for the market today. The Dow (first chart) held its March uptrend line and the neckline of a potential head-and-shoulders top. That makes the 10,870 level critical support for the Dow. The S&P 500 (second chart) and S&P 100 (third chart) held their head and shoulders necklines at 1240-1250 and 642, respectively. The Nasdaq (fourth chart) and Nasdaq 100 (fifth chart) are forming similar topping patterns, making the 2100 level on the Nasdaq and 1760 level on the Nasdaq 100 important support. Both Nasdaq indexes broke promising uptrend lines today (the black lines). This is an options expiration week, which is typically an up week, but the appearance of significant topping patterns on all the major indexes is a worrisome sign. Let’s hope any rally here is a strong one.
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