Stocks ended a volatile week on a high note on Friday.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ added 1 to 90, and the Nasdaq gained 22 to 1262. The S&P 500 rose 14 to 852, and the Dow climbed 78 to 8264. Volume declined to 1.8 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.69 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 19 to 12 on the NYSE, and 19 to 14 on the Nasdaq.
IBM fell 4% on accounting rumors.
Qualcomm and Overture
gapped up on better than expected results, but gave back most or all of their gains by the close.
VeriSign soared 27% after matching estimates.
BMC and JDS
fell after guiding lower.
Some technical comments on the market: Note: To see the charts in the text email newsletter, click on the internetstockreport.com story link at the top of the newsletter.
8300 is proving to be stubborn resistance for the Dow (see first two charts below). If the index can clear that level, 8500, 8600 and 8900 are the next resistance levels. Support is 8114, 7950, 7700-7800 and 7500. While the Dow has broken its July downtrend in the daily chart, the S&P (third and fourth charts) has not. If the S&P can clear 855-860 on Monday, it will take out that downtrend line. 875-880 and 900 are next resistance, and 950 is critical resistance. 800 and 776 are critical supports on the S&P. The Nasdaq (fifth and sixth charts) is consolidating at the lows, a potentially bearish sign that could lead the index to 1080 or lower on a break of 1192. The index hasn’t even taken out Tuesday’s high of 1295.59 yet and is the weakest looking of the three indexes. If it can take out that resistance level, 1340-1387 is next. The HUI, the Amex gold stock index, bounced at its 200-day moving average today. It has potentially completed an ABC correction at the 50% retracement point of the November 2000 lows, but it most hold its 200-day moving average. And finally, while Congress deserves credit for passing corporate and accounting reform, tightening personal bankruptcy laws during a credit and debt implosion was a poor decision. The bill may eventually be a good idea – as would tighter credit standards – but the timing couldn’t be worse.
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