Stocks End The Week On A High Note

May 18, 2002

Stocks closed out the week on a high note on Friday, boosted by better than expected results from Dell and a rise in consumer confidence.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ added 1 to 132, and the Nasdaq gained 10 to 1741. The S&P 500 rose 8 to 1106, and the Dow climbed 63 to 10,353. Volume rose to 1.26 billion shares on the NYSE, but was unchanged at 1.64 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 17 to 14 on the NYSE, and 18 to 15 on the Nasdaq.

Dell rose 10 cents after beating estimates and raising guidance, but the stock had run up significantly ahead of results, and analysts were concerned about a PC price war.

Analog Devices rose after beating estimates, but Wind River and Serena slipped on their reports. Agilent rose despite missing estimates, and Autodesk fell on a warning.

AOL gained 5.7% on a positive analyst meeting.

RealNetworks surged 16% on a well-received European roadshow.

Kulicke & Soffa fell 11% after lowering guidance.

Network Associates gained 6% after ended an internal accounting probe and restating results for 1998-2000.

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.

The Nasdaq (see first chart below) formed a doji star today, gapping up, trading higher and lower, only to end the day near where it opened. If followed through with a downside day on Monday, that would create a bearish reversal pattern called an evening star. 1750 is critical resistance, and 1696 is critical support. The S&P 100 (second chart) is threatening to negate a major breakdown here; a close above 560 would be a pretty bullish sign. The Dow (third chart) continues to sit just below the critical 10,350-10,600 area. 10,150-10,225 is important support (fourth chart). The S&P 500 (fifth chart) finally cleared the important 1098-1100 level; that should now be support on the index. And finally, a word about cycle turns. May 24-28 is a very important turn window, June 10-24 is the last full Puetz crash window until 2004, and June 22-30 is also an important window that some think could mark a major bottom. If nothing else, all those cycles clustering in the next month or so could make for a lot of volatility.