Stocks rose in higher volume on Wednesday, as the market continued to end a rough year on an up note. Internet security stocks fell on an earnings warning from Network Associates.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ rose 2 to 373, and the Nasdaq climbed 45 to 2539. The S&P 500 added 13 to 1328, and the Dow gained 110 to 10,803. Volume rose to 1.1 billion shares on the NYSE and 2 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by 22 to 8 on the NYSE and 21 to 18 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.
Network Associates plummeted 7 1/4 to 4 1/2 after warning of a fourth-quarter loss instead of an expected profit. Security stocks fell in sympathy, led by Symantec
, off 1 5/8 to 30 1/2, Checkpoint
, down 5 3/16 to 135 1/2, and Internet Security
, down 3/8 to 78 1/2.
B2B stocks were strong after SG Cowen made positive comments on the sector in general and Commerce One , up 3 1/8 to 25 1/2, in particular. The firm said the B2B sector should continue to experience strong growth in a slowing economy, and most companies should begin producing positive earnings. Ariba
rose 3 13/16 to 56 1/8, and i2
gained 4 13/16 to 55 3/4.
Lehman Brothers made positive comments on Akamai , up 1 1/16 to 24 7/8, Digex
, up 1/16 to 23 7/8, and Exodus
, off 13/16 to 20 13/16.
E-commerce giants Amazon.com , eBay
and Yahoo
were the source of speculation from SG Cowen, which said that Amazon could announce a partnership with Wal-Mart, and that eBay and Yahoo could merge. eBay is reportedly launching its first national television campaign.
RadView Software fell 17/32 to 2 9/16 on an earnings warning.
Quepasa.com , halted at 1/8, announced that it plans to liquidate and return the proceeds to shareholders.
Juniper , up 10 5/8 to 127 11/16, JDS Uniphase
, up 5 1/2 to 47 3/8, and Sycamore
, up 1 7/8 to 39 5/8, led Internet infrastructure stocks higher. JDSU and SDL
shareholders will vote on their merger Jan. 26.
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The Nasdaq closed above its early December low of 2523, a positive for the index, which has repeatedly struggled at broken supports, most recently at 3000. The ISDEX continues to struggle at its early December low of 384 and is lagging the Nasdaq here, a sign of potential underperformance in Internet stocks. A bunch of mixed signals the last few days: The Nasdaq 100 is so far forming a pretty nice up trend channel (see chart below), but that chart could also be a bear flag, signaling the possibility of lower lows ahead. However, the index is so far forming a rally without converging boundary lines, the first time in some time that we’ve seen that. The indexes all left gaps on Friday’s big up day that may need to be filled at some point, at 2224 and 2340 on the Nasdaq 100 and the Nasdaq, 1275 and 668 on the S&P 500 and 100, and 328 on the ISDEX. However, fear and bearishness
are on the rise, both positives. The CBOE’s put/call ratio spiked up to 1.22 this morning, the highest reading since October, before pulling back. A healthy level of fear is necessary to put in a bottom. Barring a major earnings warning the next couple of days, we expect a positive bias into next Tuesday, with a possible retest of the lows some time in January.
The S&P 100 is also forming a nice uptrend, but could also forming a bear flag or rising wedge (the gray line). The index is back above its previous support of 685.
The Dow continues to be the best-looking index. It broke out of an inverted head-and-shoulders bottom the other day and appears headed for a bout with critical 10,900 resistance. A clean break of that level would likely carry the index to 11,500, with the caveat that it could face resistance at 11,000 and 11,200.
Special report: For a free introduction to technical chart patterns and an overview of this year’s action in the stock market, visit http://www.internetstockreport.com/guest/article/0,1785,2571_500051,00.html.