Stocks posted modest gains on Friday despite the October unemployment report showing the biggest job loss in 20 years.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ lost 2 to 143, and the Nasdaq was unchanged at 1745. The S&P 500 climbed 3 to 1087, and the Dow rose 59 to 9323. Volume declined to 1.12 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.66 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a few shares on the NYSE, but decliners led 19 to 16 on the Nasdaq.
Traders ignored the loss of 415,000 jobs last month, much worse than the 300,000 analysts expected, capping a week of dismal economic news. The unemployment rate jumped to 5.4%, also worse than expected.
Cisco slipped .40 to 17.26 ahead of its earnings report due out after the close on Monday.
Shares of networking stocks were battered after Qwest completely stopped work on its next-generation network. Juniper
fell 2.44 to 19.48, and Ciena
lost 1.37 to 15.09.
Microsoft gave back .44 to 61.40, once again failing at its 200-day moving average at 62.37. The company has reached an antitrust settlement with the Justice Department, but state attorneys general have until Tuesday to review it. Some AGs appeared to be willing to go along with the settlement, which is generally viewed as favorable to the company.
Priceline climbed .10 to 4.50 after topping estimates and raising guidance. BEA
, up .91 to 12.61, Homestore
, down 2.71 to 2.28, and S1
, up .61 to 11.93, all warned.
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
Not a very impressive looking rally, which makes us think there may be another strong leg down coming before the correction is completed. The Dow (first chart) faces resistance at 9343 and then 9366-9400. 9260-9280 is first support, and then 9180-9209. The S&P (second chart) faces resistance at 1090-1092 and then 1100. First support is 1084 and then 1075. The Nasdaq (third chart) couldn’t hold above the top of its old bearish engulfing candlestick at 1752-1755, and in the process formed a doji, or indecision candlestick. First strong support is 1720-1727. And finally, is Intel (fourth chart) forming a bearish broadening top? A series of higher highs and lower lows in the same pattern is not bullish.
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