Stocks pulled back from their highs on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged but maintained its tightening bias, as analysts expected.
The ISDEX gained 7 to 782, and the Nasdaq rose 5 to 3958, but 50 points off its high. The S&P 500 lost 1 to 1498, but the Dow climbed 59 to 11,139. Volume rose slightly to 820 million on the NYSE and 1.41 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 14 to 13 on the Big Board, but decliners led 20 to 19 on the Nasdaq. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar and reported earnings. For after hours quotes and news, visit our new after hours trading site.
After the bell, Quokka Sports soared 3 1/4 to 10 after closing at 6 3/4 on news of an investment from GE unit NBC.
During regular trading on Tuesday, lesser-known B2B stocks had a chance to shine after Bear Stearns made positive comments on the whole sector. Opus360 soared 2 to 4 3/8, Clarus
bolted 10 1/8 to 48 1/16, and Global Sources
soared 8 3/8 to 35 3/8.
Intrusion.com gained 1 7/16 to 11 7/16 on news of an alliance with Check Point Software
to develop low-cost security appliances for small and medium businesses.
DSL.net soared 3 1/16 to 6 3/16 on news of an alliance with IBM
.
MP3.com rose 1 3/4 to 9 1/2 on news that it had settled a copyright infringement suit with Sony Music Entertainment.
Ameritrade added 1 1/16 to 17 on takeover rumors. Also helping the gains were a large short interest in the stock.
Shares of recent IPO WebEx gained 3 1/8 to 33 on a Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown Strong Buy rating. Another recent IPO, Evoke
, continued to add to its recent gains, soaring 3 1/32 to 10 1/8. But Corvis
was unchanged at 90 3/4 despite positive analyst comments, and Avici
lost 10 5/8 to 131 3/8 on a Lehman Brothers Neutral rating.
drkoop.com slipped 19/64 to 1 1/32 on news of an SEC investigation into charges that the company overstated its business prospects. The company has also been the subject of takeover rumors.
Art Technology Group added 1 to 87, but down from an intraday high of 91 3/8, on a Salomon Smith Barney Buy rating and $108 price target.
General Magic gained 1 23/32 to 7 5/32 on news that it will participate in Nuance’s new VoiceWeb ASP program. Dain Rauscher Wessels also helped with a Buy Speculative rating and $20 price target.
Digital Island gained 1/4 to 26 1/2 on news of an alliance with BMG Entertainment.
Some technical comments on the market: We said at midday that the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all right at major resistance and looked ready to sell on the Fed news. They did pull back from their highs, but not before making a strong run at the important 11,200, 1510 and 4000 levels. The Nasdaq actually cleared 4000 before pulling back to close right on its 200-day moving average. As we said yesterday, the boundaries of the recent uptrends in the S&P 500 and 100 indexes are beginning to converge, forming a “rising wedge” and suggesting that this rally may be losing steam. The S&P 500 pushed through a downtrend line (1506) extending from the 1553 and 1517 peaks, but turned back at 1508 before testing the top of its rising wedge, which is now around 1512. A decline below 1490, where the S&P 500 found support yesterday, could carry the S&P 500 back to the 1450-1460 range. The S&P 100 moved above its recent high (820), only to close below it at 818. As we’ve noted before, this rally has been largel
y unconvincing, as volume has been low, follow-through rallies have barely met the minimum requirements, and there have been at least a few days of institutional selling.
The Nasdaq may be forming a bearish flag pattern in the daily chart since bottoming at 3521 two weeks ago, giving the index potential for more downside, as much as 600 points. A break below 3800 would be a warning sign. However, a flag pattern has at most three weeks to form, so if the Nasdaq can avoid a sell-off for the rest of the week, we have some hope here. The ISDEX also may be forming a bearish flag pattern here, signaling potential further downside on that index. Key resistance is now around 810, the lower boundary of a broken bearish rising wedge, although the index ran into old resistance around 790 today. Support on the ISDEX is at 693-700, 650 and 600; a break below 700 would just about break the bearish flag pattern. The Dow needs to stay above the 10,950 area to preserve the upside breakout of the diamond formation, and so far it has done that. Resistance on the Dow is just under 11,200; the index turned back today at 11,189. One other item of note: London’s FTSE-100 also is breaking out of a bearish diamond pattern. Could this be a rare case where these formations act as consolidations before further up moves? As we’ve said before, we need to see volume behind the moves to be convinced. Otherwise, the boundaries might simply be in the process of being redrawn.
