It was a tale of two markets on Tuesday, as companies meeting estimates were rewarded and those missing their numbers were punished.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ rose 5 to 421, and the Nasdaq added 34 to 2792. The S&P 500 climbed 7 to 1350, and the Dow rose 61 to 10,639. Volume was unchanged at 530 million shares on the NYSE, but declined to 950 million on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by 16 to 9 on the NYSE, and 18 to 16 on the Nasdaq. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies on Capitol Hill on Thursday, a week before the Fed’s next meeting. 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.
Openwave , up 8 1/8 to 61 3/8, posted the surprise of the earnings season, reporting earnings of 9 cents a share, 12 cents better than estimates. Revenue grew 36% sequentially, and analysts raised earnings estimates for 2001 by more than 200%, from 15 cents a share to 50 cents a share.
EMC rose 2 3/8 to 78 7/8 after the company beat estimates by 2 cents with 25-cent earnings. Vitesse
rose 5 9/16 to 72 13/16 after beating estimates by a penny with 25-cent earnings. FTD.com
surged 1 7/32 to 3 15/16 after posting yet another profitable quarter. Interwoven
, up 1 to 30 1/2, beat estimates by a penny with 2-cent earnings. FileNet
surged 5 5/16 to 27 3/8 after topping estimates.
FreeMarkets led to the downside, off 5 5/16 to 21 3/8 after beating estimates by 4 cents with a 27-cent loss. Analysts were concerned about lower than expected auction volumes. Texas Instruments
fell 3 9/16 to 45 after missing estimates by 2 cents with a 31-cent loss and lowering forward guidance.
Broadcom , off 4 7/16 to 124 3/8, heads the list of companies reporting tonight.
iPrint.com lost 9/32 to 1 1/16 despite beating estimates by a penny with a 23-cent loss. Extended Systems
, down 2 5/8 to 25 7/8, beat estimates by 2 cents with a 15-cent loss. DigitalThink
, off 5/8 to 15, met estimates with a 17-cent loss. Geoworks
, down 11/32 to 4 17/32, missed by a penny with a 23-cent loss.
DoubleClick climbed 1 1/2 to 16 7/8 after the Federal Trade Commission closed its inquiry into the company’s ad serving and data collection practices.
E*Trade , up 1/2 to 12 13/16, announced that it is moving to the New York Stock Exchange next month, to trade under a new symbol of ET.
Homestore.com added 1 5/8 to 28 1/2 on news that AOL Time Warner
has purchased a 5.7% stake in the company.
InfoSpace , down 31/32 to 6 1/16, continued to fall on yesterday’s management shakeup.
Some technical comments on the market: Note: We are now including 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
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are sending some mixed signals here. While the indexes are showing some nice strength today, they are so far just rising beneath their smaller rising channels broken yesterday (first and second charts). That action would appear to be a prelude to a correction of some sort. As we have said, we expect any pullback to be modest, perhaps to the
gaps at 2618.55 on the Nasdaq and 2470.72 on the Nasdaq 100, and certainly no lower than 2450 on the Nasdaq, the lower channel boundary in that chart. As we’ve said, those gaps do not necessarily need to fill right away because they occurred on a breakout, but the partial filling of those gaps makes us think the market may finish the job before moving substantially higher.
On the plus side, regardless of whether we look at the linear (point-based) or logarithmic (percentage-based) charts, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 remain above the 4 1/2-month downtrends they broke out of recently. Those broken downtrend lines are providing support on the S&P 500, a real plus on that index. We reprint the logarithmic charts below; the linear charts, as should be expected, show an even bigger breakout out of those downtrend lines.
The Dow is so far holding onto its December bottom of 10,500, and is looking modestly better today. Critical support is 10,300 on the Dow, and a close above 11,007 would be bullish, particularly if the Dow Transports can get back above 3000 and stay there. The Trannies turned back right at 3000 today.
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