Stocks rallied Tuesday on a court ruling giving Florida’s Republican Secretary of State some discretion to end the presidential election recount today. Bargain hunters were out in force even before the ruling hit.
The ISDEX rose 37 to 568, and the Nasdaq bolted 171 to 3138. The S&P 500 climbed 31 to 1382, and the Dow rose 163 to 10,681. Volume declined slightly to 1.11 billion shares on the NYSE, and dropped 20% to 1.77 billion shares on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by 18 to 9 on the NYSE and 25 to 13 on the Nasdaq. The Federal Reserve meets tomorrow, and the Consumer Price Index will be reported Thursday. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar and reported earnings. For after hours quotes and news, visit our after hours trading site.
Sycamore Networks , up 5 to 65 1/2, beat estimates by a penny with 1-cent earnings after the close, and trounced revenue estimates. CS First Boston reiterated its Buy rating ahead of the earnings report, saying the firm expected positive results and outlook. Juniper Networks
rose 19 1/2 to 184, negating Friday’s technical breakdown.
In a reversal from yesterday, only 3 of 50 ISDEX stocks finished lower. B2B stocks came back strongly. Ariba soared 7 7/16 to 98 13/16, not quite enough to get back above broken support at 100, Commerce One
surged 7 1/16 to 58 7/8, and i2
soared 25 1/4 to 142 7/8. FreeMarkets
climbed 3 3/16 to 43 7/8 on an alliance with Mitsubishi.
CMGI tacked on 1/4 to 14 3/4 after announcing it plans to exit several business, including its ICast entertainment site and 1stup.com free ISP operation. The company will take charges of $83-$90 million next year. CS First Boston downgraded CMGI and Internet Capital Group
, which lost 3/4 to 9 5/16.
Cisco rose 2 1/2 to 52 7/8 on an optical infrastructure alliance with Corning
, up 7 1/2 to 66 1/2. Cisco also announced the acquisition of wireless network chip designer Radiata for $295 million.
BroadVision surged 4 11/16 to 33 9/16 on a Wit SoundView Strong Buy rating, saying the company’s 6.0 release early next year will resolve concerns over lack of a Java platform. The company is uniquely qualified to take advantage of the convergence of eCRM and B2B, the firm said.
MarchFirst rose 3/16 to 4 3/32 after announcing that it will lay off 10% of its workforce, or roughly 1,000 employees.
Investors ignored bad news. WebMD , up 7/8 to 11, missed earnings estimates. Amazon.com
rose 1 to 28 13/16 despite reports that holiday sales have gotten off to a slow start.
Stamps.com rose 3/8 to 3 3/16 on news that the U.S. Postal Rate Commission has recommended the creation of a discount rate for First Class mail sent using Internet postage.
USinternetworking rose 1 1/4 to 5 after securing $300 million in funding.
GoAmerica climbed 1 to 9 1/2 on an alliance with Compaq
.
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
We hate to keep delivering bad news, but the Nasdaq’s rally is already looking weak. That said, the following is a 10-minute chart, so a strong opening tomorrow could easily negate the bear pennant that is forming in the index. If not, we may yet se
e 2500 on the index. To the upside, the first real Fibonacci test on the Nasdaq won’t come until 3402, the 38% retracement of the 4289-2859 decline. A lot of technical damage to repair.
The ISDEX continues to form a potential broadening bottom, and touched that lower trendline at 510 yesterday. A break above the top line at 680 would mean a bottom is in, and give the index room to 850. A nice looking chart, but be on guard for a possible restest of that lower trendline.
The S&P 500 repaired yesterday’s technical damage, climbing back above its 1994 logarithmic trendline at 1369. If we close below that line by more than 2%, or 1335, we may have seen the end of the bull market. The index has repeatedly come close to a major technical breakdown over the last month or so, but has somehow escaped from the abyss each time. The bull is wobbly, but still standing.
The Dow broke out of a small downtrend line this morning. First major resistance is 10,850, the old diamond apex, and critical resistance is 11,000, where the index has failed five times. However, if this rally continues, the higher lows on the S&P and Dow are positives for the old economy stocks.
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