Stocks rose in light volume Monday ahead of Tuesday’s Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ was unchanged at 174, and the Nasdaq rose 14 to 1881. The S&P 500 climbed 9 to 1171, and the Dow rose 79 to 10,320. Volume declined to 890 million shares on the NYSE, and 1.1 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 17 to 13 on the NYSE, but decliners led slightly 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.
After the close, Agilent fell on an earnings warning.
During the day, Microsoft recovered its 200-day moving average at 62.60 a day after plunging below it.
The new 52-week low list had some surprising names on it, among them Ciena , Juniper
and BEA Systems
.
Excite@Home plunged .40 to .47 on concerns that the former Internet leader could be delisted from the Nasdaq.
Micromuse rose .45 to 11.49 on positive analyst comments.
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
A low volume rally off support coupled with a weak TRIN reading smacks of a technical bounce, but it could just be pre-Fed jitters. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq (first three charts) could be forming bearish pennants or rising wedges off of Friday’s lows, but a strong rally tomorrow could easily negate those bearish patterns. If not for the Fed meeting, we’d call this a bear bounce. The Nasdaq (fourth chart) pierced critical 1860 support, but then recovered. The index faces a great deal of resistance in the 1890-1910 area. The Dow (fifth chart) faces resistance at 10,475, and 10,200 is critical support. The S&P 500 (sixth chart) faces resistance at 1180-1185, and 1155 is critical support.
Special report: For a free introduction to technical chart patterns and an overview of last year’s action in the stock market, visit http://www.internetstockreport.com/guest/article/0,1785,2571_500051,00.html.
