The Nasdaq posted modest gains on Tuesday, but just about everything else lost ground.
The ISDEX slipped 2 to 804, but the Nasdaq rose 11 to 4082. The S&P 500 lost 4 to 1509, and the Dow declined 37 to 11,215, held back by stronger-than-expected new home sales and weakness in drug stocks. Volume rose to 787 million shares on the NYSE and 1.48 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 14 to 13 on the NYSE, but advancers led 21 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.
DLJDirect soared 2 1/4 to 10 3/16 on reports that parent company Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette
will be acquired by CS First Boston for $90 a share.
Liberate rose 3 3/8 to 24 1/4 on speculation that a Microsoft delay in releasing set-top software may force AT&T to consider alternatives.
S1 Corp. added 2 19/32 to 18 25/32 on rumors of a contract win from Yahoo. But Yahoo
continued to struggle a day after losing 12 points on negative comments by Lehman Brothers. PaineWebber came out in defense of the stock, but Yahoo slipped 7/8 to 121 3/16. Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget, who expects only modest growth in Yahoo’s revenue this quarter, pointed out that Lehman’s concerns about the state of Internet advertising aren’t new. DoubleClick
gained 9/32 to 39 25/32 after trading above 40. 24/7 Media
lost 1 5/16 to 14 1/8.
AskJeeves continued to make strides to break away from the Internet advertising model. The stock rose 5/16 to 26 5/16, but down from an intraday high of 28 1/2, after announcing that First Union will use the company’s question-answering technology to power its Web site.
Excite@Home gained 3/16 to 14 1/8 on news of contracts with AT&T, Cox Communications and Comcast. Also, the company converted 50 million A shares held by AT&T
into B shares, giving AT&T a 25% stake and 74% controlling voting interest in ATHM.
Amazon.com rose 1 1/8 to 40 1/4 after extending its alliance with America Online
and launching a French-language site. Merrill’s Blodget made positive comments about the French-language site.
Interwoven gained 2 3/4 to 90 1/4 on an alliance with TIBCO Software
, which lost 3 29/64 to 94 31/32.
ClickCommerce rose 1 7/16 to 29 1/8 on a USB Piper Jaffray Buy rating and $45 price target. The firm also began coverage of Agile Software
, off 1 3/16 to 69 1/2.
Covad climbed 1 3/16 to 17 1/16 on a Goldman Sachs Outperform rating and $24 price target. WebEx
slipped 1/4 to 34 3/4 despite a Goldman Sachs Outperform rating.
Aether Systems rose 7 1/2 to 140 15/16 on a Robinson Humphrey Outperform rating and $220 price target.
PlantRX.com gained 3/16 to 3/4 on news of several top-level moves, including naming John McAlpin president and COO. Also, the company will move from San Francisco to Memphis, cutting its cash burn rate in half.
MicroStrategy climbed 5/8 to 28 1/8 after announcing that it will layoff 234 employees, or 10% of its workforce.
CriticalPath added 3 1/2 to 73 3/8 after announcing a multi-year outsourcing agreement with Circuit City Stores.
Some technical comments on the market: It looks like the S&P 500 broke its rising wedge to the downside today, but it’s so close that the index could easily bounce up from here. Just as we had a fals
e breakout to the upside yesterday, we could have one to the downside today. A further decline would be a negative sign, however, and we’ll continue to use 1505 as the breakout point. A break below that level could give the index room to 1425, where the wedge began. It’s clear that the S&P is running out of room, though, and is going to have to decide soon which way it’s going to go. The market is bounded here by Nasdaq 4100 to the upside and Dow 11,200 and S&P 500 1505 to the downside. The Nasdaq continues to struggle with its 50% retracement level of 4087 and its downtrend line, closing just below that level today. The Nasdaq may also be forming a head-and-shoulders secondary top here, with two shoulders under 4100 and a head at 4289. And the Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100 continue to rise in bearish rising wedges, with lower boundaries at about 3975 on the Nasdaq and 3850 on the Nasdaq 100. That’s a lot of potent resistance for the Nasdaq to overcome, but a move above 4100 could give the index room to run.
The Dow tested its recent 11,200 resistance this morning and held, so it has some potential to become support. To the upside, if the Dow can close above its April high of 11,287, it could have room to 11,400. The Dow needs to stay above the 10,950 area to preserve the upside breakout of its bearish diamond formation. The ISDEX is also forming a rising wedge here, and ran right up against the lower boundary of a previous broken rising wedge last week. A break much below 790 on the ISDEX would break the rising wedge; the index turned up at 794 this morning. Support on the ISDEX is at 693-700, 650 and 600.
