After six consecutive down weeks, stock market bulls were finally sighted on Wall Street again on Friday.
The ISDEX soared 52 to 648, an almost 9% gain, and the Nasdaq bolted 241 to 3316. The S&P 500 climbed 44 to 1374, and the Dow added 157 to 10,192. Volume declined to 1.23 billion shares on the NYSE and 2.06 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by 16 to 12 on the NYSE and by 2 to 1 on the Nasdaq. The Producer Price Index for September came in much stronger than expected, at a 0.9% gain and a 0.3% rise in the core rate, but traders shook off the bad news. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar and reported earnings. For after hours quotes and news, visit our after hours trading site.
DoubleClick dropped 5 11/16 to 12 7/16. The company’s first profitable quarter matched estimates of three cents, but revenues came in a little light, and the company guided forward estimates lower. Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget cut his 2001 estimates to a range of 10-20 cents from 37 cents a share. He said he believes the company will be one a long-term survivor, but that he expects the next two quarters to be tough.
MyPoints.com plummeted 2 21/32 to 2 7/32 on an earnings warning. The company will lay off 120 employees, almost 30% of its workforce.
RealNetworks was taken down to as low as 16 9/16 on advertising worries, but finished off just 2 13/16 to 20 15/16 after analysts came to its defense.
But otherwise the day was a good one. Only 8 of 50 ISDEX stocks finished the day lower.
Juniper Networks , up 26 7/8 to 226 1/2, beat estimates with earnings of 17 cents a share, almost double estimates.
Juniper sparked a rally in Internet infrastructure plays. Corning rose 6 3/4 to 92 3/4. Bellwether Cisco
surged 5 3/4 to 55 9/16 a day after closing below the important $50 level. Redback Networks
bolted 18 13/16 to 121 1/2, and Sycamore
added 8 1/2 to 85 1/2.
RSA Security rose 2 3/16 to 51 15/16 after reporting earnings of 24 cents a share, a penny above estimates.
WebMD dropped 5/8 to 7 7/8 on several analyst downgrades after a disappointing analyst meeting.
RedHat bolted 3 5/16 to 14 5/8 on positive comments from W.R. Hambrecht, which said the company is a key element of the future technology landscape and a compelling value. The firm set a $30 price target.
C-bridge Internet tacked on 1 3/4 to 14 1/2 after reporting earnings in line with estimates at a penny a share.
B2B leaders were strong. Ariba rose 11 5/8 to 122, Commerce One
surged 8 1/4 to 62 3/4, i2
gained 19 1/16 to 180, and PurchasePro
soared 6 1/32 to 35 1/8 after Lehman Brothers said it expects the company to solidly beat earnings estimates on October 17.
Beaten-down Internet consultants found new life. Scient surged 4 9/32 to 16 15/32, and Sapient
gained 4 5/8 to 35 1/8.
Inktomi regained 7 1/8 to 82 1/4. If the company’s breakdown out of a descending triangle was for real, it should have a hard time getting back above $90, and could still have significant downside ahead.
Some technical comments on the market: Note: We are now including charts with the technical market commentary; just click on the links in the story below to go to them. If you have trouble accessing the charts via the e-mail newsletter version, try this link: http://www.afterhourstrading.com/column.html
The market appears to be in rally mode. We could have used some more volume, and better breadth on the NYSE, but it looks good for at least a small rally here. Now we need a high-volume follow-through 3-to-7 trading days from now. The ability of the market to shake off bad news today is also a positive.
The Nasdaq broke out of a falling wedge at about 3175 this morning, indicating that a bottom could be in place. The index pierced the support line along its 1999 peak yesterday but recovered nicely. Based on the size of that falling wedge, this rally could have room to 3800. We’ll watch key levels along the way. Major resistance could be 3500, the September downtrend line and the August 3521 bottom. That also corresponds with the 38% Fibonacci level from the 4259 to 3054 decline (3511). Also, we are now in a 1000+ point trading range, so a break of either 4337 or 3000 would likely carry the Nasdaq a long way in whatever direction it breaks. The Nasdaq 100 also broke out of a falling wedge today. Also, notice two things in the Nasdaq 100’s daily chart: a broken large rising wedge that called for a retest of the May lows, and also the line across the 1999 highs, which the index never came close to touching. Therefore, that makes that line on the Nasdaq all the more important.
The S&P 500 recovered nicely back above its 1994 logarithmic trendline at about 1350, a very important level. The index found support yesterday at 1325, its Februrary bottom. Also in that chart, notice what could be a large broken rising wedge that called for a retest of the lows on that index too. To the upside, next resistance is 1380. The index’s September downtrend line is now at about 1390.
The ISDEX also recovered nicely. Its major resistance is likely to be around 650, near its downtrend line and broken support. Next resistance after that is 700. The Dow faces resistance at 10,200, 10,400, and then 10,500, its September downtrend line.