Stocks closed mixed on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut rates by a quarter point, less than the half-point rate cut investors were hoping for.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ rose 4 to 234, and the Nasdaq added 10 to 2074. The S&P 500 slipped 5 to 1211, and the Dow dropped 37 to 10,434. Volume declined to 1.1 billion shares on the NYSE, but edged higher to 1.65 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 18 to 12 on the NYSE, and 20 to 16 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 bell, Redback dropped after warning that it will lose 27-32 cents a share, much worse than estimates of an 11-cent loss. Altera
rose after reaffirming its ourlook.
During the day, Palm surged .89 to 6.08 after topping estimates by 3 cents with a 16-cent loss and predicting a return to profitability in two quarters. Handspring
bolted .99 to 6.40, and Research in Motion
rose 1.89 to 29.85.
Vitesse rose 1.18 to 17.75 despite issuing an earnings warning.
i2 Technologies spiked 1.72 to 18.03 on speculation that the company could make its quarter, but SG Cowan said it still expects the company to warn.
Amazon climbed .81 to 14.06 after Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget said he expects the company to make its numbers and possibly exceed bottom-line estimates. Blodget said the demise of competitors has helped Amazon.
Loudcloud rose .58 to 2.60 on news that chairman Marc Andreessen had purchased 1 million shares.
Cisco , off .29 to 17.73, was pressured by rumors of price-cutting in the networking sector. Juniper
rose .76 to 30.25 after Nortel
cancelled a competing product.
Yahoo slipped .28 to 18.86, below its 50-day moving average, after rising on comments from Morgan Stanley’s Mary Meeker that risk-tolerant investors might want to consider the stock.
Lucent lost .13 to 5.87 on reports of another 10,000 job cuts.
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
Not much hint on direction from the market today. The Dow looks like it has more downside ahead of it, while the Nasdaq is showing some strength, but not enough to say it’s going higher. The Nasdaq 100 (first chart; charts not updated today) turned back at 1769.55, the neckline of the index’s head and shoulders top; that pattern gives the index 300 points of potential downside, so it’s not a minor resistance level. The S&P 100 (second chart) got nowhere near 642 resistance, its head and shoulders neckline, and ended the day right above critical 632 support. The Dow (third chart) broke 10,450 support on a closing basis; 10,300 is next strong support below that, and 10,560 is first resistance. The Nasdaq (fourth chart) faces first resistance at 2077-2084, key resistance is 2125, and 1973 is critical support. The S&P 500 (fifth chart) faces a whole lot of resistance at 1250-1260; a break above that level would be a big plus. 1200 is key 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.
