International Business Machines has been a boring stock for years, and is still well below its highs from early 2013. But that's been changing in the last month. First came a strong earnings report on January 21. Profit and revenue both beat estimates, but the real story was strong growth in cloud computing. That suggested IBM is finally moving beyond its legacy...
Pinterest has been making news this year. First, eMarketer said it surpassed Snap as the third-biggest social-media platform in the U.S. The second headline was a strong earnings report on February 6, featuring beats on the top- and bottom lines. PINS gapped higher on the results and then pulled back -- as you might expect. But then it kept sliding on the...
Square rallied hard after filling a price gap a few weeks ago. Now Jack Dorsey's other company, Twitter , is doing the same thing. Strong quarterly results on February 6 sent TWTR ripping on heavy volume. In a nutshell, better user monetization and engagement restored confidence in the social-media platform's business over the long term. The stock has...
Bitcoin just had its biggest drop since November, down 4.5 percent on February 15. It was a healthy pullback after a big rally, and it did little to break the cryptocurrency's recent uptrend. If anything, it confirmed most of the bullish bias. Point 1: BTCUSD held a key price level around $9,500. That was a peak last October-November and again in late January....
Paychex isn't the most exciting stock on the planet. But it's forming a textbook cup and handle pattern, which may indicate a breakout is coming. The payroll processing company surged about 40 percent between the end of 2018 and June 2019. It's consolidated those gains since, basing around $80 last August-September (cup), followed by a higher low around $82 in...
Facebook gapped lower on a poor earnings report two weeks ago. It's staggered there since as the rest of the market rebounded, and now the technicals may be pointing lower. The first big pattern is a potential bearish flag following the January 30 drop. The direction of movement was lower, so a continuation pattern like a bear flag could point toward another leg...
The bulls and the bears have taken their turns feasting on plant-based food maker Beyond Meat . First the bulls, then the bears … and now the bulls may be back. BYND initially flew higher after its May 2019 IPO, ripping from $25 to over $220. It then fizzled out and crashed all the way back down into the $70s. Buyers came back with an appetite in 2020 and drove...
Semiconductors have been one of the stronger corners of the market, and Advanced Micro Devices has been one of the strongest names in the space. AMD might be extended in price but that's a sign of its leadership. It just pulled back to test its 10-week simple moving average (SMA) for the first time since it started running in October. The stock is also coming...
One software stock after another has come to life and ripped higher in the last few months. Salesforce.com , Alteryx , ServiceNow , Trade Desk , Adobe : the list goes on. VEEV is another member of the group that's now trying to make its move. It's formed a broad basing pattern since last autumn. That followed a 100 percent move between early 2018 and...
Coupa Software has had a monster run since early last year. Now it could be giving a potential entry. COUP rallied about 150 percent between January 2019 and last October. It then had a big chopping period like two megaphones. It first got wider and then narrower, followed by a breakout in January. Now COUP has come back to hold the old high around $160 and...
Chip stocks have been the strongest corner of the market for the last year. Now one of the most actively traded names in that group has had its first healthy pullback since breaking out to new 52-week highs: Micron Technology . MU has been working its way through an 18-month consolidation pattern following a huge run between mid-2016 and mid-2018. It broke...
E-commerce stock eBay reported earnings last week. The backward-looking results were ok, but forward guidance wasn't so hot. The resulting drop is creating some bearish chart patterns. First, EBAY formed a tight channel between $34.50 and $36.60 since October. It's now breaking the bottom of that channel. Second, the channel began on October 24, when EBAY...
Facebook dropped sharply on Thursday after quarterly results raised questions about its longer-term growth story. Sure, the backward looking numbers weren't bad. But looking forward, newer offerings like Instagram don't seem to be catching fire. The "big blue app," with its slow-growing and ageing user base, isn't really thrilling investors. This stands in...
We've earlier cited downside in S&P Oil & Gas Exploration Fund and Halliburton . Now we're taking a step back to look at the bigger picture on the SPDR Energy ETF . It isn't pretty for the bulls. As many traders know, XLE is the market's worst-performing major sector by a wide margin. A global crude-oil glut and mediocre economic growth are hurting crude...
Traders in search of potentially bullish patterns don't have to look hard on the Ethereum chart. The No. 2 cryptocurrency has key basing patterns, candlestick patterns, levels and moving averages -- all seeming to point higher. First, the basing pattern: ETHUSD made a low around $132 on November 25 and another low of $116 on December 18. But then the next...
Skyworks Solutions has been flying on strong demand for smart phones and hopes of a big 5G buildout. Now it's pulled back to a level where traders might want to take a look. SWKS broke out to new record highs in December, above the $115 zone where it peaked in November 2017 and March 2018. As often happens, it was a case of "buy the rumor and sell the news."...
Bitcoin is known for volatility, but its trading range has narrowed considerably in recent months. That can indicate a change in character as buyers and sellers reach an equilibrium. It also fits into the apparently bullish structure of BTC since December, as cited in earlier ideas. The interesting thing about today's behavior is that BTC's Average True...
Zynga is a classic growth stock with a textbook cup and handle pattern. The social and mobile videogame stock doubled between late 2018 and the summer of 2019. It then paused and consolidated. Its August low of $5.51 was the cup. The following low of $5.63 in October represented the handle. ZNGA soon entered a tight channel and moved sideways, followed by a...