Volatility Is Back, Baby!

     

Wall Street, a place that hates surprises more than Donald Trump loves
blondes, reacted extremely negatively to last night’s warning by personal
computer maker Gateway
(
GTW |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating). This warning, coupled with equally
bad news from Altera
(
ALTR |
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PowerRating) set this selloff into motion and
there looks to be little sign of slowing. 

      

We’ve said our indicators have been negative on the techs, and Internet
particularly, but today’s readings are off the charts! Our readings on Yahoo!

(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Vitesse Semiconductor
(
VTSS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Xilinx
(
XLNX |
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News |
PowerRating)
and Maxim Intg Products
(
MXIM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) are downright scary. YHOO dollar-weighted put-to-call ratio is a mind-boggling 195 to 1. The total put/call
ratio for the Internet portal is a bearish 2.65 (10,000 calls to 26,565 puts),
but our dollar-weighted index shows a considerably more bearish outlook. 

    

Another option seeing extremely bearish readings is Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
which is down 7 to 58 1/16. The difference here is that the software maker’s
options have turned those bearish readings around, to where we may be nearing
a bottom in MSFT. 

      

The VIX hit an intraday high of 34.5% at about 12:45 and has only eased
slightly, to a 34% reading. 

    

(**Bill
Gates is due to announce
one of the largest donations ever by Microsoft. That donation to the Boys
& Girls Clubs of America would bridge the digital divide for more than 3.3
million children and teenagers.)