A downbeat quarterly report from eBay supposedly bummed out Wall Street the other day, but shouldn’t IBM’s stellar numbers have compensated? Apparently not, since even Big Blue itself has been having trouble resisting the bearish tide that has swept stocks lower since the beginning of the year. With a healthy increase in sales, the computer giant’s net rose 12% to a record $3.04 billion. So what do we make of the fact that, once the news was out,  IBM shares opened slightly higher on Wednesday, only to slide south for the remainder of the session? 

The supply/demand equation evidently improved somewhat on Thursday, allowing the specialist to goose the stock for a $1.20 ride after a soft opening. But it didn’t take long for scalpers to unload the shares they’d imbibed at the bell, and IBM once again eased lower for the better part of the day. At the close, the stock appeared bound for a hidden-pivot support at 92.80, or 91.77 if any lower. We should keep a close eye on this bellwether today, since any slippage beneath the second number would be warning of uglier things just ahead.

(Click on image to enlarge)