A Look At AMAT

AMAT was upgraded today to buy from neutral by Banc of America Securities and was up 4.08% for the day.

Lets look at the charts.

The 1 year daily chart shows a nice breakout from a 6 month consolidation period.


It is always important to take a long-term view. The 3 year weekly chart shows a much different picture of AMAT. This stock is approaching resistance which has stopped its advance for the last 3 years. It surely makes me question how far today's breakout can move before it is stymied. Perhaps the new solar panel market is just what AMAT needs to push it to levels not seen in years.

While AMAT has been an extremely boring stock, a break of this long term resistance could signal a trend change, taking the stock out of a long consolidation and launching a new uptrend.

Finally, with Alcoa reporting good earnings, and AMAT challenging long-term resistance, it seems the market will continue its recent uptrend.