Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) – Get Report were powering higher Monday, up 5.5% to two-week highs. The move comes on reports of surging cloud use.
The company has seen demand for cloud services increase by 775% in areas that are enforcing social distancing and have active shelter-in-place orders. Microsoft has also seen a jump in its Teams platform, which should soon sport 44 million daily active users.
It’s not the only company seeing an uptick in product demand either. Zoom Video (ZM) – Get Report, Slack (WORK) – Get Report and others are as well, as the coronavirus continues to shift the way remote work is being handled.
The news from Microsoft is good, and when taken into consideration with how strong its balance sheet is and the solid bottom the stock just hammered out it’s got bulls taking a closer look.
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Trading Microsoft Stock
Coming into the summer of 2019, Microsoft had been a rewarding stock for the bulls. But it stalled against $140 resistance throughout the summer. In October, shares were finally able to breakout over this mark, rallying all the way up to $190.
I was hoping that this $140 breakout level would act as support amid Microsoft’s recent decline. It wasn’t necessarily a line in the sand, but shares held up well enough near this area. The bottom was actually hammered out at $135, a level that was tested in approximately five different days over a six-session stretch.
The subsequent rally has sent Microsoft back over $140 and above the 200-day moving average. It has also thrust shares over that sharp downtrend resistance mark (blue line). The rally has turned momentum in favor of the bulls via the MACD reading (blue circle at the bottom of the chart), and improved the look of the Relative Strength Index (purple line at the top of the chart).
Now comes the tricky part. On the upside, bulls need to see Microsoft reclaim the $160 mark and the 100-day moving average. Thus far, these levels have rejected the stock. Above $160 puts the 50-day moving average on the table near $165, followed by a possible rally up to the $175 level.
On the downside, bulls need to see the 200-day moving average hold as support. Below puts the $140 breakout level and $135 lows back in play.
The charts have suffered plenty of technical damage from this selloff. However, after hammering out a clear bottom and seeing a decent rebound in the share price, aggressive bulls can consider Microsoft stock a buy-on-dips candidate going forward.
