Optimism in the numbers will be a roadblock for further gains. The upside in tech is limited.

It'll take another round of earnings to confirm some of the optimism that's been going around. And I don't know that I would say all the news was necessarily good. A lot of companies beat much-lowered expectations and didn't necessarily have rosy outlooks.

The market will take any good news it can wrap its arms around so if Dell offers some encouragement that might mark a short-term bottom for tech. But it has to say some positive things about the spending environment, which isn't likely since there is no incentive to be overly optimistic.

We're already starting to see valuations get stretched again. It's not unlikely that we can get back close to 1,700 on the Nasdaq, but I don't think that's necessarily justifiable. That's just a function of trading psychology in the short run.

A quicker-than-expected recovery in capital expenditure spending will probably be the biggest catalyst, if one occurs at all.

Valuations remain a little stretched, and we could see some further weakness into the early part of the year.