From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Financials finished off of their session highs, but still successfully led the broader market to another gain, which made for new two-year closing high.
The financial sector continued its December advance with a 1.1% gain today. It had been up 1.4% at its session high. Nonetheless, the sector is now up 10.9% month to date, while the S&P 500 is up a more muted 6.6% so far this month. However, for the year the financial sector is up 11.1% while the S&P 500 is up 12.9% to its best level since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.
Once again banks were behind the financial sector's ascent. Shares of diversified banks advanced 1.5% while shares of regional lenders tacked on 2.1% this session.
Buyers continued their foray into banking issues despite a dearth of news from the space. Among the more noteworthy headlines, Berkshire Hills (BHLB 21.00, -0.28) will acquire Legacy Bancorp (LEGC 12.65, +4.05) for about $13.00 per share, which represents a premium of approximately 50% over the prior session's closing price.
Data did little to move stocks. The third and final estimate for third quarter GDP indicated that the economy expanded at a 2.6% annual clip from July through September. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com had called for 2.7% growth after the previous estimate had indicated that third quarter growth totaled 2.5%.
As for personal consumption during the third quarter, it increased 2.4%. That is down from the 2.8% increase that had been reported previously.
November existing home sales increased 5.6% month over month to an annualized rate of 4.68 million units, which is on par with the 4.65 million units that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Though the broader market shrugged off that particular piece of data, shares of homebuilders were helped to a 3.1% gain after they had been down as much as 1.5%.
Walgreens (WAG 38.85, +2.02) was a top individual performer today. Better-than-expected earnings helped the stock book its best percentage gain in almost three months so that it set a fresh 52-week high.
Nike (NKE 86.95, -5.35) was also out with its latest quarterly results. The company posted an upside earnings surprise, but that was overshadowed by disappointment related to the athletic apparel maker's futures orders figure.
Outside of equities, the dollar had a quiet day. It was down only fractionally at the close.
Commodities saw mixed interest, but the CRB Commodity Index still mustered a 0.4% gain, which marked its fourth straight advance and took the CRB to its best level since 2008.
Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.1%), Utilities (+0.5%), Energy (+0.4%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Industrials (+0.3%), Telecom (+0.2%), Health Care (+0.2%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: (None)
Unchanged: Materials, TechDJ30 +26.33 NASDAQ +3.87 NQ100 +0.1% R2K +0.00% SP400 +0.3% SP500 +4.24 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1391/1.62 bln/1254 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1838/783 mln/1163
4:13PM Micron misses by $0.13, misses on revs (MU) 8.28 +0.14 : Reports Q1 (Nov) earnings of $0.15 per share, $0.13 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.28; revenues rose 32.2% year/year to $2.3 bln vs the $2.37 bln consensus.
12:00PM Broadcom receives favorable claim construction ruling in patent infringement case against Emulex (ELX) (BRCM) 43.88 -0.24 : "The ruling reinforces our infringement case against Emulex's OneConnect, and the components used in Emulex's OneConnect, HBAs, and Fibre Channel switch products". Broadcom, which has accused Emulex of infringing nine Broadcom patents, is seeking damages and an injunction against Emulex. U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna issued his final ruling on December 17, 2010 following an earlier Markman hearing. Broadcom has asserted that Emulex's products infringe at least twenty claims of nine Broadcom patents.
10:01AM Dell to acquire InSite One (DELL) 13.80 -0.04 : Co announces its intent to acquire cloud-based medical archiving leader InSite One, to help healthcare organizations simplify retention of healthcare data. The InSite One solution helps customers reduce costs associated with long-term data storage and migration and eliminates one of the biggest shortcomings in healthcare today--the lack of sharing of images between medical professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Terms of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, were not disclosed.
Motorola (MOT) announced that Motorola Mobility has acquired Zecter, a leading start-up with synchronization and streaming technologies for on-demand digital media consumption; terms of the transaction were not disclosed
8:31AM Advanced Energy announces creation of strategic business units (AEIS) 13.90 : Co announces the creation of two focused business units within the company effective January 1, 2011. The two business units, Thin Films and Renewables, will enable improved execution and a strategic focus on two distinct markets.
8:01AM Trina Solar signs 20 MW solar project with CECEP Solar Sheyang Power Corp (TSL) 23.32 : Under the terms of the agreement, Trina Solar has been supplying PV modules for the construction of a ground mounted solar project of approximately 20 MW located in Sheyang, Jiangsu Province, China. Additionally, together with local partners, the Company has been designing and managing the construction and development of the project. The project is expected to be completed by the end of December 2010. The solar power station is believed to be one of the largest solar projects being built in China in 2010.
09:38 am Micron downgraded to Neutral at Avian: . Avian Securities downgrades MU to Neutral from Positive, saying strength in NAND was not enough to offset the weakness in DDR3 DRAM pricing. While the company will remain in the black when report FQ1, the firm believes they will miss street estimates. They move to a Neutral as they expect EPS to break even in FQ2; sirm sees 30%+ DRAM declines throughout the qtr and don't believe better NAND conditions will be able to offset weakness in DRAM.
09:49 am XLNX Lowers Q3 Guidance (XLNX)
Xilinx (XLNX 27.13 -1.26) lowered third quarter revs guidance to down approx. 7% to 9% sequentially, which equates to approx. $563.9 million to $576.3 million, below the $604.7 million consensus, down from ~flat to down 4%, which equates to approx. $594.9 million to $619.7 million.
The decreased sales guidance is primarily related to weaker than anticipated sales to a few large communications customers, specifically in the wireless segment. The Co expects sales growth to return to the communications segment in the March quarter based on current backlog and forecasts from its large customers.
Gross margin is expected to be approximately 65%, in line with previous guidance. Additional commentary pertaining to the March quarter will be provided when the company reports its third quarter financial results on January 19, 2011. No conference call will be held in conjunction with this guidance revision. |
