From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks tried to rally back from another stiff selling effort, but the broader market's inability to extend beyond the neutral line led stocks to waver into the close.
Sellers attempted to take control of trade right away. Their efforts were motivated by worries that China might have to tighten monetary policy to contain inflation after the country reported that its economy expanded at a torrid clip of 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Some stepped in with a bid that took the S&P 500 and the Dow back to the neutral line, but resistance there encouraged sellers to redouble their efforts.
For the second straight session the Nasdaq was hit the hardest. At its session low, the tech-rich Index was down 1.4%. The S&P 500 was down 0.8% and the Dow was down 0.7% at their worst levels of the day. Selling pressure began to ease midsession, though there wasn't any headline to account for the shift in sentiment. Amid the improved tone stocks staged a gradual climb in afternoon action, but neither the Dow nor the S&P 500 could do more than briefly poke into positive territory before drifting into the close.
eBay (EBAY 30.78, +1.68) was one of the few strong performers in the Nasdaq today. Its near 6% surge followed better-than-expected earnings and strong guidance. Fell Nasdaq component Google (GOOG 626.77, -4.98) was weak ahead of its latest report.
Morgan Stanley (MS 29.02, +1.27) was a standout in the broader market, thanks to an upside earnings surprise. It led the financial sector to a 0.5% gain, even though regional lenders like FifthThird (FITB 14.22, -0.39) and PNC Financial (PNC 61.00, -0.81) lagged following strong results of their own.
Freeport McMoRan (FCX 110.90, -4.26) also tumbled after it reported better-than-expected earnings. It was caught up in a push against basic materials stocks, which collectively fell to a 1.5% loss.
There was a substantial dose of data to digest this morning. It included news that initial jobless claims for the week ended January 15 came in at 404,000, which is below the 425,000 initial claims that had been widely expected. The week-over-week decline took the four-week moving average down to 411,750. As for continuing claims, they fell to 3.86 million from 3.89 million.
Existing home sales for December spiked 12.3% to an annualized rate of 5.28 million units. Not only is that better than the rate of 4.80 million units that had been widely expected, but it was also the highest rate since Spring.
Leading indicators for December increased by 1.0%. That bested the 0.6% increase that was widely expected, but it remained on level with what had been recorded for the prior month.
The Philadelphia Fed Index for January was a bit disappointing. It came in at 19.3, which is both shy of the 20.0 that had been anticipated and below the downwardly revised reading of 20.8 for the prior month.
The dollar scored only its second gain in nine sessions with a 0.2% advance against a basket of major foreign currencies. Most of that move came against the yen, which was down 1.2% to 83.0 yen per dollar at the closing bell.
Treasuries turned sharply lower in the face of a weaker equity market. They had already been under pressure, but their slide steepened with the release of results from a $13 billion auction of 10-year TIPS. Weak demand at the auction caused the benchmark 10-year Note to drop to a loss of about a full point. It settled off of that low so that its yield was just shy of 3.45%.
Tomorrow's economic calendar is empty so most of the market's attention will be on the latest from Dow components General Electric (GE 18.43, +0.10) and Bank of America (BAC 14.54, +0.17).
Advancing Sectors: Utilities (+0.6%), Financials (+0.5%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.2%), Health Care (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-0.2%), Industrials (-0.4%), Tech (-0.7%), Energy (-0.7%), Materials (-1.5%)DJ30 -2.49 NASDAQ -21.07 NQ100 -0.8% R2K -1.1% SP400 -0.8% SP500 -1.66 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 731/2.33 bln/1908 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1124/1.19 bln/1845
4:36PM Advanced Micro beats by $0.03, beats on revs; sees Q1 revenue flat to slightly down QoQ vs -5.4% consensus (AMD) 8.02 +0.09 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.14 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.11; revenues rose 0.2% year/year to $1.65 bln vs the $1.63 bln consensus. Co sees Q1 revenue to be flat to slightly down QoQ vs -5.4% consensus. Reports gross margin of 45%, in-line iwth preannouncement
4:32PM Skyworks beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (SWKS) 30.03 -1.88 : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.45 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.44; revenues rose 36.7% year/year to $335.1 mln vs the $334 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees EPS of 0.38-0.40, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.37 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs of 310-320 vs. $306.48 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:23PM Emulex beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line; guides Q3 EPS in-line, revs in-line (ELX) 11.75 -0.43 : Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $0.15 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.13; revenues rose 5.3% year/year to $114 mln vs the $113.4 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.08-0.11, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.11 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q3 revs of $108-112 vs. $110.52 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:11PM Hewlett-Packard announces Shumeet Banerji, Gary Reiner, Patricia Russo, and Meg Whitman as new Board members (HPQ) 46.78 +0.46 : Co announces that its board of directors has appointed five new members, effective Jan. 21, bringing the total number of board members to 13. The new directors are Shumeet Banerji, chief executive officer of Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, former chief information officer of General Electric Company and a current special advisor to private equity firm General Atlantic; Patricia Russo, former chief executive officer of Alcatel-Lucent; Dominique Senequier, chief executive officer of AXA Private Equity; and Meg Whitman, former president and chief executive officer of eBay Inc. The five new directors also will stand for re-election at HP's next Annual Meeting of Stockholders in March. In addition, HP announced that incumbent directors Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan and Lucille Salhany are not standing for re-election at the company's Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
4:09PM Google beats by $0.66, beats on revs; announces mgmt changes, Larry Page succeeds Schmidt as CEO (GOOG) 626.77 -4.98 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $8.75 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.66 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $8.09; revenues rose 28.6% year/year to $6.37 bln vs the $6.06 bln consensus. GOOG reports Q3 Paid Clicks increased 18% y/y, 11% q (Y/Y expectations ~15%); Costs Per Click increased 5% y/y, 4% q/q (Y/Y expectations ~5%). Intn' rev +52% YoY. Q3 Paid Clicks increased 18% y/y, 11% q (Y/Y expectations ~15%). GOOG also announces mgmt changes: Starting from April 4, Larry Page, Google Co-Founder, will take charge of Google's day-to-day operations as Chief Executive Officer. Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder, will devote his energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products. Eric Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, govt outreach and technology thought leadership--all of which are increasingly important given Google's global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.
4:07PM Google discloses info on Schmidt stock trading plan (GOOG) 627.77 -4.98 : On December 9, 2010, Eric [Schmidt] adopted a stock trading plan in accordance with guidelines specified under Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act, and Google's Policy Against Insider Trading. In the future, he will begin selling a portion of his Google stock pursuant to this trading plan. The pre-arranged trading plan was adopted in order to allow Eric to sell a portion of his Google stock as part of his long-term strategy for individual asset diversification and liquidity. The stock transactions pursuant to this trading plan will be disclosed publicly through Form 4 and Form 144 filings with the SEC. Using this trading plan, Eric can diversify his investment portfolio and can spread stock trades out over a period of one year to reduce market impact. Because this trading plan was established well in advance of a trade, it also helps avoid concerns about whether Eric had material, non-public information when he made a decision to sell his stock. As of Dec 31, 2010, Eric held approx 9.2 mln shares of Class A and Class B common stock, which represented approx 2.9% of Google's outstanding capital stock and approx 9.6% of the voting power of Google's outstanding capital stock. Under the terms of the trading plan, Eric intends to sell approx 534,000 shares of Class A common stock. If Eric completes all the planned sales under this trading plan, he would continue to own approx 8.7 million shares...
4:06PM Flextronics beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides MarQ above consensus (FLEX) 8.22 -0.14 : Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.25 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.24; revenues rose 19.5% year/year to $7.83 bln vs the $7.61 bln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4 (Mar), sees EPS of $0.21-0.23, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.21 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 revs of $7.1-7.4 bln vs. $6.96 bln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:04PM Maxim Integrated beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q3 revs above consensus (MXIM) 25.60 -0.33 : Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $0.44 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.41; revenues fell 2.1% year/year to $612.9 mln vs the $607.7 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of $590-620 vs. $585.02 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
2:51PM Power Integrations confirms it was awarded double damages in patent-infringement case against Fairchild Semiconductor (FCS) (POWI) 38.21 -1.12 : (See prior 7:44 comment)
11:35AM Semiconductor Hldrs ETF slides to new session low of 33.36 (SMH) 33.40 -0.74 : Semi/Disk Drive weakness have helped push the Nasdaq Comp to a minor new session low of 2686. The next support of note for the SMH is at its Dec peak at 33.26. The weakest performers in the SMH include: ALTR -4.2%, AMAT -3.3%, AMKR -2.3%, ATML -5.8%, BRCM -4.4%, (testing its 50 sma), LSI -2.3% (testing its 50 ema), MXIM -2.3%, NSM -2.4%, NVLS -2.7%, SNDK -4.7%, TER -3.8%,
9:03AM Tegal and se2quel Partners form new company in solar utility development (TGAL) 0.63 : Co announced that it has formed, along with se2quel Partners LLC, a new company dedicated to the development and operation of large scale photovoltaic (PV)-based solar utilities in the United States, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.
7:34AM Fairchild Semi beats by $0.06, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 revs above consensus; court ruling doubles patent damage award to POWI to ~$12.1 mln (FCS) 16.73 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.45 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.39; revenues rose 12.2% year/year to $397.7 mln vs the $399.6 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $405-420 mln vs. $388.60 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. "Our current scheduled backlog is sufficient to achieve this range. We expect gross margin to be flat to down 100 bps QoQ due primarily to the impact of lower utilization in the fourth quarter as well as modest seasonal increases in costs." Separately, the co announced a recent court ruling in its six-year-old patent litigation with Power Integrations (POWI). The court denied Power Integrations' request for attorneys' fees and triple damages, and instead doubled the damage award from ~$6.1 mln to ~$12.2 mln. The amount is fully reserved and the decision will have no effect on Fairchild's business operations.
6:09AM Tyco Electronics beats by $0.05, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS below consensus, revs in-line; guides FY11 EPS, revs in-line (TEL) 36.03 : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.73 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.68; revenues rose 10.7% year/year to $3.2 bln vs the $3.16 bln consensus. Total co orders were $3.2 billion, an increase of 7 percent compared to the prior year and up 7 percent sequentially. The book-to-bill ratio was 0.99 overall and 1.03, excluding the SubCom business. Sales grew 11 percent compared to the prior-year quarter and 2 percent sequentially. Organically, sales increased 11 percent compared to the prior year and were down 2 percent sequentially. The adjusted operating margin was 14.5 percent in the quarter, up 300 basis points versus the prior year and up 30 basis points sequentially. Co issues mixed guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.70-0.74, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.75 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs of $3.45-3.55 bln vs. $3.48 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for FY11, sees EPS of $3.05-3.20, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $3.07 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees FY11 revs of $13.9-14.3 bln vs. $14.03 bln Thomson Reuters consensus.
NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) announced that Comba Telecom Systems Holdings has selected NXP high speed converters for use in its digital repeater products.
HP Enterprise Services today announced FCC, a Spain-based multinational public services company, has signed a seven-year technology services agreement with Hewlett-Packard Servicios Espana. The agreement is intended to transform FCC's technology infrastructure to advance the company's ability to compete internationally; it is valued in excess of $300 mln in revenue for HP (HPQ).
1:45AM Baldor Electric: ABB Ltd announces second extension to tender offer for Baldor Electric (BEZ) common stock (BEZ) 63.39 : ABB and BEZ announce that ABB's subsidiary Brock Acquisition Corp has extended for a second time the expiration date for its tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of BEZ at a price of $63.50 per share net to the holder in cash, without interest and less any required withholding taxes, until 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Tuesday, January 25, 2011. The offer had previously been scheduled to expire on January 19, 2011.
1:40AM Trident Microsystems CEO resigns to pursue other opportunities; appoints interim CEO; President also resigns (TRID) 1.61 : Co announces that Sylvia Summers Couder has resigned as CEO and as a director to pursue other opportunities. The co also announced that Mr. Philippe Geyres has been appointed as Interim CEO effective immediately and that the co has initiated a search for a CEO following this transition. Geyres is a candidate for the permanent CEO position. Geyres joined Trident's board in February 2010 following the co's acquisition of certain assets of NXP. The co also announced that Christos Lagomichos has announced his departure from co and resignation as its President effective Feb. 9, 2011.
09:42 am FFIV Guides Q2 Revs Below Consensus (FFIV)
F5 Networks (FFIV $113.35 -25.43) reported first quarter earnings of $0.88 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.83.
Revenues rose 40.6% year-over-year to $268.9 million versus the $270.6 million consensus.
For the second quarter, the company sees earnings in the range of $0.84 to $0.86, excluding non-recurring items, versus $0.85 Thomson Reuters consensus. On the top line, revenues are expected to be $275 million to $280 million versus the $281.13 million Thomson Reuters consensus.
First quarter GAAP gross margin 81.8% versus 81% to 82% prior guidance.
The company said, "Product revenue was up nearly 44 percent from the first quarter of fiscal 2010, and service revenue grew more than 35 percent during the same period. On a regional basis, all geographies delivered sequential and year-over-year gains, led by Asia Pacific where revenue was up 11 percent from the prior quarter and 62 percent from the first quarter a year ago. Underpinning the continued strength in our service business, deferred revenue grew 10.9 percent to $287.8 million from the previous quarter."
08:26 am ZOOM Technologies initiated with a Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann; tgt $7: . Ladenburg Thalmann initiates ZOOM with a Buy and price target of $7 saying they believe that Zoom Technologies is fully taking advantage of the rapidly evolving feature phone/ smartphone trend in the world's largest mobile phone market and is on path to become a leading mobile phone OEM in China. |
