From Briefing.com last night: 4:30 pm : The Dow and S&P 500 had a lackluster finish that came after they had wavered near key technical levels, but the Nasdaq managed to score a solid gain following a couple of exceptional quarterly announcements.
Netflix (NFLX 210.87, +27.84) and Qualcomm (QCOM 54.90, +3.04) helped the Nasdaq Composite lock in a nice lead over its counterparts for the entire session. The two stocks were distinguished by their bottom line beats and upside forecasts. Shortly before the closing bell Microsoft (MSFT 28.87, +0.09) posted an upside earnings surprise that pushed the Nasdaq to a session high, but the move was sold into the final minutes of the session.
The surprise announcement from MSFT also helped the S&P 500 clear 1300 and the Dow eclipse 12,000, but neither could hold the move. Both settled slightly below their psychologically significant lines.
Broad market participants were generally uninspired by stronger-than-expected earnings from Dow components Caterpillar (CAT 96.63, +0.88), AT&T (T 28.13, -0.60), and Procter & Gamble (PG 64.18, -1.93), as well as upside surprises from the likes of Eli Lilly (LLY 35.47, +0.52) and Colgate-Palmolive (CL 77.39, -2.61). The primary reason is that simply beating the consensus earnings estimate has become expected, especially in light of the stock market's climb in the past couple of months to two-year highs.
Murphy Oil (MUR 65.74, -7.49) failed to meet the consensus earnings estimate. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY 26.35, +0.42) also came short of the call, but compounded the offense with downside guidance. Starbucks (SBUX 33.03, -0.04) beat expectations, but issued downside guidance.
Data today was mixed. Durable goods orders for December dropped 2.5% in an ugly follow up to the 0.1% decline that was recorded in the prior month. The sharp decline in December came as a surprise considering that the Briefing.com consensus called for a 1.5% increase. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders increased 0.5%, but that still is not as strong as the 0.6% increase that had been expected among economists polled by Briefing.com or the 4.5% spike that had been recorded for the prior month.
The latest initial jobless claims tally for the week ended January 22 came in at a three-month high of 454,000, which is well above the 410,000 claims that had been widely expected. Continuing claims came in at 3.99 million, up from 3.90 million.
Pending home sales proved to be a much more positive surprise. They climbed 2.0% when a 0.5% decline had been expected.
The Dollar Index was down fractionally at the end of the trading day. Most of its slip was due to a narrow gain by the euro, although the yen fell a sharp 0.9% to 82.90 yen per dollar after S&P's downgrade of Japan's debt to AA- from AA.
Treasuries had a quiet session that ended with muted gains. An auction of 7-year Notes attracted a bid-to-cover of 2.85, dollar demand of $82.7 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 52.1%.
Advancing Sectors: Financials (+0.9%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.8%), Tech (+0.5%), Industrials (+0.5%), Utilities (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.3%)
Declining Sectors: Energy (-0.5%), Materials (-0.7%), Consumer Staples (-0.9%), Telecom (-0.9%)DJ30 +4.39 NASDAQ +15.78 NQ100 +0.7% R2K +0.2% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +2.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1348/2.04 bln/1284 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1675/987 mln/1311
4:30PM Microchip beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (MCHP) 37.89 : Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.58 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.57; revenues rose 47.1% year/year to $367.8 mln vs the $361.8 mln consensus. Co issues guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.56-0.58, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.57 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 revs of $367.8-378.9 mln vs. $362.00 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:25PM Varian Semi beats by $0.08, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (VSEA) 43.54 +1.38 : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.95 per share, $0.08 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.87; revenues rose 100.0% year/year to $282.6 mln vs the $276.2 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $1.02-1.07 vs. $0.81 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs of $315-325 mln vs. $274.73 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:24PM Micros Systems beats by $0.04, reports revs in-line; guides FY11 revs in-line, increases FY11 net income guidance (MCRS) 45.25 -0.24 : Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $0.45 per share, $0.04 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.41; revenues rose 9.5% year/year to $247.1 mln vs the $245.6 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for FY11, sees FY11 revs of $1-1.005 bln vs. $1.01 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co also guides for FY11 net income of $145-$147 million, up from its prior guidance of $140-$142 mln. Using its current weighted-average number of shares outstanding, on a diluted basis, this would equate to EPS of $1.75-$1.77. Thomson Reuters consensus for FY11 EPS is $1.76.
4:17PM KLA-Tencor beats by $0.04, beats on revs (KLAC) 44.68 +0.15 : Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $1.10 per share, $0.04 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.06; revenues rose 74.1% year/year to $766 mln vs the $717.9 mln consensus.
4:16PM QLogic beats by $0.06, reports revs in-line (QLGC) 17.93 +0.24 : Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.53 per share, $0.06 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.47; revenues rose 4.5% year/year to $155.8 mln vs the $155.6 mln consensus.
4:15PM Rambus and Panasonic (PC) sign patent license agreement (RMBS) 20.95 +0.32 : This five year agreement covers Panasonic's products with DRAM memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and other DRAM devices. Rambus will receive royalty payments based on the shipment of these memory controllers.
4:14PM Applied Micro beats by $0.01, beats on revs (AMCC) 10.64 +0.24 : Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.10 per share, $0.01 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.09; revenues rose 16.2% year/year to $62.4 mln vs the $61.3 mln consensus.
4:09PM SanDisk beats by $0.19, beats on revs (SNDK) 51.32 +1.35 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $1.27 per share, $0.19 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.08; revenues rose 6.9% year/year to $1.33 bln vs the $1.3 bln consensus. Reports gross margins of 43.4% compared to 45.2% street expectations
4:09PM Rambus misses by $0.01, beats on revs (RMBS) 20.95 +0.32 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.29 per share, $0.01 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.30; revenues rose 195.1% year/year to $90.9 mln vs the $89.3 mln consensus.
4:04PM Microsemi reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs in-line (MSCC) 23.68 -0.60 : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.37 per share, in-line with the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.37; revenues rose 63.5% year/year to $184.4 mln vs the $183.8 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.44-$0.46 vs. $0.44 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs growing 10-13% sequentially, which equates to approx $202.84-208.37 mln vs. $203.56 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:03PM Lattice Semi beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 revs above consensus (LSCC) 5.94 +0.13 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.11 per share, $0.03 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.08; revenues rose 32.7% year/year to $73.1 mln vs the $73.6 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of +2-7% QoQ to ~$74.6-78.2 mln vs. $73.07 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Gross margin of 62.7%, compared to 59.1% in 3Q10 and 55.3% in 4Q09.
4:03PM Coherent beats by $0.16, beats on revs; guides FY11 revs above consensus (COHR) 47.47 -0.37 : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.85 per share, $0.16 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.69; revenues rose 49.1% year/year to $183.1 mln vs the $176.8 mln consensus. Co says due to the combined impact of record orders, record backlog and the completion of the Hypertronics transaction, it sees FY11 revs of revs of $760-780 mln vs. $715.96 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
3:50PM Microsoft beats by $0.09, beats on revs (MSFT) 29.33 +0.56 : Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $0.77 per share, $0.09 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.68; revenues rose 4.7% year/year to $19.9 bln vs the $19.15 bln consensus. Co reaffirms operating expense guidance of $26.9-27.3 bln
11:40AM Concurrent has been awarded patent for technology that is foundational for network DVR services (CCUR) 5.63 +0.43 : The patented technology solves the challenges of resource-allocation and management for the storage and distribution of content from a centralized, network-based system. Using factors such as demand, consumption level and timeliness of content, Concurrent's technology enables automatic prioritization of resources for the ingest and delivery of content.
9:15AM Cabot Micro correction - beats by $0.09, revs above consensus (CCMP) 45.57 : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.71 per share, $0.09 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.62; revenues rose 16.9% year/year to $114.2 mln vs the $109 mln consensus. Earlier we incorrectly compared the yr/yr revs. We have deleted the original story.
9:04AM Cirrus Logic beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs above consensus (CRUS) 17.92 : Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.34 per share, $0.01 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.33; revenues rose 46.6% year/year to $95.6 mln vs the $91.7 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $88-94 mln vs. $85.61 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co sees FY11 gross margin to be between 54-56% vs 55.8% consensus.
9:01AM Dell selected by FBI to provide IT Supply and Support; the FBI IT Triple S vehicle has a ceiling value of $30 bln over a period of up to eight years. (DELL) 13.77 : The FBI has selected co's wholly-owned subsidiary, Perot Systems Government Services, a unit of Dell Services, as one of the 46 prime service and solutions providers for the agency's indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity Federal Bureau of Investigation Information Technology Supplies and Support Services contract. A prime services designation provides Dell Services with the opportunity to compete for a range of IT supply and support services at the FBI. The FBI IT Triple S vehicle has a ceiling value of $30 bln over a period of up to eight years.
8:48AM LDK Solar prices a follow-on offering of 12 mln ADS, each representing one ordinary share, at a price to the public of $12.40 per ADS (LDK) 13.02 :
TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) and Circuits Multi-Projects announce CMP has chosen TriQuint's TQP15 for its Gallium Arsenide foundry process technology offering for universities and small company customers.
7:31AM Cypress Semi to sell CMOS Image Sensor business unit to ON Semi (ONNN) fo r~$31.4 mln (CY) 20.41 : ON Semiconductor (ONNN) and co announce that a definitive agreement has been signed for ONNN to acquire the CMOS Image Sensor Business Unit from CY in an all cash transaction for ~$31.4 mln. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2011. Upon the closing, ONNN may record one-time charges related to the transaction. The amounts of such charges, if any, have not yet been determined. |
