From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The absence of any real catalyst kept traders on the sidelines, but a big bounce by energy stocks led the broader market to a modest gain that has left it just a point shy of a 100% gain from its 2008 low.
Stocks chopped along listlessly in the early going. There were neither influential corporate announcements nor data to provide direction. Action abroad also failed to offer any kind of cue.
Although the broader market was mired in a relatively narrow range for most of the day, energy stocks surged. The sector settled with a 2.1% gain, even though energy commodity prices finished mixed -- March crude oil settled 0.9% lower at $84.81 per barrel, but March natural gas gained 0.5% to $3.93 per MMBtu. Oil and gas drillers (+3.0%) and refiners (+3.6%) were the sector's top performers.
Also natural resource plays, materials stocks found favor. The sector finished with a 1.0% gain in the face of a stronger dollar, which settled with a 0.2% gain after it had set a three-week high in the early going.
Every other major sectors was caught up in the broader market's lackluster trade. As a result, they finished mixed. Despite that, the S&P 500 was still able to muster a modest gain, which incrementally extended the stock market's two-year high. With today's gain, the S&P 500 is now up almost 100% from its March 2009 low just beneath 667.
Participation this session was paltry, though. Trading volume on the NYSE barely broke 800 million shares. That makes for the worst share volume total of this year.
Advancing Sectors: Energy (+2.1%), Materials (+1.0%), Health Care (+0.3%), Tech (+0.2%), Financial (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Industrials (-0.1%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.4%), Consumer Staples (-0.5%), Telecom (-0.5%), Utilities (-0.8%) DJ30 -5.07 NASDAQ +7.74 NQ100 +0.3% R2K +0.5% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +3.17 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1439/1.97 bln/1231 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1652/815 mln/1329
5:31PM Advanced Energy beats by $0.06, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS in-line, revs in-line (AEIS) 15.79 +0.45 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.45 per share, $0.06 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.39; revenues rose 155.9% year/year to $148.7 mln vs the $145.3 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.32-0.38 vs. $0.34 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q1 revs of $132-142 mln vs. $136.29 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:11PM Agilent beats by $0.02, misses on revs; guides Q2 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus; guides FY11 EPS above consensus, revs in-line (A) 12.57 +0.18 : Reports Q1 (Jan) earnings of $0.60 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.58; revenues rose 25.2% year/year to $1.52 bln vs the $1.55 bln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.63-0.65, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.60 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs of $1.59-1.61 bln vs. $1.56 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for FY11, sees EPS of $2.53-2.63, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $2.50 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees FY11 revs of $6.3-6.4 bln vs. $6.32 bln Thomson Reuters consensus.
9:21AM Hewlett-Packard to acquire privately held Vertica; no terms were disclosed (HPQ) 48.64 : Co announces it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Vertica, a privately held, real-time analytics platform co. The acquisition of Vertica will enhance HP capabilities for information optimization, adding sophisticated, real-time business analytics for large and complex sets of data in physical, virtual and cloud environments. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
7:05AM KVH Industries misses by $0.03, misses on revs; guides Q1 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus; guides FY11 revs below consensus (KVHI) 12.55 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.02 per share, $0.03 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.05; revenues rose 2.7% year/year to $27 mln vs the $27.3 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of ($.05)-(0.10) vs. $0.13 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q1 revs of -5-10% YoY to $25.2-26.6 mln vs. $32.11 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co issues downside guidance for FY11, sees FY11 revs of +15-20% to ~$129.1-134.7 mln vs. $137.73 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. "However, we do anticipate challenges in the first quarter. Among these are the continued slow pace of FOG sales for remote weapon stations during the CROWS II to CROWS III transition period, a delay in resumption of LiveTV shipments until the second half of 2011, and the full cost impact of the mini-VSAT Broadband network buildout, including Brazil and some additional capacity for the continental U.S... We are on a solid path of executing our strategic plans to expand our VSAT, marine satellite TV, and FOG businesses. These efforts form the basis for building toward progressively stronger financial results with four- to five-year targets of annual revenue greater than $300 million, more than half of which would be generated by our VSAT business, along with operating margins of 15%."
# Juniper Networks (JNPR) announced the integration of its new Juniper Networks vGW Virtual Gateway with the Juniper Networks SRX Series Services Gateways to provide a consistent, virtualization-aware solution for private and public cloud deployments.
# PMC-Sierra (PMCS) announced its Universal Front End 4 silicon that enables OEMs to develop a range of high performance, highly integrated solutions for the growing mobile backhaul market segment.
# Marvell (MRVL) introduced it phone platform based on the Marvell PXA978 communications processor with Marvell HSPA modem.
Atmel (ATML) announced it is collaborating with NVIDIA (NVDA) to bring high-performance, multi-touch, large-format touchscreen solutions to market. SanDisk (SNDK)announced that several of the industry's major chipset vendors have selected SanDisk's iNAND embedded storage device for use in their new reference designs, the boards on which next-generation mobile phones and tablets are developed.
Texas Instruments (TXN) in collaboration with Azcom Technology announced the availability of a new small cell base station platform focused on 3G and 4G high speed data systems.
Powerwave Technologies (PWAV) announced the new LTE ultra-broadband Powerwave Picocell, which delivers up to 15 times greater overall system capacity at a much lower cost and complexity than adding standard macro cells to address "sore spots" of high data usage or weak signals in wireless networks.
Moser Baer Clean Energy and First Solar (FSLR) announced that MBCEL will procure 25 megawatts DC of First Solar's advanced thin-film modules for its solar power generation projects. Delivery is expected to take place by June 30, 2011.
* Sierra Wireless (SWIR) introduced two new 4G mobile hotspots to its line of AirCard Mobile Broadband Devices. Bothproducts are scheduled for commercial shipments in the second quarter of this year.
* Broadcom Corporation (BRCM) announced its newest wireless combination chip designed to support more media and data applications without impacting size or battery life for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
2:32AM Tower Semicon reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q1 revs below consensus (TSEM) 1.41 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.14 per share, in-line with the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.14; revenues rose 34.3% year/year to $135.1 mln vs the $135 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $120-125 mln vs. $131.40 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
# Bridgewater Systems announced that Juniper Networks (JNPR) will resell Bridgewater's complete control plane portfolio globally, as an integral component of Juniper's MobileNext, the industry's first open mobile core for 2G/3G and LTE networks. Additionally, Openwave Systems (OPWV) announced that JNPR has selected the co as a strategic partner to integrate its Media Optimizer into JNPR's Media Flow solution for mobile video optimization.
# NVIDIA (NVDA) and Samsung Electronics announced the Galaxy Tab 10.1, a 10.1-inch screen tablet which uses the NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile super chip to take full advantage of the Android 3.0 user interface.
09:44 am TSEM Guides Q1 Revs Below Consensus (TSEM)
Tower Semicon (TSEM $1.46 +0.05) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.14 per share, in-line with the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.14.
Revenues rose 34.3% year-over-year to $135.1 million versus the $135 million consensus.
For the first quarter, the company expects to see revenues in the range of $120 million to $125 million versus the $131.40 million Thomson Reuters consensus.
09:38 am STEC Guides Q1 Above Consensus (STEC)
STEC (STEC $25.06 +1.27) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.35 per share, $0.02 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.33.
Revenues fell 11.4% year-over-year to $93.9 million versus the $90.3 million consensus.
For the first quarter, the company issued earnings guidance of $0.32 to $0.34, well above the $0.25 Thomson Reuters consensus. On the top line, the company expects to see revenue in the range of $90 million to $92 million versus the $85.57 million Thomson Reuters consensus. |
