From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The major equity averages scored strong gains as oil prices failed to fight off selling efforts and financials offered leadership.
Stocks stumbled in the early going as oil prices rallied back from overnight selling pressure. Oil had been hit by news reports that OPEC would increase production. Although later reports indicated that the organization has no plans for an extraordinary meeting, oil still failed to sustain its move and spent the rest of the day oscillating in negative territory. It closed with a 0.4% loss near $105 per barrel.
Financials showed strength from the onset of trade. Even as the broader market made an early dip into negative territory the sector traded higher. Once oil proved unable to sustain a push into positive territory financials attracted additional buying interest. Support for a wide range of financial issues helped drive the sector to a 2.2% gain. Specialized finance (-0.5%) failed to fined favor, though.
Even more impressive, airline stocks soared to a 4.8% gain. That made for the strongest single-session move by the Amex Airline Index in more than four months. The Airline Index is still down almost 6% year to date though.
Of the major sectors, only energy finished in the red. The sector's 0.6% loss was largely the result of weakness in oil and gas refiners, which dropped 2.4%.
There were no economic releases today and earnings announcements were without any real broad market concern. That may have kept some on the sidelines, but total share volume was still close to 1 billion on the NYSE.
The decidedly positive bias among afternoon traders helped the S&P 500 and the Dow undo yesterday's loss. However, relatively lackluster performances by a few large-cap tech issues hampered the Nasdaq today, so it is still down a bit for the week.
While Wall Street had a strong session, action abroad was a bit mixed. Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE both finished flat, but France's CAC climbed to a 0.6% gain. The Bank of France kept its first quarter GDP forecast unchanged at 0.8% growth. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei and China's Shanghai Composite closed with minor gains, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 1.7% as buyers there were encouraged by news that some banks will have their reserve requirements eased.
Advancing Sectors: Financials (+2.2%), Telecom (+1.6%), Industrials (+1.5%), Utilities (+1.0%), Materials (+1.0%), Consumer Staples (+0.8%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.7%), Health Care (+0.7%), Tech (+0.6%)
Declining Sectors: Energy (-0.6%)DJ30 +124.35 NASDAQ +20.14 NQ100 +0.4% R2K +1.5% SP400 +1.2% SP500 +11.69 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1898/1.85 bln/745 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2243/987 mln/717
4:39PM Suntech Power reports Q4 (Dec) results, beats on revs; guides FY11 revs above consensus (STP) 9.00 -0.15 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $2.02 per share, which includes acquisitions and is not be comparable to the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.29; revenues rose 61.9% year/year to $945.1 mln vs the $843.7 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for FY11, sees FY11 revs of $3.4-3.6 bln vs. $3.36 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. For the fourth quarter of 2010, consolidated gross profit was $153.4 million and gross margin was 16.2% compared to consolidated gross profit of $122.0 million and gross margin of 16.4% in the third quarter of 2010. In the first quarter of 2011, Suntech expects PV shipments to be relatively flat compared with the fourth quarter of 2010. Due to the integration of wafer manufacturing capacity, consolidated gross margin in the first quarter of 2011 is expected to increase to approximately 20%. For the fiscal year ending December 31, 2011, Suntech expects to ship at least 2.2GW of solar products and generate revenues of $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion, subject to changes in foreign exchange rates. Consolidated gross margin for the full year 2011 is expected to be approximately 20% to 22%. Suntech expects to achieve 2.4GW of installed cell and module production capacity by the end of 2011. Suntech expects to achieve 1.2GW of installed wafer capacity by the end of 2011. Full year 2011 capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of $250 million to $270 million.
4:31PM Texas Instruments narrows Q4 guidance; EPS to $0.56-0.60 vs. $0.59 consensus; rev $3.34-3.48 bln vs. $3.41 bln consensus (TXN) 35.86 +0.38 : Previous Q4 guidance: EPS of $0.54-0.62; rev: $3.27-3.55 bln.
4:29PM Finisar reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS, revs below consensus (FNSR) 40.04 : Reports Q3 (Jan) earnings of $0.47 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.47; revenues rose 57.6% year/year to $263 mln vs the $257.9 mln consensus. Non-GAAP gross margin decreased to 34.7% of revenues from 35.5% in the preceding quarter but increased from 32.2% in the third quarter of the prior year. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.31-0.35, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.48 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 revs of $235-250 mln vs. $268.55 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. During Q4, the co will be impacted by the full three months of the annual price negotiations with telecom customers that typically take effect on January 1, the 10-day long shutdown at certain customers for Chinese New Year in February, the adjustment of inventory levels at some telecom customers, particularly for products which had previously been on allocation and long lead times, including WSS and ROADM line cards, and a slowdown in business in China overall.
1:02PM Applied Materials approved an increase in the quarterly cash dividend from $0.07 per share to $0.08 per share (AMAT) 15.87 -0.09 :
Flextronics (FLEX) announced that Eastman Kodak Company (EK) has signed an agreement for the expansion and renewal of the business relationship that the two companies formed in 2007.
7:31AM Qualcomm announces cash dividend will increase to $0.215 per share from $0.19 effective for quarterly dividends payable after March 25, 2011 (QCOM) 57.58 :
National Semiconductor (NSM) announced that its award-winning WEBENCH Designer tools are now available in the Traditional Chinese language.
AMD (AMD) announced the launch of the fastest graphics card in the world, the AMD Radeon HD 6990. AMD Radeon HD 6990 graphics cards are available immediately from retailers worldwide, with select models starting at $699 MSRP.
1:42AM United Micro reports sales for February 2011 increased 4.3% YoY, down 5.4% sequentially (UMC) 2.86 : Co reports unaudited net sales for the month of February 2011 of NT$9,007,512 an increase of 4.32% YoY, down 5.43% MoM.
1:38AM Zoran comments on results of Ramius consent solicitation (ZRAN) 1064 : Co confirms that Ramius Value and Opportunity Master Fund, a stockholder, has delivered the requisite consents to elect three new independent directors to co's Board in substitution for three of co's current independent Board members. "We welcome the new directors to the Zoran Board and look forward to working together on behalf of our stockholders. We would also like to thank our three departing board members for their many years of service and contribution to Zoran's success."
07:22 am LDK Solar downgraded to Sell at Collins Stewart; tgt lowered to $9.50: . Collins Stewart downgrades LDK to Sell from Hold and lowers their tgt to $9.50 from $12 given their concerns that LDK is poorly position for a downturn and out belief that spot market wafer demand will slow dramatically in the months ahead.
07:22 am MIPS Tech upgraded to Buy at The Benchmark Company: . The Benchmark Company upgrades MIPS to Buy from Hold based on the likelihood of MIPS increasing its mobile market share. Firm says the wireless industry's transition to 4G air interfaces such as LTE should at least allow MIPS to gain share in broadband cellular modems. Also, some key license agreements with Chinese baseband chip companies should allow MIPS to gain a toehold in the TD-SCDMA (and future TD-LTE) baseband market. |
