From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 26-Aug-11The S&P 500 rallied 4.7%, marking the first weekly gain in more than a month. Stocks gained in four of the five sessions, though there was still plenty of volatility. Stocks benefited from the potential end to the strife in Libya and a vote of confidence in financials by esteemed investor Warren Buffett.
Buying interest was broad-based with all 10 sectors advancing more than 2.0%. Recently hard-hit cyclical sectors outperformed. Consumer Discretionary rallied 6.0%, tech gained 6.2% and industrials advanced 6.0%.
The main item this week was a statement from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Bernanke noted again that the economic recovery has been less robust than what had been hoped, but restated that the FOMC is prepared to employ tools as needed. The benefits and costs of additional stimulus were also discussed, but at this time the Fed appears to have no plans of making any changes to monetary policy. The market initially extended its losses following Bernanke's speech, but quickly rallied to positive territory to end the week on a positive note.
Bank of America (BAC 11.3%) continued to make headlines throughout the week. There was plenty of speculation regarding its financial state, which spurred Warren Buffett to reach out to BofA. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 2.1%) invested $5 bln in exchange for preferred shares and warrants. The move helped lift shares of BAC to a weekly gain of 11%.
Apple (AAPL 7.7%) gained 7.7% even as Steve Jobs announced he is stepping down as CEO. Health concerns have been well known so the market had already priced in the possibility of Jobs stepping down.
Outside of equities, gold prices fell 1.2% as margin requirements were raised. Crude oil prices climbed 4.1% and the 10-year Treasury yield increased about 12 bps to 2.19%
In economic news, second quarter GDP was revised to 1.0% from 1.3% advance estimate. That was slightly worse than the Briefing.com consensus of 1.1%.
Index Started Week Ended Week Change % Change YTD %
DJIA 10817.60 11284.21 466.61 4.3 -2.5
Nasdaq 2341.84 2479.80 137.96 5.9 -6.5
S&P 500 1123.53 1176.80 53.27 4.7 -6.4
Russell 2000 651.69 691.79 40.10 6.2 -11.7
8:11AM Zoran urges stockholders to vote 'for' the CSR merger; says merger is expected to close Aug 31 (ZRAN) 7.99 :
09:27 am First Solar upgraded to Buy at Collins Stewart; tgt $132: . Collins Stewart upgrades FSLR to Buy from Neutral and sets target price at $132. Firm notes The following factors have led to this upgrade. First, they note share price has declined and now reflects some of the risks that led to their downgrade to Neutral following 1Q11 earnings. Based on their CY12 forecast, co's P/E has declined to 7,4x and converged with its peers after a long period of trading with a premium valuation. They highlight co's backlog of highly profitable utility-scale solar has firmed with the sale of Agua Caliente and three of its other large projects receiving conditional DoE loan guarantees as well as having received additional EPC contracts from Sempra Generation and NRG Energy for large solar projects in NV and CA.
09:49 am Omnivision Guides Fiscal Second Quarter Below Consensus (OVTI)
Omnivision (OVTI $17.05 -7.77) reported fiscal first quarter earnings of $0.76 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.71.
Revenues rose 43.0% year/year to $276.1 million versus the $276.4 million consensus.
In its fiscal second quarter, the company is expecting to see earnings of $0.52 to $0.64, excluding non-recurring items, versus the $0.80 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. On the top line, the company sees revenues of $255 million to $275 million versus the $305.3 million Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. |
