From Briefing.com: 4:06PM TTM Tech beats by $0.09, beats on revs (TTMI) 13.46 +0.07 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.34 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.09 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.25; revenues fell 3.3% year/year to $361.5 mln vs the $351.78 mln consensus.
4:33PM TTM Tech also announced that it will temporarily close its SYE plant located in Dongguan, China (TTMI) 13.46 +0.07 : Co also announced that it will temporarily close its SYE plant located in Dongguan, China for repairs and upgrades to the facility. TTM expects to transfer the majority of SYE's production and many of the employees to other facilities located in South China and expects to provide continuous support to its customers with minimal interruption. The Company expects to spend approximately $6 million for the maintenance and repair work and expects the project to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2012. TTM anticipates a reduction of revenue of about $3 million to $6 million for each of the first two quarters of 2012 due to the transition of production to other facilities. Costs associated with this project are expected to have a slight impact on margins in the first half of 2012. The Company anticipates production at the SYE facility to resume during the third quarter of 2012.
4:30PM Advanced Micro announced the departure of Emilio Ghilardi as senior vice president and chief sales officer, effective immediately (AMD) 7.13 +0.21 : Rory Read, AMD president and chief executive officer, will serve as interim chief sales officer while the company actively seeks a replacement.
4:23PM FormFactor beats by $0.02, beats on revs (FORM) 5.26 -0.01 : Reports Q4 (Dec) loss of $0.45 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.47); revenues fell 31.2% year/year to $30.2 mln vs the $29.2 mln consensus.
4:03PM FSI Intl announced that it received a follow-on order for its ORION Single Wafer Cleaning System from a leading semiconductor producer (FSII) 4.46 -0.10 : Co announced that it received a follow-on order for its ORION Single Wafer Cleaning System from a leading semiconductor producer. The system will be used for FEOL applications. The company expects to ship the system in the second half of fiscal 2012.
4:30 pm : Stocks slipped in response to some early selling, but once they worked their way into higher ground they entered into a sideways drift that lasted almost all afternoon.
Dwindling confidence in Greece's ability to establish and implement new austerity measures undermined early sentiment. Rumors regarding a forthcoming agreement continue to permeate trade, but many of those stories are followed with headlines about further delays to discussions.
Despite frustration over Greece, an absence of economic data, and a lack of leadership among stocks, stocks were able to attract buyers in early trade. Their support spurred a rebound that took all three major equity averages into positive territory, where the spent the rest of the session drifting along narrowly above the neutral line.
With a 0.7% advance, utilities stocks collectively scored the strongest gains, despite their stodgy, defensive-oriented stature. Energy stocks weren't far behind; they climbed 0.5% with help from a rebound in oil prices, which overcame an early loss to settle pit trade with a 1.6% gain at $98.54 per barrel. BP Plc (BP 46.60, -0.27) was able to cut its loss, but still couldn't score an actual gain as shares wrestled with sellers in the wake of the company's latest quarterly report, which included a dividend hike to $0.08 from $0.07 per quarter.
Dow component Coca-Cola (KO 68.55, +0.52) put together a solid gain following an upside earnings surprise for the latest quarter, but fellow blue chip Microsoft (MSFT 30.35, +0.15) set a new 52-week high.
Swiss investment and banking outfit UBS AG (UBS 14.27, -0.10) slid in response to a disappointing quarterly report. Domestic investment banks and brokerage plays were implicated by the report. As a group financials finished the session with a fractional loss.
The only actual economic data for the day featured the latest consumer credit numbers, which showed that consumer credit spiked during December to $19.3 billion. That's more than double the Briefing.com consensus of $8.5 billion in consumer credit.
Fed Chairman Bernanke delivered a testimony to the Senate Budget Committee today, but his comments came without surprise since they mirrored those delivered last week to the House Budget Committee.
Advancing Sectors: Utilities +0.7%, Energy +0.5%, Consumer Discretionary +0.4%, Tech +0.3%, Health Care +0.3%, Consumer Staples +0.1%
Unchanged: Telecom, Industrials
Declining Sectors: Financials -0.1%, Materials -0.3%DJ30 +33.07 NASDAQ +2.09 NQ100 +0.2% R2K -0.1% SP400 +0.2% SP500 +2.72 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1201/1.77 bln/1336 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1689/728 mln/1299
Veeco Instruments (VECO) announced that SemiLEDs Corporation (LEDS) has recently qualified the TurboDisc K465i gallium nitride Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition System for high-volume production of high brightness light emitting diodes at its manufacturing facility in Taiwan.
7:34AM Vishay misses by $0.04, misses on revs (VSH) 12.80 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.15 per share, $0.04 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.19; revenues fell 19.9% year/year to $551.4 mln vs the $570.63 mln consensus. Commenting on the outlook, co states: "Our orders seem to have bottomed out and our book-to-bill is above 1 for January 2012. We anticipate a substantial recovery once the inventory correction in the supply chain is complete...Based on current order trends, we anticipate similar revenues as in quarter four 2011 at a slightly improved gross margin." Current Q1 CIQ rev est is $562.3 mln.
Novellus Systems (NVLS) announced the addition of the VECTOR Strata to the company's dielectric product offerings.
Last night, Veeco Instruments (VECO $28.05 +0.91) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.72 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.67, while revenues fell 36.1% year/year to $191.7 million versus the $192.99 million consensus. The company issued downside guidance for the first quarter with EPS of $0.13-0.34, excluding non-recurring items, versus the $0.40 consensus with revenues of $115-140 million versus the 151.73 million consensus. "We don't see signs of near-term improvement in the LED environment and the current overcapacity situation could mean that MOCVD orders remain at these depressed levels for multiple quarters. In Data Storage, while overall market conditions are healthy, the continued consolidation of our customer base will likely mean that order patterns will fluctuate from quarter to quarter."
PMC-Sierra (PMCS 6.72 -0.02) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.13 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.13, while revenues fell 4.2% year/year to $152.6 million versus the $155.32 million consensus. "Our annual net revenues grew 3% in a roughly flat year for the semiconductor industry. While difficult conditions impact our near-term outlook, we see good signs of recovery in 2012, including a strong increase in bookings. PMC is well positioned to deliver the infrastructure required to support high traffic growth on storage, optical and mobile networks."
10:48 am S&P Tech Sector Just Under The Unchanged Line
The tech sector is trading just lower today, along of losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing slight relative weakness in line with the tech space, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading 0.3% lower. IDCC (-6.2%) is a notable laggard in the chip index. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.2% lower, while the NASDAQ is 0.3% lower and the QQQ is trading 0.2% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+0.5%) is showing strength, while TXN (-0.7%) and INTC (-0.7%) are under a little pressure.
In earnings last night, RATE (+1.0%) posted a quarterly beat but issued downside guidance, while PMCS (+3.6%) posted a slight miss. Also, IDCC (-6.2%) lowered its guidance. This morning, IT (-3.6%) posted an inline quarter, while VSH (-10.3%) reported a miss.
In news, CSTR (+18.2%) announced that Redbox has agreed to purchase assets of NCR's (+7.4%) entertainment line of business. The acquisition includes the purchase of the DVD kiosks, certain retailer contracts, and DVD inventory from NCR's entertainment line of business.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, FN (+6.1%) was upgraded to Overweight at Morgan Stanley. Among downgrades, CYOU (+2.0%) was downgraded to Neutral at Goldman, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded RATE (+1.0%) to Hold, Argus downgrades DRIV (-1.2%) to Hold, and SOHU (-2.9%) was downgraded to Hold at RBS.
NTGR (-1.5%) and VCLK (+0.6%) are two notable names in tech scheduled to report results today after the close.
You know Don, I am really enjoying the more outspoken version of you on this thread. Next time we get a huge upswing in the VIX and more bears than bulls in the Investors Intelligence poll how about kicking my butt if I don't go at least go 1/2 in on the long side of the equation right then! Thanks, RtS |
