From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The Russell 2000 crosssed the 1,000 level for the first time ever today and the S&P 500 established a new all-time, intraday high. Those were some of the more memorable highlights of what was an otherwise nondescript day of trading.
By and large, there just wasn't a lot of conviction on the part of either buyers or sellers. The major indices spent time on either side of the unchanged line, but never put a whole lot of distance between themselves and that point for most of the day.
The lack of conviction was owed in part to a lack of stirring catalysts. There was some M&A activity, which included Yahoo! (YHOO 6.58, +0.06) buying Tumblr for $1.1 bln in cash, Vista Equity Partners buying Websense (WBSN 24.76, +5.53) for $1.0 bln in cash, and Actavis (ACT 127.13, +1.63) acquiring Warner Chilcott (WCRX 19.60, +0.39) in an $8.5 bln stock deal. Those transactions, though, didn't have market-moving punch.
All there mostly was today was a lot of sparring coming off last week's 2.1% gain in the S&P 500. Nobody got hurt, except perhaps in the precious metals space, which got hit early on chatter of a possible forced liquidation trade that knocked silver prices down close to 4.0%. Silver, however, made a resounding comeback, knocking out short sellers to settle the day up nearly 2.0% at $22.79/oz. That comeback, which was aided by a weakening dollar, helped boost other commodities like gold ($1389.00, +24.30) and oil ($96.71, +0.69).
Gains in both precious metals and industrial metals helped the materials sector outperform early, but it would eventually roll over to end the day relatively flat. In a mixed day of trading, the energy (+1.3%) and consumer staples (-1.0%) sectors were the only economic sectors to move 1.0% or more.
Presumably, some hesitation ahead of Fed Chairman Bernanke's testimony before Congress on Wednesday about the economic outlook played a part in today's mixed market. There was a little gyration around remarks made today by Chicago Fed President Evans on his views about the economy and the Fed's asset purchase program, but the market ultimately did not get too hung up on his remarks.
There aren't any economic releases for the US tomorrow, but there will be a number of retailers (Home Depot, Best Buy, AutoZone, Dick's Sporting Goods, Saks, and TJX Cos.) reporting earnings before the open. What they share could set the tone that helps determine if the Dow Jones Industrial Average is able score a gain for the 19th consecutive Tuesday. DJ30 -19.12 NASDAQ -2.53 SP500 -1.18 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1364/1.68 bln/1126 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1724/653 mln/1299
3:30 pm :
- June crude oil rose for a fourth consecutive session, gaining support from a weaker dollar index and erasing earlier losses. The energy component lifted off its session low of $95.23 per barrel set moments after floor trade opened and advanced into positive territory by late morning action. It spent afternoon pit trade chopping around near its session high of $97.11 per barrel and eventually settled with a 0.8% gain at $96.76 per barrel.
- June natural gas touched a session high of $4.16 per MMBtu in early morning floor trade and traded just below that level until the last hour of floor trade. It then dropped to a session low of $4.06 per MMBtu and settled just 0.7% higher at $4.09 per MMBtu.
- June gold began today's floor trade in negative territory. However, prices broke into the black and rallied sharply to a session high of $1397.90 per ounce following reports of a potential U.S. downgrade this year. The yellow metal pulled-back slightly following the pop, but still managed to book a 1.4% gain as it closed at $1384.30 per ounce.
- July silver also popped into positive territory and to a session high of $23.24 per ounce in early afternoon pit action. It settled 1.1% higher at $22.61 per ounce despite trading as low as $21.28 per ounce earlier in the session.
Mellanox Technologies (MLNX) announced its InfiniBand solutions were selected by Dutch cloud service provider, Cloud Provider, a cloud hosting and Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider in the Netherlands, as its standard interconnect infrastructure for their enterprise cloud deployments.
Corning (GLW) and Tianma Micro-Electronics Group announced Tianma's selection of Corning Lotus XT Glass for its line of low-temperature polysilicon panels
Xilinx (XLNX) announced that its All Programmable 7 series FPGAs and Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs have achieved full PCI Express compliance and are now listed on the PCI-SIG integrator's list.
3:58AM Advanced Semi unit ASE Assembly & Test to acquire shares of Wuxi Tongzhi Microelectronics from Toshiba Semiconductor ( ASX) 4.25 : Co announces that in order to strengthen the capability of its Shanghai subsidiary for providing IC assembly and testing services, ASE will procure its wholly-owned subsidiary, ASE Assembly & Test to enter into an equity interests transfer agreement with Toshiba Semiconductor Co. Under the EITA, ASESH will pay RMB70 mln to TSW to acquire 100% shares in Wuxi Tongzhi Microelectronics Co held by TSW.
09:09 am NetApp downgraded to Underperform at Robert W. Baird: . Robert W. Baird downgrades NTAP to Underperform from Neutral. Firm expects an OK quarter and cautious FQ1 outlook but view challenges as more than just macro-economic. Firm believes a tougher competitive landscape and product roadmap uncertainty will create growth and/or margin difficulties. Firm is not advocating a short position in front of the quarter due to the possibility of a positive investor reaction to opex rationalization or shareholder friendly use of cash. Firm recommends investors take profits on recent upside or potential strength.
QLogic (QLGC) announced that Simon Biddiscombe has resigned his positions as president and chief executive officer and also as a director in order to pursue other opportunities. Simon's resignation was effective immediately. The Board has appointed CFO Jean Hu, 49, as CEO on an interim basis. Hu currently serves a senior vice president and chief financial officer. She oversees all company financial matters and will retain her CFO responsibilities during the interim period. The Board will begin an immediate search for a permanent CEO, and the search committee will be led by William M. Zeitler. The company reaffirms its non-GAAP financial guidance for the first quarter of fiscal year 2014.
Dell (DELL) sent a letter to Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management underscoring its need for additional information regarding the proposed leveraged recapitalization transaction submitted to the Board on May 9, 2013. Letter stated 'On behalf of a group formed by various of your affiliates, your representatives have made a number of requests for information, including a request for data room access for a potential lender, to advisors to the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of DELL in connection with the potential transaction outlined in your letter dated May 9, 2013, addressed to the Board of Directors of Dell. As you know, on May 13, 2013 we sent you a letter requesting clarifications and additional materials relating to your proposal. Unless the Board of Directors of Dell determines that your proposal could reasonably be expected to result in a "Superior Proposal" as defined in the Company's existing merger agreement with affiliates of Silver Lake and Michael Dell, we are not permitted to provide you with information or engage in discussions concerning your proposal....Please understand that unless we receive information that is responsive to our May 13 letter, we are not in a position to evaluate whether your proposal meets that standard. Accordingly, neither we nor our representatives are able to respond to your requests and inquiries.' |
