From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The major averages slipped modestly on Wednesday as the broader market followed the financial sector.
Financial stocks completely reversed a 1% loss in the going only to give up the move and finish with a 0.8% loss, which was largely the result of weakness in bank stocks.
Bank stocks had also undermined action in Europe, where Germany's DAX dropped 0.5%, France's CAC fell 0.7%, and Britain's FTSE finished 0.2% lower.
With the financial sector unable to fight off sellers, the broader market faltered with the arrival of the final hour.
Resistance along the top end of recent trading ranges didn't help the case for stocks. Even at their best levels of the day the major averages were hung up near the neutral line.
Energy stocks booked relatively big gains, however. The sector's 0.7% advance was broad in that 35 of the 39 sector members advanced. Only Exxon Mobil (XOM 61.59, -0.47), Murphy Oil (MUR 61.26, -0.28), and Spectra Energy (SE 22.50, -0.01) logged losses. BP Plc (BP 40.00, +0.71) was among the better performers in the sector, despite contradicting reports regarding settlement talks related to the company's recent oil spill.
Only a fractional gain was made by the tech sector, despite strong guidance from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 42.53, +0.91) and strength among semiconductor stocks (+0.7%). Xerox (XRX 10.29, -0.26) and Electronic Arts (ERTS 16.23, -0.32) ended up dragging down the sector.
There were no major economic releases today, but tomorrow brings the third reading on second quarter GDP. No changes to the economy's 1.6% annualized second quarter growth rate are expected.
Ahead of the data, Philadelphia Fed President Plosser stated that he does not favor additional asset purchases at this time. Those comments sent bonds lower in afternoon action. The benchmark 10-year Note ended with a loss of about eight ticks. Treasuries had trimmed some of their midday losses amid results from an auction of 7-year Notes. The auction drew a yield of 1.89%, a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.04, and had indirect bidder participation of 50.2%. The bid-to-cover was the best in more than a year.
The dollar dropped to a new eight month-low this session and finished with a 0.3% against a basket of competing currencies. Most of its weakness was owed to a bounce by the euro and a gain by the yen.
A lack of direction over the past few sessions has stocks flat for the week. Should that theme hold into tomorrow it will mark a rather anticlimactic close to the third quarter. Despite such a finish, the S&P 500 is on track for a third quarter gain of almost 10%. Most of that is the result of a 9% by the S&P 500 so far this month. The strong month-to-date move has the stock market on pace for its best monthly gain since April 2009.
Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.7%)
Declining Sectors: Materials (-0.9%), Financials (-0.8%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.7%), Telecom (-0.5%), Utilities (-0.4%), Consumer Staples (-0.4%), Health Care (-0.3%)
Unchanged: Industrials, TechDJ30 -22.86 NASDAQ -3.03 NQ100 -0.2% R2K +0.3% SP400 +0.00% SP500 -2.97 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1378/2.09 bln/1215 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1650/1.01 bln/1317
1:47AM O2Micro wins patent infringement case versus BiTEK and receives injunction (OIIM) 5.95 : Co annouces that the Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction and final judgment affirming that products using accused Beyond Innovation Technology ("BiTEK") DC/AC converters infringe on claims of certain O2Micro patents and that BiTEK induced such infringement. As a result of BiTEK's acts, the Court ordered to prevent BiTEK, and its customers who receive notice of the injunction, from manufacturing, using, selling, offering to sell or importing into the US any inverter controllers or modules that infringe the asserted claims of these co's patents.
07:28 am Hewlett-Packard target raised to $53 at Kaufman Bros: . Kaufman Bros raises their HPQ tgt to $53 from $51 after upbeat analyst day. It notes enterprise hardware seems most promising driven by storage and networking. The co is focused on beefing up its sales coverage which is consistent with its supply chain checks. Firm has higher conviction in name though CEO transition could continue to weigh on shares. |
