From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 11-Feb-11The major indices posted another gain this week, aided by favorable momentum and positive economic data. The positive items helped offset a downside surprise and plunge in shares of tech bellwether Cisco (CSCO, -15.2% ) and an increase in lending rates out of China. Meanwhile, Egypt continued to be the focus of the media, though the impact on the stock market was relatively limited. At the end of the week, prior to the market close, President Mubarak stepped down.
Nine of the 10 sectors gained. Gains were led by consumer discretionary (+3.5%), financials (+2.9%) and industrials (+2.8%). Energy (-0.2%) and materials (+0.6%), which outperformed last week, underperformed on a relative basis. Overall trading volume was relatively light.
Cisco acted as the main drag on the S&P 500, plunging 15% after announcing a disappointing outlook. The tech giant hit a fresh 52-week low as margin compressions resulted in downside guidance for fiscal year 2011.
Retailers had a strong showing, which helped lift the consumer discretionary sector. Big Lots (BIG +22.4%) rallied on news the discount retailer was considering a possible sale. JCPenney (+14.9%) rallied as activist investor Bill Ackman said that the fair value of JCP is "meaningfully higher". Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square owns a 15% stake in JCP.
Meanwhile, Walt Disney (DIS +6.6%) gained 6.9% after reporting upside results, sending the stock to a record high.
In other major corporate news, Coca-Cola (KO +1.6%) met estimates on strong volume growth. 3M (MMM +4.0%) increased its quarterly dividend 5% and also announced an additional $7 bln share repurchase plan.
Among financials, NYSE Euronext (NYX +17.3%) posted the largest advance. The exchange may be purchased by Deutsche Boerse, which would create the world's largest exchange. On a similar note, the latest exchange deal-making includes plans of the London Stock Exchange to acquire TMX Group, which is the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, for $3.2 billion.
In other M&A news, Danaher (DHR +7.6%) is buying Beckman Coulter (BC +8.2%) for approximately $6.8 bln in cash while Ensco (ESV -2.7%) is going to acquire Pride International (PDE +16.5%) for roughly $7.3 bln in a cash and stock deal. Those deals represent premiums of 45% and 21%, respectively, for shareholders of the acquired companies.
Moving on to the economy, there was better news in the weekly initial claims report. Claims for the week ending February 5 declined by 36,000 to 383,000 (Briefing.com consensus 410,000), which is the lowest level since July 2008. That dropped the 4-week moving average to 415,500 from 431,500.
Index Started Week Ended Week Change % Change YTD %
DJIA 12092.15 12273.26 181.11 1.5 6.0
Nasdaq 2769.30 2809.44 40.14 1.4 5.9
S&P 500 1310.87 1329.15 18.28 1.4 5.7
Russell 2000 800.11 822.11 22.00 2.7 4.9
9:40AM Zoran: Ramius issues statement on Zoran's campaign; filed supplemental presentation materials with the SEC (ZRAN) 9.15 -0.01 : Ramius Value and Opportunity Advisors, a subsidiary of Ramius announced it has filed supplemental presentation materials with the SEC and issued a statement to shareholders of Zoran Corporation condemning the Zoran Board of Directors for leading a campaign of misleading information designed to confuse and mislead shareholders. In the presentation materials, Ramius urges shareholders "not to be misled by the Company's recent attempt to downplay its true underperformance by "cherry-picking" a peer group of massively underperforming companies and using a disingenuous, artificial comparison date of December 31, 2009, a date that has no relevance for the Company or its shareholders."
# New LTE Picocell and 4G MIMO Active Array Antenna products will lead the lineup of 4G network infrastructure products being debuted at Mobile World Congress next week by Powerwave Technologies (PWAV).
# Dell (DELL) Services announced a new comprehensive line of services and solutions that will help enterprise customers achieve the benefits of mobile collaboration, computing and communications enhanced business processes.
2:53AM Nokia and Microsoft (MSFT) announce partnership; outlines new strategy, introduces new operational structure; provides financial targets (NOK) 10.88 : Nokia and Microsoft today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem. As of April 1, NOK will have a new company structure, which features two distinct business units: Smart Devices and Mobile Phones. Under the proposed partnership with MSFT. Due to the initiation of NOK's strategic transformation on February 11, 2011, the full-year prospects for its Devices & Services business are subject to significant uncertainties, and therefore co believes it is not appropriate to provide annual targets for 2011 at the present time. Co expects 2011 and 2012 to be transition years, as the co invests to build the planned winning ecosystem with MSFT. After the transition, NOK targets longer-term: 1) Devices & Services net sales to grow faster than the market and Devices & 2)Services non-IFRS operating margin to be 10% or more. Additionally, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks expect overall industry revenue to grow slightly in 2011, compared to 2010. Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks target: 1)Nokia Siemens Networks net sales to grow faster than the market in 2011. 2) Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS operating margin to be above breakeven in 2011. Additionally, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks continue to target Nokia Siemens Networks to reduce its non-IFRS annualized operating expenses and production overheads by EUR500 mln by the end of 2011, compared to the end of 2009. |
