From Briefing.com: 4:35 pm : Stocks spent most of the session drifting along with modest gains before some late selling pressure caused the three major equity averages to retreat into the red for modest losses.
There weren't any real catalysts for trade this morning, but participants continued to provide support for stocks. Their bid was primarily underpinned by a fear of missing out on further gains, especially after the stock market showed its resilience with last week's rebound, which came in the wake of volatility earlier this month.
The lack of leadership eventually caught up with stocks in the final few minutes of trade, when waning support fueled selling interest. The effort left nine of the 10 major sectors to log losses after nine of them had sported gains in the early going.
Telecom was the only major sector that held on to its gain. As a group, telecom stocks settled with a 1.4% gain. Global communication handset maker Nokia (NOK 8.74, +0.39) put on a strong performance with help from an upgrade by analysts at Goldman Sachs.
GSI Commerce (GSIC 29.20, +9.82) surged after eBay (EBAY 30.34, -1.36) bid to take over the company for $29.25 per share, a a premium of about 50% over the stock's closing price from this past Friday.
Consumer discretionary plays were collectively the worst performing stocks. They fell 1.1% as Marriott (MAR 35.30, -2.36) dropped to a multi-month low in response to a downgrade by analysts at Goldman Sachs.
Data had little impact on trade today. Personal income for February failed to surprise with a 0.3% increase, which is exactly what had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Spending increased by 0.7%, which is greater than the 0.5% increase that had been broadly expected.
Pending home sales posted a strong 2.1% increase for February. A 0.3% increase is all that had been expected, on average, among a sample of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
Not even data could bring in traders from the sidelines. That kept participation at depressed levels, such that overall trade volume on the NYSE failed to break 800 million shares.
Treasuries saw some minor swings this session. Some of the action was driven by the moves of the stock market, but cues were also taken from a $35 billion auction of 2-year Notes. The auction was highlighted by a yield of 0.789%, a bid-to-cover of 3.16 for dollar demand of $110.6 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 33%. Treasuries initially pulled back in response to the results, but were able to regroup.
Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+1.4%)
Unchanged: Consumer Staples, Health Care, Industrial
Declining Sectors: Energy (-0.1%), Utilities (-0.3%), Financial (-0.3%), Materials (-0.5%), Tech (-0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.1%)DJ30 -22.71 NASDAQ -12.38 NQ100 -0.6% R2K -0.3% SP400 -0.4% SP500 -3.61 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1089/1.67 bln/1509 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1214/783 mln/1765
5:20PM ANADIGICS reaffirms Q1 revs of $42-44 mln vs. $43.1 mln Thomson Reuters consensus; CEO resigns (ANAD) 4.65 +0.12 : Co announced the resignation of President and Chief Executive Officer Mario Rivas and Senior Vice President Greg White. The Co also reaffirms Q1 revenue guidance of $42 - $44 million vs. $43.1 mln consensus. Ron Michels, who was the SVP, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, will assume the responsibilities of the CEO, Tom Shields, who currently serves as EVP & CFO, will assume the additional post of COO and John Van Saders, who was the VP Advanced Technology, will serve as SVP RF Products.
4:12PM Interdigital Comm announces a $150 mln sr convertible notes offering (IDCC) 43.35 +0.03 : In connection with the offering of the notes, InterDigital expects to enter into a privately negotiated convertible note hedge transaction with an affiliate of the initial purchaser of the notes. InterDigital expects to use a portion of the net proceeds from the offering of the notes and the proceeds from the sale of the warrants to fund the cost of the convertible note hedge transactions. The remaining net proceeds from the offering of the notes will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include, among other things: acquisitions of intellectual property-related assets or businesses or securities in such businesses; capital expenditures; and working capital.
4:06PM Silicon Labs announces CFO succession plan announces the succession plan for co's CFO, Bill Bock, who is stepping down this year; Paul Walsh, co's current chief accounting officer and vice president of finance, will become co's CFO on July 3, 2011 (SLAB) 42.95 -0.14 : Bock is expected to re-join the company's board of directors at that time and will remain on the management team as senior vice president through the end of the year to support a smooth transition.
12:31PM NXP Semi announces certain shareholders intend to offer in secondary offering of ~25 mln shares of its common stock (NXPI) 27.60 -0.28 : Co will not receive any proceeds from the proposed offering. Credit Suisse Securities, Goldman Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, Bank of America and Barclays Capital were appointed as book runners for this offering.
SunPower (SPWRA) announced that Tucson Electric Power has awarded SunPower a contract to provide 11 megawatts of solar power systems technology for the utility's TEP Bright Roofs program.
8:04AM Suntech Power: David W. King to Succeed Amy Zhang as Chief Financial Officer of Suntech (STP) 8.91 : Co announced that Mr. David W. King will succeed Ms. Amy Zhang as Suntech's Chief Financial Officer. Mr. King will join the Company in April 2011 and will overlap with Ms. Zhang in early April for transitional purposes. Post the transition, Ms. Zhang will leave Suntech and resign her position on the Board of Directors to pursue other opportunities.
7:49AM Verigy signs definitive agreement to be acquired by Advantest (ATE) (VRGY) 14.18 : Co announces definitive agreement under which Advantest will acquire all outstanding VRGY ordinary shares for $15.00 per share in cash. The total acquisition price will be ~$1.1 bln (~JPY 90.9 bln). ATE's $15.00 per share cash offer represents a premium of ~64% to VRGY's closing stock price on December 3, 2010, the day prior to Verigy's announcement that it had received an offer from ATE.
Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) and Helion Technology announced a portfolio of Compression and Encryption IP cores for the LatticeECP3 FPGA family.
07:47 am Apple: A faster international ramp this year - Ticonderoga: . Ticonderoga notes, on Friday, Apple launched iPad 2 in 25 new countries and this international roll out is coming on at a much faster pace compared to the iPad 1 of last year. Its checks at Apple stores in international markets highlight a continuation of the iPad 2 stock out phenomenon found in the U.S. over the past couple of weeks, however, it believes the U.S. stores received greater volume levels during the initial selling days. After launching the iPad 2 in the U.S. on March 11, Apple added 25 new countries on Friday (March 25), while Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and other countries are slated for an April launch. As such, this year's launch is much |
