From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks may have logged their third straight loss, but they managed to fight back from losses of more than 2% to finish the day at session highs.
Traders returned to action from a long, holiday weekend ready to sell. Their effort was rooted in the notion that soured sentiment among Europe's major bourses, some of which descended deeper into bear market territory today, was a tacit sign of rekindled concerns over the region's economic, fiscal, and financial conditions.
Those concerns caused all three major equity averages to descend more than 2% in the opening minutes of trade. Stocks received temporary relief from the August ISM Service Index, which improved to 53.3 from 52.7 to exceed the 51.0 that had been broadly anticipated among economists polled by Briefing.com.
Sellers redoubled their efforts shortly after the ISM's release, taking stocks to session lows. Buyers waded back in from there, but their resolve was tested late in the afternoon as some moved to close their positions for fear of further volatility. Stocks ultimately resumed their climb into the close.
The Nasdaq was most successful at slashing its loss. Amazon.com (AMZN 216.05, +6.05) and Apple (AAPL 379.74, +5.69) were primary leaders for the Nasdaq. Although the Dow more than halved its loss, it lagged its counterparts as financial plays like Bank of America (BAC 6.99, -0.26) remained under pressure until the close.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 64.64, +0.57) and Pfizer (PFE 18.65, +0.19) offered the Dow some support. The pair also helped the overall health care sector swing to a 0.3% gain after it had been down more than 3% early on. Health care represented the only major sector to score a gain.
Advancing Sectors: Health Care +0.3%
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary -0.4%, Consumer Staples -0.4%, Tech -0.5%, Utilities -0.6%, Materials -0.7%, Energy -1.1%, Telecom -1.1%, Industrials -1.2%, Financials -1.8% DJ30 -100.96 NASDAQ -6.50 NQ100 +0.00% R2K -0.4% SP400 -0.7% SP500 -8.73 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 886/1.74 bln/1681 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 814/1.12 bln/2213
3:30 pm : In overnight trade, gold futures rallied to a new all-time high of $1923.70 per ounce, aided by news that the Swiss National Bank pegged the franc to the euro, as well as concerns about the state of global economies. Support for futures faded from there, though. As such, Dec gold closed with a 0.1% loss at $1872.30 per ounce. Dec silver, which shed 1.2% to settle at $41.87 per ounce, did not partake in the initial flight to safety; futures traded in negative territory throughout the session and finished just above lows of $41.60 per ounce.
Oct crude oil rallied into the close for about two points, which helped recoup losses. Despite that rally, crude oil was unable to trade into positive territory and finished lower by 0.5% to $86.02 per barrel. Oct natural gas rallied for 1.8% to close at $3.94 per MMBtu. DJ30 -177.74 NASDAQ -27.70 SP500 -17.25 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 575/1.27 bln/1990 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 520/725 mln/2495
4:57PM NVIDIA sees FY13 revs guidance of $4.7-5.0 bln vs. $4.5 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate (NVDA) 13.18 +0.2 : It expects GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins of ~51-53%. NVIDIA further anticipates GAAP operating expenses of $1.54 billion to $1.61 bln, and non-GAAP operating expenses of $1.38 billion to $1.43 bln . Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to exclude stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets and other acquisition-related costs. Co said, "We see growth across our entire GPU and mobile-processor business," said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA president and chief executive officer. "The future for computing is visual and mobile, and we are well positioned to lead in this new era."
4:16PM Altera revises down third quarter sales guidance (ALTR) 34.86 +0.11 : Co currently expects third quarter sales to be in the range of down 3 percent to up 1 percent versus second quarter sales. Previous guidance was for sales growth of 2 percent to 6 percent. Current consensus calls for a 4% increase.
12:31PM First Solar announces agreement for 100MW module supply with Reliance Power (FSLR) 87.88 -2.22 : Co announced a 100 megawatt (MW) solar module supply agreement with Reliance Power. First Solar will deliver 40MW of advanced thin film modules to Reliance Power by the end of 2011 for its solar power project in Jaisalmer, which will supply renewable electricity to Mumbai. The delivery of the remaining 60MW is expected be completed in 2012. This agreement is the largest PV module supply agreement in India to date.
O2Micro International (OIIM) was issued 31 claims under United States patent number 7,999,516 for its Battery Charging circuits and methods; a continuation of the invention issued July 2010 under United States patent number 7,750,604.
8:01AM Tegal announced that bids for its intellectual property portfolio for Nanolayer Deposition Technology will be accepted until 5 p.m. PDT on Sept 30, 2011 (TGAL) 2.78 :
7:22AM Fairchild Semi lowers Q3 rev guidance below consensus in 8-K filing; lowers adj. gross margin guidance (FCS) 12.48 : Co lowers Q3 rev guidance to $400-410 mln from $433-446 mln vs $439.53 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; co also lowers adj. gross margin guidance 36.0% to 36.5%, down from the previous guidance of 36.5-36.9%. "Distributor sell through of our products has been lower than expected and we are reducing our shipments into the channel accordingly. Demand from OEM customers has remained stable and we expect to record modest sequential sales growth to direct customers in the third quarter. In the distribution channel, sell through has yet to show signs of the normal seasonal increase in a number of end markets including computing and consumer. Sell through has also been below expectations for appliances as some Asian customers reduce inventories. As expected, we continue to see weak demand from the solar inverter market as well. Given the uncertainty in the demand environment, we decided to aggressively and proactively adjust our supply chain now to maintain lean inventories, especially in the distribution channel. We are also controlling expenses tightly which is reflected in our lower guidance for R&D and SG&A spending."
Xilinx (XLNX) announced that longtime customer Tecnoroll BMB S.r.l. has designed Spartan-6 FPGAs into its new FLEXMod 3.0 digital video broadcast module.
Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) announced that it is now shipping samples of its MachXO2 PLD family using a 2.5mmx2.5mm 25-ball Wafer Level Chip Scale Package.
Micrel (MCRL) introduced the KSZ84xx family of IEEE 1588v2-enabled Ethernet devices for Industrial Ethernet and Power Substation Automation applications.
10:46 am S&P Tech Sector Down Over Two Percent; RIMM Upgraded, KLAC Downgraded (RIMM)
The tech sector is trading lower today, slightly worse than the losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are also trading in line with weakness in the tech space with the Philly Semi Index trading 2.6% lower. Among chips in the index, STM (-10.5%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the S&P 500 is trading 2.7% lower, while the NASDAQ is trading 2.4% lower. The QQQ, meanwhile, is trading 2.3% lower. Among tech bellwethers, ORCL (-3.6%) is under notable pressure.
In earnings this morning, FCS (0.0%) lowered its Q3 guidance and PRGS (-6.9%) issued downside guidance. In news, HOLI (+4.9%) announced that several members of the co management, lead by the Chairman and CEO, have purchased approximately 725,467 shares of Hollysys as of today.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, RIMM (-2.5%) was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at Scotia. Among downgrades, KLAC (-4.1%) was downgraded to Underperform at RBC.
PAY (-2.6%) is the notable name in tech set to report results today after the close.
Fairchild Semi (FCS $12.50 -0.02) lowered third quarter revenue guidance to $400-410 million from $433-446 million versus the $439.53 million Capital IQ consensus. The company also lowers adjusted gross margin guidance 36.0% to 36.5%, down from the previous guidance of 36.5-36.9%. The company stated "Distributor sell through of our products has been lower than expected and we are reducing our shipments into the channel accordingly. Demand from OEM customers has remained stable and we expect to record modest sequential sales growth to direct customers in the third quarter. In the distribution channel, sell through has yet to show signs of the normal seasonal increase in a number of end markets including computing and consumer"
Apple's (AAPL $373.10 -0.95) target was raised to $545 from $515 at Canaccord Genuity. The firm's August channel checks indicated strong sell-through trends for both the iPhone and iPad. Based on solid demand trends for iPhone/iPad, poor sell-through trends for competing tablet offerings, and the ramping iOS ecosystem driving longer-term replacement sales. |
