From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Buying interest in the early going gave way to selling pressure that resulted in the ninth loss in 11 sessions for the S&P 500. Many traders took their cues from the euro.
Despite sizable losses in Asia during overnight trade and mixed action among Europe's major bourses, market participants bid stocks higher ahead of the open. Positive sentiment was supported by news that housing starts improved in April to an annualized rate of 717,000 from an upwardly revised rate of 699,000 in the prior month to exceed the consensus forecast for a rate of 680,000 units. Building permits were more on par with what had been expected -- the annualized rate of 715,000 came in only slightly below the rate of 730,000 that had been broadly anticipated.
Industrial production also proved impressive. It increased during April by 1.1%, which is more than double the 0.5% increase that had been broadly expected.
Within the first hour of action the S&P 500 was up almost 1% and within about five points of its prior session high, but the move failed to hold as early strength among Energy and Financials faded. Those two sectors descended to losses of 0.5% and 1.5%, respectively. That put the Energy sector at a new low for 2012, while Financials sit at their worst level since January.
Retailers JC Penney (JCP 26.75, -6.75) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF 39.50, -5.90) were among the poorest individual performers of the session. Both stocks plummeted to new multi-month lows in the wake of underwhelming quarterly reports. Target (TGT 55.32, +0.24) managed to maintain a modest gain following its latest earnings announcement, though.
Deere (DE 74.18, -2.44) was also out today with its latest quarterly report, which featured a better-than-expected bottom line. However, shares of the farming machinery outfit still fell.
A few minutes of broad market turbulence followed the release of the latest FOMC minutes, which indicate that broad financial market conditions have changed little. The minutes state that bank credit slowed in March, but overall it expanded at a solid pace for the first quarter. It was also noted that financial strains within the euro area increased.
The latter point in mind, headlines today suggested that the ECB may be suspending services to certain banks in Greece. That stirred some selling interest against the currency. It managed to recover to the neutral line, but by the closing bell it was back in the red to suffer a 0.2% loss against the greenback.
Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples +0.3%, Health Care +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Utilities -0.1%, Industrials -0.1%, Consumer Discretionary -0.1%, Telecom -0.4%, Energy -0.5%, Tech -0.8%, Materials -1.2%, Financials -1.5%DJ30 -33.45 NASDAQ -19.72 NQ100 -0.7% R2K -0.6% SP400 -0.9% SP500 -5.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 839/1.96 bln/1660 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 985/872 mln/2024
4:07PM MEMC Elec announces it will transition the Chief Financial Officer role to Brian Wuebbels from the co's current CFO, Mark Murphy (WFR) 2.13 -0.18 : Murphy resigned as MEMC's Chief Financial Officer, effective May 16, 2012, to return to Praxair (PX) to become President, Praxair Surface Technologies. Mr. Murphy will work with MEMC in a consulting role in the near term to assist in the transition. Mr. Wuebbels has been appointed to the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer succeeding Murphy effective the same date. Mr. Wuebbels has been with MEMC since 2007, most recently as Vice President and General Manager - Balance of System Products.
O2Micro International (OIIM) was issued 13 claims under U.S. patent for its Signal Detection Circuitry.
Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC) announced a planned expansion of its Singapore global headquarters.
11:14 am S&P Information Technology Index
The tech sector is trading higher today, just trailing gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are also showing relative weakness with the Philly Semi Index trading virtually flat on the session. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.7% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.4% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.5% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, GOOG (+2.5%) is showing notable strength, while INTC (-0.7%) is lagging.
In earnings last night, SINA (+13.0%) and OPXT (+3.3%) both posted quarterly misses.
In news, FB raised its IPO size by 25%. Among rumors, we are hearing RIMM (+2.6%) takeover chatter making the rounds.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, CSCO (+1.7%) was upgraded to Overweight at Barclays, SINA (+13.2%) was upgraded at Barclays and Credit Suisse and AKAM (+0.2%) was upgraded to Neutral at Citigroup. Also, EPAM (+7.5%) was added to Top Picks Live list at Citigroup While in downgrades, KLAC (-3.8%), LRCX (-5.3%), and NVLS (-5.3%) were downgraded to Underweight at JPMorgan.
There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close. |
