From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Disappointing data played a part in dropping the S&P 500 to the 1300 line, which provided a floor for a rebound amid renewed interest in Financials, but the attempt to advance lost steam and left the stock market to suffer its second straight loss. During the course of May the broad market sank more than 6%, which makes it the worst month since September.
The major equity averages all dropped in excess of 1% in the prior session as attention returned to the troubles of Europe. Those concerns appeared to be tempered this morning as debt yields in the region retreated and the euro attracted a modest bid.
Those developments helped improve the mood among traders ahead of the open, but sentiment was undermined by a few economic reports that failed to meet expectations.
The latest ADP Employment Change report suggests that private payrolls increased during May by 133,000, which is less than the increase of 157,000 that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. The report is often regarded as a preview of the official monthly payrolls report, which is due tomorrow.
Weekly initial jobless claims had remained near 370,000 for the past few weeks, but the latest tally increased to 383,000. It had been widely expected to come in at 368,000.
A revised reading of first quarter GDP also proved displeasing. It suggested that the economy expanded at a clip of 1.9%, down from the 2.2% increase that was featured in the preliminary reading, and less than the 2.0% pace that had been broadly anticipated.
The Chicago PMI reading made an unexpected pullback in May to 52.7 from 56.2 in April. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected, on average, that it would improve to 57.0.
An absence if encouraging data and a midmorning pullback by the euro to a near two-year low of just $1.23 made it easy for stocks to slide to sizable losses. The S&P 500 was down about 1% to the 1300 line before it stabilized.
Technical support coincided with an upturn by Financials to help lift the broad market into afternoon trade. Financials were able to settle with a 0.7% gain amid help from bank stocks and shares of diversified financial services firms. Although Financials put on one of the better performances of the day, they fell more than 9% in May to suffer one of the worst monthly performances of any sector.
Telecom stocks were also strong today, but they have been performing well all month. The sector scored a 0.8% gain today, and a near 3% gain for the month. No other sector advanced in May. Many market participants have come to favor the sector’s defensive characteristics and relatively rich dividend yields. Some of those same features made Utilities the strongest performers of 2011.
While many stocks were able to slash their losses in afternoon action, the S&P 500 didn’t make a meaningful move into positive territory until the final 30 minutes. The effort came apart into the close, though, resulting in a return to negative territory by the closing bell.
For the second straight session Energy was the worst performing sector. It suffered a 0.9% loss; along the way it set a new seven-month low. Its descent has come in close correlation to a retreat by oil prices, which set new 2012 lows today at $85.86 per barrel before it settled pit trade at $86.51 per barrel for a 1.5% loss.
The end of the month brought about an increase in share volume, such that the number of shares traded on the NYSE surged above 1 billion to one of the highest tallies of 2012.
Advancing Sectors: Telecom +0.8%, Financials +0.7%, Utilities +0.6%
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary -0.3%, Consumer Staples: -0.3%, Industrials -0.3%, Health Care -0.4%, Materials -0.5%, Tech -0.6%, Energy -0.9%DJ30 -26.41 NASDAQ -10.02 NQ100 -0.5% R2K +0.00% SP400 -0.3% SP500 -2.99 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1195/2.11 bln/1350 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1442/1.32 bln/1557
7:07AM Ciena beats by $0.07, beats on revs; guides Q3 revs in-line (CIEN) 11.88 : Reports Q2 (Apr) earnings of $0.04 per share, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.03); revenues rose 14.3% year/year to $477.6 mln vs the $446.7 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of $455-485 mln vs. $472.40 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Our second quarter was highlighted by strong revenue growth and positive overall operating performance, which demonstrated our ability to deliver operating leverage..We remain confident that we are well positioned for future growth and continue to expect our second half operating results to be stronger than the first half." Co sees Q3 Adjusted (non-GAAP) gross margin of approximately 40 percent. |
