From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks settled just shy of session highs to secure strong gains. The effort was led by Energy.
For the second straight session the Energy sector outperformed the broad market. Building on its 1.1% bounce in the prior session the sector climbed almost 2% today. It was led by shares of oil and gas exploration players and drilling outfits. As an aside, oil prices closed pit trade with a 1.2% gain at $80.28 per barrel, despite news that the latest weekly inventory report featured a smaller-than-expected draw, which is generally regarded by analysts as a bearish sign because it points to softer demand.
Consumer Discretionary stocks also performed well in the prior session, but were unable to put together a sustainable gain in trade today. As such, the sector settled with a sligh loss.
Corporate earnings were limited to only a handful of widely held names, including General Mills (GIS 37.55, -0.60), which posted an upside earnings surprise that was overshadowed by weak guidance. Monsanto (MON 80.89, +3.02) and Lennar (LEN 28.70, +1.31) reported strong earnings of their own, but the latter was likely helped by some better-than-expected pending home sales numbers.
Pending home sales spiked during May by 5.9% to exceed the 0.5% uptick that had been broadly expected. The jump also makes for a positive turn from the 5.5% drop that was experienced in the prior month.
In other economic news, durable goods orders increased in May by 1.1%, which is more than double the 0.5% increase that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Excluding transportation related items, durable goods orders increased in May by a much more tepid 0.4%, which is less than the 0.7% increase that had been broadly anticipated. Prior month data was revised to show that overall orders declined by 0.2% and orders less transportation declined by 0.6%.
There weren't many headlines out of Europe ahead of the two-day European Union summit, but yields on the debt of Italy and Spain did eased back narrowly. The euro traded with limited movement for most of the session, but by the closing bell it was down nearly 0.2% against the greenback.
Treasuries also traded quitely for most of the session. Lackluster results from an offering of 5-year Notes did not drive any meaningful action. The offering drew a Bid-to-Cover of 2.61, Dollar Demand of $91.5 billion, and an Indirect Bidder participation rate of 35.1%. For comparison, the prior auction drew a much better Bid-to-Cover of 2.99, Dollar Demand of $104.7 billion, and an Indirect Bidder rate of 42.6%. An average of the past six auctions results in a Bid-to-Cover of 2.98, Dollar Demand of $104.2 billion, and an Indirect Bidder participation rate of 44.6%.
Advancing Sectors: Energy +1.9%, Financials +1.2%, Industrials +1.1%, Utilities +1.1%, Health Care +1.1%, Materials +0.9%, Consumer Staples +0.7%, Tech +0.7%, Telecom +0.3%
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary -0.1%DJ30 +92.34 NASDAQ +21.26 NQ100 +0.6% R2K +1.5% SP400 +0.9% SP500 +11.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1766/1.63 bln/709 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2387/684 mln/660
3:30 pm : Crude oil rose to a session high of $80.92 per barrel in morning pit action before it pulled back to a session low of $79.76 per barrel following weaker-than-anticipated inventory data that showed a draw of 133,000 barrels when a draw of 1.3 million barrels had been expected. The energy component regained strength in afternoon floor trade, though; it settled the session with a 1.2% gain at $80.28 per barrel.
Natural gas had a strong start to its pit session. However, it came under selling pressure after touching a session high of $2.94 per MMBtu. The energy component gave up all of the session's gains and settled with a 0.4% loss at $2.80 per MMBtu.
Gold began pit trade in negative territory and dropped to a session low of $1563.10 per ounce. It popped into positive territory to a session high of $1584.60 per ounce in the absence of any clear catalysts. Following choppy action ahead of tomorrow's EU Summit, gold managed to settle the session at $1578.80 per ounce, or 0.3% higher. Silver, on the other hand, extended yesterday's slide as it spent most of its floor session in the red. It briefly broke into positive territory and touched a session high of $27.27 per ounce, but ultimately finished with a 0.3% loss at $26.96 per ounce. DJ30 +103.12 NASDAQ +23.40 SP500 +13.06 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1715/1.27 bln/755 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2315/430 mln/700
3:02PM NVIDIA Tegra 3 drives Google's (GOOG) $199 Nexus 7 tablet (NVDA) 13.12 +0.39 : Co announced that Nexus 7 from Google, the first $199 quad-core 7-inch tablet running on the newest version of Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), features the NVIDIA Tegra 3 mobile processor. Driving Nexus 7 is the Tegra 3 processor, which features a unique 4-PLUS-1 quad-core architecture for outstanding performance and exceptional battery life.
1:32PM Apple slips to fresh lows to challenge the $573.00 area, ahead of yesterday's close near $572.00 (AAPL) 573.10 +1.01 :
9:04AM Maxim Integrated invests total of $200 mln on expansion and upgrades of facilities (MXIM) 24.64 : Co announced a $200 million multiyear investment to upgrade its U.S. wafer fabrication facilities in Beaverton, Oregon; Dallas and San Antonio, Texas; and San Jose, California. Maxim will use the multiyear investment to upgrade manufacturing equipment, improve process technologies, convert to newer technology nodes, and assimilate production from recently acquired companies. This investment is consistent with previously disclosed estimates for capital expenditures in Maxim's fiscal years 2012 and 2013. Co will invest $75 million to upgrade its semiconductor fabrication facility in Beaverton, Oregon. Maxim, which purchased the 226,000 square foot facility from Tektronix, Inc. in 1994, will upgrade manufacturing equipment, improve process technologies, and convert to newer technology nodes. Also, co will invest ~ $65 million to expand its semiconductor fabrication facility (fab) in San Antonio. Maxim, which purchased the 380,000 square foot facility from Philips Semiconductors, Inc. in 2003, will also be upgrading fab equipment.
8:00AM Cypress Semi Enters into a $430 Million Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility (CY) 12.52 : Co announced that it has entered into a five-year senior secured revolving credit facility with a group of lenders led by Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. as administrative agent and collateral agent. The facility enables the company to borrow up to $430 million on a revolving basis. The credit facility bears interest at LIBOR plus 2.25 percent on the drawn amount. There is a commitment fee payable of 0.375 percent per annum on any undrawn amounts. The credit facility contains customary affirmative, negative and financial covenants for similarly rated companies. The Company expects to draw down a total of $153 million immediately and is permitted to use the borrowings for working capital, acquisitions, stock repurchases and other general corporate purposes.
7:31AM Qualcomm and Akamai (AKAM) collaborate to optimize mobile page loads and improve mobile user experience (QCOM) 53.91 : Co announced that the two companies are collaborating on the implementation of new protocol enhancements for mobile devices. These optimizations will be designed to improve page performance and promote greater bandwidth efficiency on mobile devices. This collaboration will develop and deliver features to significantly improve Web browsing performance on Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor-based devices accessing content delivered by Akamai's Aqua Mobile Accelerator. The companies expect that consumers can begin benefiting from these optimizations for Android devices in the fourth quarter of 2012.
10:40 am Technology sector trading higher today as market recovers
The tech sector is trading higher today, inline with gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative strength with the Philly Semi Index trading 1.3% higher. CREE (+3.2%) is a notable leader in that chip index.
Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.8% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.8% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.9% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, ORCL (+2.1%) is showing notable strength, while FB (-2.7%) is under pressure.
In earnings this morning, ENTR (+30.1%) reported upside guided. In news, COOL (+13.3%) confirmed its partnership with ZNGA (-4.9%). FB's (-2.7%) quiet period was lifted today, so many firms on Wall Street were able to publish coverage on the stock. To recap, there has been 8 positive ratings, 7 neutral ratings, and 1 underperform rating.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, RVBD (-0.5%) was upgraded to Hold at Jefferies and SINA (+2.3%) was upgraded to Buy at UBS. While in downgrades, IFNNY (-2.6%) was downgraded at HSBC and JP Morgan. PAYX (+1.2%) and PRGS (+1.3%) were notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close. |
