From Briefing.com: 4:08PM Semitool beats by $0.01, beats on revs; issues Y08 guidance (SMTL) 8.76 -0.13 : Reports Q3 (Jun) earnings of $0.11 per share, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of $0.10; revenues rose 43.8% year/year to $67 mln vs the $65.3 mln consensus. Co issues guidance for FY08, sees EPS of $0.20-0.22 vs. $0.26 consensus; sees FY08 revs of $240.5-242.5 mln, compared to previous guidance of $230-250 mln, vs. $241.37 mln consensus.
4:07PM Rudolph Tech reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; authorizes stock repurchase program of up to 3 mln share (RTEC) 8.41 -0.16 : Reports Q2 (Jun) loss of $0.03 per share, in-line with the First Call consensus of ($0.03); revenues fell 19.5% year/year to $38.4 mln vs the $36.9 mln consensus. The Board of Directors authorized a stock repurchase program of up to 3 million shares of the Company's stock.
4:20 pm : The stock market posted a steep decline on Monday as plunging crude oil and commodity prices caused a steep sell off in energy and material names, but did not translate into large gains in the broader market. Selling interest was also fueled by continued concerns regarding financials and a June personal income and spending report that showed higher-than-expected inflation.
Crude prices plunged 3.0% to $121.30 per barrel and commodities as a whole tumbled 3.4%. There was no specific news item to account for the retreat, although there was speculation that a large hedge fund had to liquidate its positions.
The energy sector (4.9%) fell on the retreat in crude prices. Likewise, material stocks slipped 4.2%, with Freeport-McMoRan (FCX 80.44, -10.87) getting hit especially hard.
Lately, the stock market as a whole has rallied when the price of crude oil declined. This session, however, only saw modest buying interest on the drop in crude. Surprisingly, even the transportation sector (-0.8%) was unable to muster a gain. As a result, weakness in the materials and energy sectors offset the benefit that the rest of the stock market saw due to the drop in crude and commodity prices.
Only three sectors posted a gain -- consumer discretionary (+0.5%), consumer staples (+1.2%) and health care (+1.3%). The health care sector got a boost after Humana (HUM 46.75, +2.11) posted better-than-expected second quarter earnings and gave a full-year earnings outlook that topped Wall Street's forecast.
The drop in crude prices helped the financial sector recover from its session low when it was down 2.9%, although the sector still underperformed with a loss of 1.3%.
Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney -- who is widely followed after she correctly predicted last autumn that Citigroup (C 18.90, +0.04) would cut its dividend -- told Fortune magazine that the financial market turmoil is far from over. On CNBC, Whitney said that home prices will fall much more than people expect.
In addition, London-based bank HSBC (HBC 81.49, -1.51) saw first-half 2008 profits fall 29%, largely due to losses related to the U.S. mortgage market.
In terms of economic news, the June personal income and spending report was mixed, with investors showing disappointment regarding the report's inflation component. Month-over-month, personal income rose 0.1% (-0.2% consensus), personal spending increased 0.6% (+0.4% consensus) and core PCE, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, rose 0.3% (+0.2% consensus).
The PCE price index is up 0.8% month-over-month. As a result, real spending and income actually fell in June.
Separately, the latest factory orders report showed that the manufacturing sector is much healthier than is widely recognized. June total factory orders were up 1.7%, which is much stronger than the expected gain of 0.7%. Excluding transportation, orders rose 2.3%.
Tuesday brings the widely anticipated FOMC announcement. The fed funds rate is expected to remain unchanged at 2.00%, so the wording of the Fed's directive will be the main trading catalyst.DJ30 -42.17 NASDAQ -25.40 NQ100 -1.2% R2K -1.7% SP400 -1.9% SP500 -11.30 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 928/1.99 bln/1878 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1049/1.23 bln/2065
8:32AM Qualcomm announces leadership changes and promotions; COO and President of CDMA Technologies leaving to become Co-CEO of Motorola (QCOM) 55.47 : Co announces that Dr. Sanjay Jha, chief operating officer and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, is leaving Qualcomm and will become co-CEO of Motorola (MOT) and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices
8:08AM STEC Inc beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (STEC) 10.40 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.09 per share, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of $0.08; revenues rose 28.6% year/year to $56.2 mln vs the $53.2 mln consensus. Co issues guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.10-0.11 vs. $0.10 consensus; sees Q3 revs of $61-63 mln vs. $59.43 mln consensus.
8:03AM Broadcom announces up to $1.0 bln share repurchase program (BRCM) 23.99 :
7:38AM SIA says worldwide chip sales up 5.4% in first half of 2008 : Global sales of semiconductors for the first half of 2008 grew to $127.5 bln, an increase of 5.4% over the first half of 2007 when sales were $121 bln, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported today. June sales of $21.6 bln were up by 8% from the $20 bln reported for June 2007. June sales increased by 0.5% from May, when sales were $21.5 bln. Second-quarter sales of $64.7 bln increased by 3% over first-quarter sales of $62.8 bln. Thus far increased energy costs have had little impact on demand for electronic products that drive semiconductor demand. "Continuing strength in international markets - coupled with healthy demand in the U.S. - helped drive higher worldwide sales of semiconductors in June," said SIA President George Scalise. "Key demand drivers for semiconductors - especially personal computers, which account for 40% of semiconductor sales, and mobile phones, which drive about 20% of demand - continued to show double-digit unit growth. JPMorgan recently revised upward its forecast for unit sales of personal computers to 13%, with sharp increases in sales of portable systems. Forecasts for unit sales growth of mobile handsets range from 10-12% for 2008. |
