From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Stocks started off on a positive note after China refrained from hiking it benchmark interest rate despite a hotter-than-expected CPI number, and instead insisted they would continue to observe a strong growth policy despite the uptick in prices. Stocks strengthened throughout much of the session, but began giving back their gains in the final hour of trading. The Dow was able to eek out a small gain of 0.2%, while the S&P 500 closed flat, and the Nasdaq slipped into negative territory and closed down 0.5%. Today's late day selloff prevented the Dow from closing at a 2-yr high after it was trading above its November 5th close of 11444.08 within the final 10 minutes of the session.
Weakness in the greenback was prevalent all session long after Moody's said the passage of the tax cuts would have ramifications, and may lead to the U.S. being placed on negative outlook down the road. The soft dollar pushed the euro to 1.3400, while the pound saw a session high just shy of 1.5900. Dollar/yen once again failed above 84.00, a level where it has had trouble for the past three weeks.
Energy stocks outperformed all session long, gaining 0.8%, as the weak dollar sent buyers into commodity related stocks. Cabot Oil & Gas (COG 36.99, +1.63), National Oilwell Varco (NOV 63.99, +1.33), and Baker Hughes (BHI 55.06, +1.14) were among the best performing stocks in the sector.
Materials stocks saw solid gains thanks to the weaker dollar as AK Steel (AKS 14.95, +0.37), Vulcan Materials (VMC 44.66, +1.38), Freeport-McMoran (FCX 115.56, +2.69), and Cliffs Natural (CLF 75.56, +1.23) led the advance.
Health care stocks eased off their best levels of the session after a Virginia judge ruled President Obama's health care law was unconstitutional, and ended the day with a gain of 0.1%. Thermo Fisher (TMO 55.56, +2.52) was the best performer in the space after the company announced it was acquiring Dionex (DNEX 117.86, +19.69) for approximately $2.1 billion, or $118.50 per share in cash, representing a 21% premium to Dionex's close on Friday.
Treasuries posted solid gains today as buyers moved into the market following the Fed's Permanent Open Market Operations in which they purchased $7.79 bln worth of 2016/2017 maturities. After touching 3.391%, its highest yield since June, the 10-yr yield ended the day near 3.29%. The belly of the curve will end the day a little steeper with the 2-10-yr spread running 269.2.
Volume was light with less than one billion shares trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Tomorrow should provide an interesting session with the Senate expected to vote on the tax cut, as well as releases of PPI, core PPI, retail sales, retail sales ex-auto, business inventories, and the FOMC rate decision.DJ30 +18.24 NASDAQ -12.63 SP500 +0.06 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1054/1.84 bln/1587 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1435/962.2 mln/1582
5:33PM FormFactor reaffirms Q4 revs of $40 to $45 million vs. $43.1 mln Thomson Reuters consensus (FORM) 10.20 -0.12 :
6:30AM Mattson receives multiple orders from leading semiconductor manufacturer for paradigmE Etch System for volume production of advanced NAND flash devices (MTSN) 3.19 : Co announces it has received multiple orders from a leading semiconductor manufacturer for its paradigmE etch system. The systems, some of which have already shipped, will be used in an extended set of etch applications for the volume production of advanced NAND flash devices. Total financial terms were not immediately disclosed.
6:05AM Canadian Solar and SkyPower announce 18.5MW Engineering, Procurement and Construction agreement for solar projects in Ontario, Canada (CSIQ) 13.37 : Co announces that it and SkyPower announced they have signed an engineering, procurement and construction agreement. As part of the agreement, Canadian Solar Solutions, through SkyPower's power purchase agreements, will commission two solar parks with a nameplate capacity of 18.5 MW in Ontario. The construction of both projects is expected to reach completion by mid-2011.
# ARM (ARMH) announced the availability of Version 2.0 of the ARM Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard.
# PMC-Sierra (PMCS), announced the Adaptec by PMC family of Series 6 RAID controllers designed to excel in high I/O transaction and high bandwidth processing applications.
09:29 am Research In Motion: Rodman and Renshaw expectations into the qtr: . Rodman and Renshaw expects RIMM to report unit sales (80% of mix) at the upper end of guidance range of 13.8-14.4 mln. Firm says sales of Curve, Torch and aggressive promotions were contributors to the recovery. Firm says growth in the international markets was offset by share loss to Apple (AAPL) and Android in North America. ASPs were likely at the lower end of guidance of $310-315 albeit an improvement from $301 in the prior quarter. Firm says gross margins should be modestly above guidance of 42%, but a drop from 44.5% in the prior quarter, as a benefit of new product cycle. Net/net, earnings are likely to be towards the high end of outlook of $1.62-1.70.
07:14 am Broadcom resumed with a Buy at Auriga U.S.A; tgt $55: . Auriga U.S.A downgrades CAVM to Hold from Buy and raises their tgt to $42 from $37 saying they continue to view CAVM as a secular growth story with strong long-term potential. However, with the stock up 34% QTD despite a weak report from top customer Cisco (CSCO), they see risk/reward more evenly balanced, and would wait for a better entry point to put new money to work. Firm says for investors looking for exposure to comm. IC growth, they prefer EZChip (EZCH) in small cap and newly-initiated upon Broadcom (BRCM) in large cap. |
