From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Large-cap tech rallied after it had lagged last week. That helped the Nasdaq outperform, but it was the Dow that set a new two-year high as it advanced more than 100 points to settle just 20 points shy of the 12,000 mark.
Tech stocks were a bit mixed in early trade, but buying quickly picked up after the sector started to run. Tech stocks settled with a 1.6% gain.
NVIDIA (NVDA 24.73, +2.51) was a leader among tech issues following positive mention in the financial press over the weekend. Heavyweight tech issues Microsoft (MSFT 28.38, +0.36), Intel (INTC 21.24, +0.42), and Cisco (CSCO 21.17, +0.44) complemented its strength and, in turn, drove both the Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq 100 to their best percentage gains in three weeks. IBM (IBM 159.63, +4.13) also caught a big bid, which took the stock to a new record high and helped drive the Dow to within just 20 points of the 12,000 line for the first time since June 2008.
J.C. Penney (JCP 32.52, +2.18) shares made their sharpest single-session spike in three months after the retailer said that it will take strategic actions to maximize growth and profitability. The stock settled comfortably above its 50-day moving average for the first time in two weeks. The rest of the retail space failed to follow, though; they advanced just 0.3%.
Market participants were generally unimpressed by the latest round of earnings, which featured a bottom line beat by Halliburton (HAL 39.55, +0.36) and in-line results from McDonald's (MCD 75.38, +0.37). Both were relative laggards.
Financials trailed for the entire day. The sector's 0.1% loss was largely owed to weakness in regional bank shares, which collectively shed 1.3%. Health care plays were also weak; they fell to a fractional loss due to weakness in managed care, which dropped 1.0%.
Advancing Sectors: Tech (+1.6%), Materials (+1.0%), Industrials (+1.0%), Telecom (+0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.6%), Utilities (+0.5%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Energy (+0.2%)
Unchanged: Health Care
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.1%)DJ30 +108.68 NASDAQ +28.01 SP500 +7.49 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1721/1.89 bln/939 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2114/957 mln/882
5:30PM STMicroelectronics reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; guides Q1 revs in-line (STM) 11.85 +0.21 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.24 per share, in-line with the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.24; revenues rose 9.7% year/year to $2.83 bln vs the $2.77 bln consensus. STMicroelectronics expect to deliver above-market revenue growth accompanied by further year-over-year. Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs falling 7-12% sequentially, which equates to ~$2.5-2.61 bln vs. $2.56 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs falling 7-12% sequentially, which calculates to ~$2.47-2.61 bln vs. $2.56 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. In-line with normal seasonality, the high exposure to New-Year holidays in Asia and the accounting calendar, the co expects first quarter 2011 revenues to be lower sequentially by about 7-12%, which at the midpoint equates to a 10% increase when compared to the year-over-year period. As a result, and based on prices entering the new year contracts, gross margin in the first quarter is expected to be about 39.0%, plus or minus 1 percentage point.
4:16PM Integrated Silicon to acquire Si En Integration Holdings approximately $20 mln in cash; acquisition to be immediately accretive to earnings per share (ISSI) 9.51 +0.22 : Co announces that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Si En Integration Holdings. For the year ended December 31, 2010, Si En had revenue of $22.2 mln, gross margin of 42.5 percent, and operating income of $5.2 mln. The purchase price will be approximately $20 mln in cash, based on estimated working capital and net of cash acquired. ISSI expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to earnings per share.
4:07PM Volterra Semi misses by $0.01, reports revs in-line (VLTR) 24.81 +0.25 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.21 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.22; revenues rose 3.8% year/year to $35.5 mln vs the $35.7 mln consensus.
4:07PM Sanmina-SCI beats by $0.04, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs in-line (SANM) 14.04 +0.46 : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.45 per share, $0.04 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.41; revenues rose 12.4% year/year to $1.66 bln vs the $1.65 bln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.40-0.43 vs. $0.41 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs of $1.62-1.67 bln vs. $1.65 bln Thomson Reuters consensus.
Rambus (RMBS) announced it has acquired the lighting and display portfolio of patents and technology from privately held Imagine Designs Inc.
AMD (AMD) announced wide-ranging support of OpenGL 4.1 for Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Linux across select ATI FirePro, ATI FireGL and AMD Radeon graphics cards. Nalco Mobotec (NLC) announced that, as part of a consortium with engineering firm Remak Rozruch, it has signed a contract with Zespol Elektrowni PAK SA for the modernisation of one of the boilers at PAK's Patnow I Power Plant located in Konin, Poland. The PLN50 mln (more than $16.5 mln) project is scheduled for completion in August 2012.
08:12 am Apple: Time for value investors to start taking a good look at Apple - Ticonderoga: . Ticonderoga notes, despite Apple still operating in high growth mode, it believes it's a good time for value investors to take a look at the stock given the pullback in the shares last week in light of Steve Jobs's medical leave of absence, which overshadowed a big December quarter print and March quarter outlook. Although there could be further selling pressure, firm believes the risk-reward is becoming so favorable that even value investors should begin buying the stock. Firm is hoping for the best for Steve Jobs and his role with Apple; however, the market appears to be already preparing for the worst.
10:59 am RSH Guides Q4 EPS Below Consensus (RSH)
RadioShack (RSH $15.41 -2.20) issued fourth quarter earnings guidance of $0.50 to $0.54, well below the $0.67 Thomson Reuters consensus.
Net preliminary revenues are expected to be $1.37 billion versus $1.36 billion Thomson Reuters consensus.
Comparable same-store sales for U.S. company-operated stores and kiosks increased ~1% during the 2010 fourth quarter. Preliminary total net sales and operating revenues in the quarter were driven primarily by wireless platform sales growth. However, preliminary consolidated gross margin declined primarily due to the disappointing performance of the Company's T-Mobile business, a higher sales mix of lower margin wireless handsets, and incremental promotional and clearance markdowns associated with seasonal sell-through and product transitions in non-wireless platforms.
The company announced that Julian Day plans to retire as chairman, chief executive officer, and a director of the Company effective at the Company's annual shareholder meeting, currently scheduled for the week of May 16, 2011. According to its succession and transition plan, the Board of Directors named Jim Gooch, currently chief financial officer, as the president, effective immediately. He will become chief executive officer and a director upon Day's retirement. The Board has also determined, as an enhancement to its governance structure, to separate the chairman and CEO roles. Daniel R. Feehan, the Board's current presiding director and a member of the Company's Board since 2003, will become non-executive chairman of the Board upon Mr. Day's retirement. Mr. Feehan is president and chief executive officer of Cash America International, Inc.
It's amazing to me that airline stocks managed to liftoff this cycle. So much debt and such low profits. It's nuts. I can't believe that Briefing.com on Yahoo had no notes on TXN's earnings.
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