From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks staged a strong bounce after they had logged sizable losses for three straight sessions in reaction to a massive earthquake in Japan, subsequent failures at that country's nuclear facilities, and ongoing social and political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.
Buyers stepped back into action today with a broad-based bid that took the Dow and S&P 500 up more than 1%. The Nasdaq also staged a strong gain, but lagged its counterparts amid weakness in Amazon.com (AMZN 160.97, -3.73), which descended to a new three-month low.
Energy stocks were leaders in the broader market. As such, the Energy Select SPDR (XLE 76.00, +2.25) spiked to a 3% gain. The sector was helped by a spike in crude oil prices, which settled pit trade with a 3.5% gain at $101.42 per barrel.
Despite the spike in oil prices, global delivery outfit FedEx (FDX 87.89, +2.61) was a top performer following its strong forecast, which overshadowed an earnings miss for the latest quarter.
Disappointing guidance from Guess? (GES 37.71, -6.16) overshadowed the retailer's upside earnings surprise for the latest quarter. Weakness in the stock caused retailers to trail the broader market. As such, the S&P Retail SPDR (XRT 47.99, -0.18) fell firmly.
A deluge of data was released this morning, but none of it was met with much of a reaction.
Initial weekly jobless claims for the week ended March 12 totaled 385,000, which is on par with the 386,000 initial claims that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Initial claims for the prior week were revised upward to 401,000.
Consumer prices for February increased by 0.5%, which is greater than the 0.4% that had been widely expected. The stronger-than-expected increase follows a 0.4% increase for the prior month. Excluding food and energy, consumer prices increased by 0.2%, which is more than the 0.1% increase that had been broadly anticipated. Core consumer prices also increased by 0.2% in the prior month.
The Philadelphia Fed Index for March surged to a 25-year high of 43.4, which blew out the Briefing.com consensus 28.1.
Leading Indicators for February increased by 0.8%, but that is less than the 1.0% that had been broadly expected. Industrial production decreased by 0.1% in Februay. It had been broadly expected to increase by 0.6%.
None of today's data was able to help generate support for the dollar, which continued its descent against Japan's yen. The yen's rapid ascent to record levels against the greenback has stirred speculation about an intervention by Japan's Minister of Finance and central bank. DJ30 +161.29 NASDAQ +19.23 NQ100 +1.0% R2K +0.5% SP400 +0.6% SP500 +16.84 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1569/1.99 bln/1002 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2198/1.03 bln/806
5:57PM Vitesse statement regarding Japan earthquake impact; co currently does not anticipate any major impact on its ability to supply product to customers (VTSS) 5.09 +0.07 : Co confirmed that all of its employees in Japan are safe and that its office in Tokyo is undamaged and functional, following last week's disastrous earthquake and tsunami. The Company extends its profound condolences as the Japanese people cope and recover from this natural disaster. Based on initial evaluations, the Company currently does not anticipate any major impact on its ability to supply product to customers, and believes that its inventories are sufficient to meet global demand until any supply chain disruptions are resolved. The Company is also implementing a structured plan to continually assess the global supply chain for supply risk. Senior management will continue to monitor the situation closely.
4:26PM LDK Solar beats by $0.17, beats on revs; guides Q1 (Mar) revs in-line; guides FY11 (Dec) revs above consensus (LDK) 12.89 +0.96 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $1.09 per share, $0.17 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.92. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 was 27.3%, compared to 22.2% in the third quarter of fiscal 2010 and 9.9% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. Co issues in-line guidance for Q1 (Mar), sees Q1 (Mar) revs of $800-850 mln vs. $821.67 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co issues upside guidance for FY11 (Dec), sees FY11 (Dec) revs of $3.5-3.7 bln vs. $3.09 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co expects FY11 wafer shipments of 2.7 to 2.9 gigawatts (GW), module shipments of 800 MW to 900 MW, in-house polysilicon production of 10,000 MT and 11,000 MT, in-house cell production between 500 MW and 600 MW, and gross margin between 24% and 29%.
4:20PM Amkor announced that its manufacturing facility in Kitakami, Japan, located about 260 miles northeast of Tokyo, has suffered relatively minor damage in last week's earthquake (AMKR) 6.49 +0.10 : The Kitakami facility is currently closed due to power supply interruptions and plans are underway to restore production capabilities at the site when power, gas and water supplies, and transportation systems are stabilized. The Kitakami facility is Amkor's smallest operation in both units and revenue, generating approximately $10 million to $11 million of monthly sales prior to the earthquake. The Kitakami facility only provides services to a few Japan-based customers. We are working closely with these customers to assess and support their requirements in light of the earthquake's impact on their operations.
9:31AM Vishay Announces That Its Sales Office in Tokyo and All Its Japan Employees Are Safe (VSH) 17.02 +0.36 : Co provides an update on the impact to Vishay operations from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Its sales office in Tokyo is safe and all Vishay employees who work in Japan are well. Co has no manufacturing sites in Japan. There is no impact to Vishay factories in other Asian countries as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
9:01AM Aehr Test Systems received an order for Advanced Burn-in and Test System (AEHR) 1.69 : This is the first ABTS ordered by this customer. This system is configured to do burn-in and test of high pin count logic ICs. The system has 320 IO channels and is also backward compatible with Aehr Test Systems' earlier generation ATX system, preserving the customer's investment in burn-in-boards.
9:01AM Maxim Integrated provides update on impact of Japan quake; expects no material impact to revenue for the current quarter (MXIM) 23.66 : Co reported no structural damage to its partner facility, Seiko Epson, as a result of the catastrophic earthquake in Japan. However, a regional power outage has affected production at the facility located in Sakata, Japan. The Seiko Epson facility provided approximately 15 percent of Maxim's wafer starts last quarter. All products manufactured at Seiko Epson can be manufactured at other facilities, which have sufficient excess capacity. Therefore, Maxim has already begun shifting production from the Japan facility to its internal fabs and other foundry partners. Maxim expects no material impact to revenue for the current quarter, which ends on March 26, 2011. The company is assessing potential exposure to June quarter revenue from manufacturing delays at Seiko Epson as well as global supply chain issues at Maxim and its customers. The company will include any impact to the June quarter results in its earnings guidance, which it will provide on April 21, 2011.
# Power-One (PWER) announced the introduction of two new members to its PFE series Platinum-efficiency AC-DC front-end power supplies, the PFE600 and PFE850.
# Microsemi (MSCC) announced the development of enhancement mode Gallium Nitride field-effect transistors for satellites and other military power conversion, point-of-load, and high speed switching applications.
3:06AM Sanmina-SCI sees Q2 EPS and revs below consensus; co's Pres/CCO resigns, will continue in consulting role (SANM) 13.40 : Co issues downside guidance for Q2 (Mar), sees EPS of $0.28-0.32 vs. $0.41 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 (Mar) revs of $1.56-1.60 bln vs. $1.65 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. The outlook for the second quarter may be impacted by a delay in defense market projects and shipments due to Federal budget uncertainty, recently resolved labor strike in India delaying certain product shipments, and short-term softness in the optical market near the end of the quarter. Additionally, co announces that Hari Pillai, President and Chief Operating Officer will resign from the co and continue in a consulting capacity on terms to be determined.
1:14AM Qualcomm issues statement on supply chain in Japan; does not foresee a significant impact (QCOM) 50.50 : Based on a review of it extended semiconductor supply chain, co states it does not foresee any significant impact in our ability to supply product to our customers due to the events in Japan. With regard to the availability of Bismaleimide Triazine resin, co uses either BT-based or epoxy-based laminate materials in our chipset packages.
07:36 am Diodes upgraded to Buy at Collins Stewart; tgt raised to $35: . Collins Stewart upgrades DIOD to Buy from Hold and raises their tgt to $35 from $28 as they believe the company will be a beneficiary of semiconductor supply disruptions as a result of the recent Japanese earthquakes. Firm notes several discrete semiconductor suppliers including Texas Instruments (TXN), Renesas, and ON Semiconductor (ONNN) have recently indicated that their capacity have been negatively impacted by the catastrophe in Japan. As a result, they believe that a tight discrete semiconductor supply situation will ensue and positively impact demand for Diode's discrete chips over the next several quarters.
Great trades on those short positions Jacob! Looks like the market may retest this low to me since volume was weak on the rebound today. Might go a tad bit lower before it really rebounds. JMHO, RtS |
