From Briefing.com: 5:00 pm : The stock market extended its near three-year high this morning, but a lack of direction in afternoon action ultimately led to the broad market's first loss in five sessions.
News that U.S. forces killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden dominated headlines all day, but the stock market lacked a discernible reaction to the story. And since many overseas markets were closed for holiday observance, traders had few cues to follow.
The broad market was initially helped by modest buying this morning. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow came closer to fresh three-year highs, but the Nasdaq actually hit its highest level in a decade. A lack of leadership and a 1.3% drop among energy stocks eventually led the market lower, though.
Energy's decline came in the face of a rebound by oil prices, which had been down to about $111 per barrel overnight, but finished with a 0.4% loss near $113.50 per barrel. Oil's bounce was helped by another decline in the dollar, which set a new two-year low against a collection of competing currencies. The greenback cut its loss to finish the trading day unchanged, though.
Health care stocks made up the only sector to sustain any kind of strong gain. The sector settled 1.0% for the better amid support from biotech plays, which were propped up by news that Cephalon (CEPH 80.11, +3.09) will be acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA 47.27, +1.54) for $81.50 per share, which is a premium of almost 6% over its closing price from last week. Elsewhere in the health care sector, Humana (HUM 76.48, +0.36) reported in-line earnings and an upside forecast.
Data had little impact on trade, but featured the April ISM Manufacturing Index. It came in at 60.4, which is greater than the 59.7 that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Construction spending during March increased by 1.4%, which is surprisingly strong, given that the consensus among economists surveyed on behalf of Briefing.com had called for no change.
Advancing Sectors: Utilities (+1.0%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.2%), Utilities (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Industrials (-0.1%), Telecom (-0.2%), Financials (-0.4%), Tech (-0.4%), Materials (-0.6%), Energy (-1.3%)DJ30 -3.18 NASDAQ -9.46 NQ100 +0.00% R2K -1.2% SP400 -0.6% SP500 -2.39 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 822/2.07 bln/1808 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1242/934 mln/1747
4:36PM Advanced Energy beats by $0.08, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (AEIS) 13.51 -0.64 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.43 per share, $0.08 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.35; revenues rose 97.6% year/year to $137.7 mln vs the $137.5 mln consensus. Co issues guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.36-0.44 vs. $0.38 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs of $148-160 mln vs. $144.17 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Total rev of $137.7 mln was split between Thin Films at $100.1 million and $37.6 million in the Renewables Business Unit. Thin films sales were primarily driven by strength in the semiconductor market. Renewables sales were impacted by the North American market first quarter seasonality, but delivered record bookings of $65.5 million for the quarter. Bookings for the first quarter were $184.0 million, compared to $83.2 million in the first quarter of 2010. "We are very excited about our announcement today that our inverters have been chosen for two major Utility projects: a 150MW project with Zachry in Arizona and a 35MW project in California with Cupertino Electric, demonstrating the differentiated reliability and efficiency of our inverters and the subsequent impact on the levelized cost of energy. We are seeing a growing number of larger, Utility scale projects as the solar market continues its expansion."
4:08PM Rudolph Tech reports 1Q11 results, misses on revs (RTEC) 11.12 -0.19 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.26 per share, excluding items, may not compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.20; revenues rose 24.6% year/year to $50.6 mln vs the $52.3 mln consensus. First quarter 2011 gross margin was 54%, up from 50% in the first quarter 2010. Higher margin software sales in the quarter were offset by an increase in inventory reserves related to older product lines.
4:06PM Power Integrations beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q2 revs in-line (POWI) : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.40 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.39; revenues rose 7.4% year/year to $76.8 mln vs the $74.2 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $76-82 mln vs. $78.72 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:04PM Intl Rectifier beats by $0.08, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs above consensus (IRF) 34.29 -0.27 : Reports Q3 (Mar) earnings of $0.55 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.08 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.47; revenues rose 22.7% year/year to $296.7 mln vs the $291.3 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $310-320 mln vs. $299.47 mln Thomson Reuters consensus, with gross margin of ~38%. "We continue to see strength in appliance, industrial and automotive markets in addition to seasonal strength in the computing and consumer markets. "Looking further out, IR has achieved significant new design wins which will contribute to IR's growth above the industry, both in the short- and long-term. We have good visibility and strong growth momentum for the remainder of calendar 2011 and our long-term target operating model remains unchanged."
Following on the success of the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app, Research In Motion (RIMM) announced Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook.
7:10AM JinkoSolar Holding beats by $0.57, beats on revs; guides Q2 revs in-line; reaffirms FY11 revs guidance, abvoe consensus (JKS) 27.15 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $2.10 per share, $0.57 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.53, rev +290% YoY to $326.7 mln vs. the $289.8 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $330-350 mln vs. $346.29 mln Thomson Reuters consensus, with shipments of 190-200 MW. Co reaffirms guidance for FY11, sees FY11 revs of $1.40-1.50 bln vs. $1.39 bln Thomson Reuters consensus, with shipments of 950-1l MW. "During the quarter, we exceeded our guidance in terms of revenue and beat expectations for our solar module shipments while continuing to make timely deliveries despite the uncertainty surrounding Italy's solar policies. This helped us maintain strong relationships with our customers in Italy as well as in Germany, strengthening our position as a leading solar module provider in those countries. We also continued to execute on our strategies of growing our market share, diversifying our customer base and expanding geographically. During the quarter, we achieved a historic high of 166.6 MW of solar module shipments, a sequential increase of approximately 50%. Although we expect the average selling price for solar modules to continue to decline in the second quarter, we are confident that we can gain additional market share from our competitors due to our vertical integration, leading cost structure and strengthened brand recognition. For the second quarter, we expect to see an increase of at least 14% in solar module shipments. We continued to diversify our customer base across a range of markets, including the United States and France, while significantly reducing our exposure to Italy from 50% of total module shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 30.7% in the first quarter of 2011."
Medigus and TowerJazz (TSEM) announced successful sampling of the second generation of TowerJazz's CMOS imager that serves in Medigus' line of disposable miniature cameras.
AMD (AMD) introduced the AMD Radeon E6760 embedded discrete graphics processor. Available now, the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU is the first of its kind to offer embedded system designers the combination of OpenCL support along with support for six independent displays.
NextOp Software announced that NVIDIA (NVDA) has signed a multi-license agreement to expand its usage of NextOp's BugScope assertion synthesis product.
07:39 am JA Solar downgraded to Hold at Needham: . Needham downgrades JASO to Hold from Buy saying while they believe visibility should improve going into June, they are concerned that solar cells will continue to see substantial pricing pressure and lower margins throughtout 2011. Longer-term, they believe JASO is well positioned with its high-efficiency offering, but suspect the company will not see the benefits until 2012 and beyond. With the downside risk to estimates, they expect near-term pressure on JASO share price and suggest investors wait on the sideline until visibility improves.
09:43 am JKS Guides Q2 Revs Above Consensus (JKS)
JinkoSolar (JKS $27.31 +0.16) reported first quarter earnings of $2.10 per share, $0.57 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.53.
Revenues rose 290% year-over-year $326.7 million versus the $289.8 million consensus.
For the second quarter, the company see revenues at $330 million to $350 million versus the $346.29 million Thomson Reuters consensus, with shipments of 190-200 MW.
The company reaffirms fiscal year 2011 earnings guidance of $1.40 to $1.50 billion versus the $1.39 billion Thomson Reuters consensus, with shipments of 950-1l MW.
"During the quarter, we exceeded our guidance in terms of revenue and beat expectations for our solar module shipments while continuing to make timely deliveries despite the uncertainty surrounding Italy's solar policies. This helped us maintain strong relationships with our customers in Italy as well as in Germany, strengthening our position as a leading solar module provider in those countries. We also continued to execute on our strategies of growing our market share, diversifying our customer base and expanding geographically. During the quarter, we achieved a historic high of 166.6 MW of solar module shipments, a sequential increase of approximately 50%. Although we expect the average selling price for solar modules to continue to decline in the second quarter, we are confident that we can gain additional market share from our competitors due to our vertical integration, leading cost structure and strengthened brand recognition. For the second quarter, we expect to see an increase of at least 14% in solar module shipments. We continued to diversify our customer base across a range of markets, including the United States and France, while significantly reducing our exposure to Italy from 50% of total module shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 30.7% in the first quarter of 2011." |
