From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : 4:16PM Microchip lowers Q1 EPS guidance below cosnensus, citing multiple reasons for broad-based weakness; sees Q2 rev down QoQ (Halted -- will resume trading at 16:35) (MCHP) 37.48 -0.39 : Co lowers Q1 non-GAAP EPS guidance to $0.53-0.55 from $0.58-0.62 vs $0.60 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Our net sales activity in the June quarter did not progress as we originally expected. We are seeing broad-based weakness in our business due to a number of factors. In the June quarter, our automotive business was down significantly from the March 2011 quarter due to lower automotive production activities including supply issues from other manufacturers associated with the earthquake in Japan. We also believe that some of the revenue upside that we saw in the March 2011 quarter was the result of customers being cautious and accelerating purchasing activities to minimize supply chain disruptions. Therefore, we believe we were also impacted by the correction of that inventory in the June 2011 quarter. Additionally, our consumer business was soft due to poorer global economic conditions including high unemployment, high oil prices and the resulting low consumer confidence. The computing portion of our business was also lower than our expectations as we saw reduced purchases by multiple large customers in this sector... We are cautiously modeling our September quarter rev to be QoQ down by low to mid single digits [consensus calls for +3% QoQ off higher Q2 base]... At the end of the June and September quarters, our inventory is expected to be in the 120 to 130 day range, which is acceptable to us and will enable us to keep our lead times short and help us be more competitive in our markets."
4:08PM Novellus beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line (NVLS) 35.77 -0.20 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.79 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.77; revenues rose 9.0% year/year to $350.2 mln vs the $352.1 mln consensus. Bookings in Q2 of 2011 were $311.6 million, down $103.5 million or 24.9% from Q1 2011 bookings of $415.1 million. Second quarter shipments of $359.3 million were down $17.6 million or 4.7% from $376.9 million in Q1 2011.
4:08PM Alcoa misses by $0.01, beats on revs; reaffirms global aluminum demand projections (AA) 15.91 -0.47 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.32 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.33; revenues rose 27.0% year/year to $6.59 bln vs the $6.34 bln consensus. The sequential increase in income from continuing operations was driven by higher quarterly revenue (up 11%), higher alumina shipments (up 8%), and higher realized pricing for both alumina (up 7%) and aluminum (up 6%), along with improved productivity and continued strong growth in major markets served by mid- and down-stream businesses. This was somewhat offset by a weaker U.S. dollar, along with higher energy and materials costs. Looking ahead, Alcoa projects continued growth in all major end markets on a global basis, including aerospace (7%), automotive (4-8%), commercial transportation (7-12%), packaging (2-3%), building and construction (1-3%), and industrial gas turbines (5-10%). For the year, Alcoa projects aluminum demand to grow 12% on top of the 13% growth seen in 2010. Alcoa projects that, from a 2010 baseline, aluminum demand will double by 2020 on 6.5% annual growth. "Although the economic recovery is uneven, the overall outlook for Alcoa - and for aluminum - remains positive. Demand for aluminum continues to rise and so does growth in our major markets. These factors support our projection that aluminum demand will grow 12% this year and will double by 2020."
Market Close Recap: The near 2% drop suffered by the stock market this session was its worst single-day decline in more than a month. The aggressive sell-off came in response to concerns that the European Union is struggling to help countries in its periphery restore their financial health.
An emergency meeting during the weekend stirred speculation that European Union officials may be considering including Italy in any new bailout packages. Concerns about Italy's financial health began to intensify last week, as evidenced by the spike in yields there.
Worry that the EU remains so far from resolving the threats of countries in the region's periphery sank many of Europe's major bourses. Both France's CAC and Germany's DAX dropped more than 2% in their latest round of trade. Italy's FTSE fell 4%.
Such weakness imbued domestic stocks and prompted participants to sell any gains that they had scored during the course of the past couple of weeks. In turn, the broad-based S&P 500 dropped precipitously. It didn't really secure any support until it came into close contact with its 50-day simple moving average just below the 1320 line.
Financials fell the hardest. The sector's near 3% tumble came amid weakness in banks, insurers, and diversified financial services alike. Only a handful of stocks in the sector were able to limit their losses to less than 1%.
All 30 Dow components settled in the red. Alcoa (AA 15.92, -0.46) was one of the poorest performers ahead of its quarterly report, which marks the unofficial start to earnings season. A few other blue chips will report quarterly results later this week, but announcements won't begin in earnest for several more days.
The Dollar Index hit its best level since March as traders dumped the euro in pursuit of the relative safety offered by the greenback. At the end of the day the dollar was quoted with a 1.2% gain against a basket of competing currencies.
Gold had attracted strong buying interest in the early going, but the precious metal had to fight to settle with a gain. After gold prices had been up by about 1%, they retreated to the neutral line. The precious metal was able to rebound to $1549 per ounce for a 0.5% gain on the day.
Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Financials -2.8%, Materials -2.1%, Energy -2.0%, Consumer Discretionary -2.0%, Industrials -1.8%, Tech -1.8%, Health Care -1.4%, Telecom -1.1%, Utilities -1.1%, Consumer Staples -0.7%DJ30 -151.44 NASDAQ -57.19 NQ100 -1.8% R2K -2.2% SP400 -2.2% SP500 -24.31 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 456/1.79 bln/2178 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 427/829 mln/2594
Novellus Systems (NVLS) announced the VECTOR CFD family of films for the company's VECTOR Express, VECTOR Extreme and VECTOR Excel plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition systems.
PMC-Sierra (PMCS) announced the industry's first true hardware 6Gb/s SATA/SAS RAID controllers with on-board DRAM cache for the entry-level market segment.
Sino IC Technology selected the Teradyne (TER) UltraFLEX to test RF, baseband and broadband devices.
j2 Global Communications (JCOM) announced that it has acquired Data Haven and the virtual PBX business of Buzz Networks. Terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed and the financial impact to j2 Global is not expected to be material. Solid State Supplies has extended its UK and Ireland distribution agreement with Microsemi (MSCC) to include the co's low-power and mixed-signal FPGAs.
09:33 am Aeroflex downgraded to Perform at Oppenheimer following last night's guidance cut: . Oppenheimer downgrades ARX to Perform from Outperform following yesterday's negative pre-announcement. Aeroflex shares have performed well since the November 2010 IPO, up 38% vs. the SOX 9%, and with shares nearing their prior $20 target, they are stepping to the side. Updated F4Q guidance of $198-200 mln vs. prior $220-228 mln was negatively impacted by approval delays for a multi-million dollar US govt radio contract. Following two consecutive quarters of light revenues, they anticipate this miss to weigh on ARX shares at the open and keep them range-bound for at least the immediate future. |
