From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The stock market's third straight tumble has it down more than 3% this week. The downward path comes as participants revert to a negative bias bolstered by the absence of progress related to the improvement of Europe's precarious conditions.
For three straight days the path of least resistance for stocks has been downward. Negative sentiment has been induced by a muddled and tenuous macro outlook. Moreover, participants are growing weary of the lack of progress by Europe's leaders in restoring economic and financial conditions in both the core and periphery of the continent. That has provided fodder for rumors of further sovereign debt downgrades in the region.
Dwindling confidence in the region has the euro on a downward path. It dropped to an 11-month low, before stabilizing and finishing the session with a 0.4% loss at $1.298.
Efforts to pare risk extended to commodities, causing the CRB Index to drop 3.4%. The CRB hasn't had such a poor performance since September. Among the more closely tracked commodities, gold futures prices fell 4.6% to settle at $1587.70 per ounce, while silver futures prices were pressed to $28.86 per ounce for a 7.6% loss. Crude oil ended down 5.2% at $94.95 per barrel -- a smaller-than-expected weekly inventory draw didn't help.
The combination of sharply lower oil prices and broad market weakness made energy plays today's poorest performers. The sector slid almost to a loss of almost 3%. Everything from exploration plays to drillers to refiners were caught up in the sector's sell-off.
Benefiting from the drop in oil prices, airline shares ascended in the face of broad market weakness. Meanwhile, financials managed to limit losses to a collective decline of only 0.3%, despite the possible implications if problems in Europe persist, let alone worsen.
Treasuries extended their gains. Another strong auction helped. Results from an offering of 30-year Bonds drew a bid-to-cover of 3.05, dollar demand of $39.7 billion, and an indirect bidder rate of 32.5%. For comparison, an average of the past six auctions gives a bid-to-cover of 2.62, dollar demand of $36.4 billion, and indirect bidder participation of 31.6%.
Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Health Care -0.2%, Financials -0.3%, Consumer Staples -0.5%, Telecom -0.6%, Utilities -0.8%, Industrials -1.1%, Consumer Discretionary -1.2%, Materials -1.2%, Tech -1.7%, Energy -2.7%DJ30 -131.46 NASDAQ -39.96 NQ100 -1.6% R2K -1.3% SP400 -1.6% SP500 -13.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 902/1.78 bln/1672 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 844/929 mln/2195
5:52PM Novellus pops ~$3.55 to $38.25 following news that Lam Research (LRCX) will buy NVLS (NVLS) :
5:51PM Novellus to be purchased by Lam Research (LRCX); Based on the closing price of LRCX's stock on Dec 14, 2011, the transaction values NVLS at a price of $44.42/common share (NVLS) 34.70 -0.61 : LRCX announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Novellus Systems (NVLS) in an all-stock transaction valued at ~$3.3 billion. The combined enterprise, which will retain the name of Lam Research Corp., will be a semiconductor equipment co with a broad portfolio of market-leading products and multiple opportunities to drive value creation through significant revenue and cost synergies. Total cost synergies are expected to be ~$100 million on an annualized basis by the fourth quarter of 2013. In addition, Lam announced a $1.6 billion common stock repurchase program. This new program, which replaces Lam's existing share repurchase program, is targeted to be executed over the 12 months following the close of the transaction. Lam expects the transaction to be accretive to its non-GAAP earnings within one year after transaction close. Under the terms of the agreement, Novellus stockholders will receive 1.125 shares of Lam Research common stock for each share of Novellus that they own, in a tax-free exchange. Based on the closing price of Lam's stock on December 14, 2011, the transaction values Novellus at a price of $44.42 per common share. Upon closing, Lam and Novellus stockholders will own approximately 59 percent and 41 percent, respectively, of the combined company.
O2Micro International (OIIM) was issued 18 claims under United States patent number 8,040,341 for its Brightness Control System.
7:14AM First Solar lowers FY11 sales and EPS guidance below consensus; issues downside FY12 revenue guidance; issues FY12 EPS guidance (FSLR) 42.57 : Co lowers guidance for FY11 (Dec), sees EPS of $5.75-6.00 vs. $6.50-$7.50 prior guidance vs. $6.85 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY11 (Dec) revs of $2.8-2.9 bln vs. $3.0-3.3 bln prior guidance vs $3.18 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co issues guidance for FY12 (Dec), sees EPS of $3.75-4.25, may not be comparable to $7.20 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY12 (Dec) revs of $3.7-4.0 bln vs. $4.11 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. The primary reason for the revised 2011 guidance is continued delays of certain projects in First Solar's systems business due to weather and other factors. Not included in the revised guidance are expected charges related to a series of initiatives to accelerate operating cost reductions and improve overall operating efficiency, the majority of which the Company expects to incur in the current quarter. These charges include up to $0.75 per fully diluted share of impairment and associated charges primarily related to certain equipment, and a severance charge of up to $0.10 per fully diluted share related to a workforce reduction of approximately 100 associates, less than 1.5% of First Solar's workforce. "Our diverse business model and robust project pipeline will help First Solar generate a significant amount of cash in 2012 while improving operational efficiencies, but we are recalibrating our business to focus on building and serving sustainable markets rather than pursuing subsidized markets," (stock is halted)
6:00AM Powerwave files lawsuit against Microelectronics Technology for patent infringement (PWAV) 1.92 : Co announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Microelectronics Technology and MTI Laboratory in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division. The suit alleges that MTI is infringing US Patent 6,818,477 entitled "Method of Mounting a Component in an Edge Plated Hole Formed in a Printed Circuit Board." The suit further alleges that MTI is making, using, selling, offering for sale and/or importing communications products such as Remote Radio Heads which contain circuit boards that embody the inventions claimed in US Patent 6,818,477 owned by Powerwave Technologies.
NVIDIA (NVDA) announced that BGI, the world's largest genomics institute, has slashed the time to analyze batches of DNA sequencing data from nearly four days to just six hours using a NVIDIA Tesla GPU-based server farm.
09:25 am Volterra Semi downgraded to Buy at Needham; tgt lowered to $28: . Needham downgrades VLTR to Buy from Strong Buy and lowers their tgt to $28 from $29 given the recent recovery in VLTR shares they revisited their thesis and fine tuned their model by making slight reductions to their aggressive Q1 2012 estimates.
10:57 am S&P Tech Sector Down 1.5%
The tech sector is trading lower today, trailing lesser losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative strength in the tech space, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading only 0.7% lower. BRCM (+4.8%) is a standout following upside guidance, while RBCN (-4.1) is a notable laggard in the chip index. Among other major indices, the S&P 500 is trading 0.7% lower, while the NASDAQ is trading 1.3% lower and the QQQ is 1.2% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, CSCO (-2.3%) is a notable underperformer.
In earnings last night, SQNS (-29.6%) lowered guidance well below consensus. This morning, BRCM (+4.8%) raised Q4 guidance above consensus.
Among rumors, we are hearing GOOG (-0.8%) for IDCC (+1.1%) making the rounds.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, APKT (-2.6%) was upgraded to Outperform at Morgan Keegan and RCI (0.0%) was upgraded to Outperform at RBC Capital. Also, EBAY (-0.7%) was resumed with a Buy at Goldman and added to its Conviction Buy List. Among downgrades, ADTN (-2.1%) was downgraded to Hold at Jefferies, ACOM (-6.1%) was downgraded to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley, and Needham downgraded VLTR (-3.1%) to Buy.
Hope you own a bunch of NVLS right now Bob! RtS |
