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Technology Stocks : Semi Equipment Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (55879)	4/2/2012 5:43:36 PM
From: Return to Sender	Respond to of 95609

OT: Ah Sam... we are once again on the same page. Guess my wife is going to have to put up with us working a while longer. <VBG> RtS

To: Sam who wrote (55879)	4/3/2012 8:44:02 PM
From: Return to Sender	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95609

From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Weakness among stocks was exacerbated with the release of the most recent FOMC meeting minutes, which contained some surprisingly hawkish verbiage, but stocks were able to pare their losses in late afternoon trade. Limited leadership and weakness among Energy and Financial stocks left the broad market to drift lower in morning and early afternoon trade. Selling intensified once it was learned that that members of the Federal Open Market Committee took the collective position that forward guidance is conditional on economic developments, making dates for policy subject to revision in response to significant changes in the economic outlook. Although this mindset should not have come as a surprise, many market participants turned against stocks because of the belief that further quantitative easing may not be as probable as previously thought. The S&P 500 traded down to a loss of about 1%, which put it in line with its prior session low, before it was able to find support. Stocks then spent the final 90 minutes slashing losses. The Nasdaq was able to hold up better than either of its counterparts for the duration of the day. Although it still logged a modest loss, it was propped up by Apple (AAPL 629.32, +10.69). Already the largest stock by market cap, shares of AAPL logged a new record high in response to positive analyst commentary. The stock is now up a whopping 55% year to date. The idea of fewer dollars in circulation provided a catalyst for the dollar to trade higher after it had been essentially flat all morning. By day's end it was up 0.7% against a basket of major foreign currencies. The confluence of the FOMC's hawkish tone and the gain by the greenback took most commodities sharply lower. The CRB Index logged a 0.5% loss, but that didn't capture the dive in precious metals prices, which closed pit trade before the FOMC minutes were released. Treasuries were also cut down aggressively. The action swung the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note up to almost 2.29% after it had traded only narrowly above 2.15% this morning. Actual data was limited today, but factory orders increased by 1.3%, which is on par with the 1.4% increase that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Britain posted its best PMI Construction number since 2010 and China's PMI Services reading set a six-month high. Advancing Sectors: Utilities +0.1% Declining Sectors: Telecom -0.1%, Consumer Discretionary -0.1%, Tech -0.1%, Health Care -0.1%, Industrials -0.6%, Consumer Staples -0.6%, Financials -0.7%, Materials -0.9%, Energy -1.0%DJ30 -64.94 NASDAQ -6.13 NQ100 -0.1% R2K -0.7% SP400 +0.3% SP500 -5.66 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 769/1.79 bln/1768 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1057/816 mln/1942 5:03PM O2Micro's driving circuit invention granted U.S. patent (OIIM) 5.48 -0.02 : Co was issued 18 claims under United States patent number 8,044,608 for its Driving Circuit invention. O2Micro's patented invention includes a dimming controller to drive light sources. User-controlled brightness allows the end-user to set their desired level of brightness in LEDs. 5:02PM SanDisk extends losses after cutting Q1 revenue guidance and fell as low as $46.40, down 7.3%; stock is now at $47.00 (SNDK) 50.05 +0.45 : 4:46PM SanDisk lowers Q1 revs guidance to ~$1.2 bln vs $1.3 bln Capital IQ Consensus, down from $1.3-1.35 bln; lowers gross margin guidance (SNDK) 50.05 +0.45 : Co lowers Q1 revenue guidance due to weaker than expected pricing and demand, the co estimates total revenue to be ~$1.2 billion, down from the previously forecasted revenue range of $1.30-1.35 bln. Total gross margin is also expected to be below the previously guided range of 39% to 42%. SanDisk will release its first-quarter financial results and provide business commentary at its earnings conference call to be held on April 19, 2012. 4:02PM Vishay announces amendment to credit agreement and incremental facility agreement to increase credit agreement total commitment to $528 mln (VSH) 11.91 -0.06 : Co has received incremental revolving commitments in the aggregate principal amount of $78 mln, increasing the total credit facility commitment to $528 mln. The incremental revolving commitments have terms and conditions identical to the terms and conditions of the existing commitments under the credit facility. The other terms and conditions of the credit facility were unchanged. HP (HPQ) Enterprise Services announced it has been selected by the U.S. Army to provide the DoD and other federal agencies with enterprise cloud computing services under the Army Private Cloud contract. The APC2 is an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract award with a $249 mln ceiling over a one-year base period and four one-year options. 7:45AM Apple: AAPL ticks to new all-time highs @ 624.39 in premarket trade following multiple broker price target increases; AAPL now printing 623.00 (AAPL) 618.63 : ARM (ARMH), Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient announced the creation of a joint venture that will focus on improving security for smart connected devices by developing a Trusted Execution Environment based on ARM TrustZone security technology. 10:16 am Technology sector trading higher today and is ahead of broader market The tech sector is trading higher today, ahead of losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness in the tech space, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading 0.4% lower. WFR (-3.8%) is a notable laggard in the chip index, while AVGO (+0.6%) is bucking the trend. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.1% lower today, while the QQQ is 0.4% higher and the NASDAQ is trading 0.2% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+1.8%) is showing strength, while MSFT (-0.8%) is under pressure. In earnings last night, CAVM (+3.5%) reported that Q1 results will come in lower than expected. In news last night, GWRE (-2.8%) and SBAC (-1.5%) both filed stock offerings. Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, Stifel Nicolaus upgrades GPN (+1.0%) to Buy. Also, Piper Jaffray says AAPL (+1.8%) will reach $1000 in 2014 and become first $1 trln company. While in downgrades, VOD (-0.6%) was downgraded to Neutral at Davenport. Also, there is a negative Forbes report out on QIHU (-12.0%). There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report results today after the close.