From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Equities began today's session on a lower note. However, the major averages followed the lower open with a steady climb towards session highs. The optimism held the S&P 500 near the 1,385 level for the majority of the session, before late day selling pushed it back into the red. As a result the benchmark average settled lower by 0.4%.
Consumer discretionary stocks outperformed after four retailers reported earnings. Michael Kors (KORS 50.98, +0.40) advanced 0.8% after beating on earnings and revenue. The company reported earnings of $0.49, which was $0.09 better than the Capital IQ consensus estimate. Meanwhile, the revenue of $532.9 million was also ahead of expectations. The company's outlook was mixed as it sees full-year 2013 earnings above consensus, while revenue is forecast to fall short of estimates.
Saks (SKS 9.92, +0.04) added 0.4% after reporting earnings of $0.12, which was in-line with the Capital IQ consensus estimate. However, the company's revenue of $713 million missed expectations. Regarding its outlook, the company said it expects fourth quarter comparable store sales to be relatively flat year-over-year.
TJX (TJX 42.06, +1.09) gained 2.7% after beating on the top line, and reporting earnings in-line with expectations. Note that the company issued downside guidance as it expects fourth quarter earnings to fall below analyst expectations.
Home Depot (HD 63.38, +2.22) rose by 3.6% after reporting upbeat earnings. During the third quarter, the home improvement store operator earned $0.74 on $18.13 billion in revenue. Both figures were ahead of the Capital IQ consensus estimate. In addition to reporting strong earnings, Home Depot raised its guidance as it sees an uptick in the housing recovery. While the management expects strong future results, shares of Home Depot have been pricing in the news for quite some time. The stock has added over 52% since the beginning of this year.
The technology sector underperformed the broader market. Semiconductor shares contributed to the weakness as the PHLX Semiconductor Index settled lower by 1.0%.
Elsewhere in technology, Microsoft (MSFT 27.08, -0.90) lost 3.2% after announcing the departure of Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky. Following Mr. Sinofsky's departure, Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering.
In the materials sector, AK Steel (AKS 4.50, -0.96) issued downside fourth quarter guidance. After reducing its earnings expectations for the current quarter, the company expects to report a loss between $0.34 and $0.39. Meanwhile, the Capital IQ consensus called for a loss of $0.19. In addition to the downside guidance, AK Steel announced a registered offering of 25 million shares of its common stock. Also of note, the company has commenced a private offering of $350 million in senior secured notes. Shares of AK Steel slid 17.6% following the news and other steel producers are seeing mixed performance. United States Steel (X 21.31, -0.22) shed 1.0% while Worthington Industries (WOR 21.93, +0.83) advanced 3.9%.
The October Treasury Budget showed a $120 billion deficit, which was wider than the deficit of $113 billion expected by the Briefing.com consensus.
Looking at tomorrow's economic data, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET. In addition, October retail sales, retail sales ex-auto, PPI, and core PPI will all be announced at 8:30 ET. Lastly, September business inventories and the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee minutes will hit the wires at 10:00 ET and 14:00 ET, respectively.DJ30 -58.90 NASDAQ -20.37 SP500 -5.50 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 805/1.74 bln/1668 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 979/676.3 mln/2080
3:30 pm : Commodities began the mixed and ended the day mixed. Natural gas probably the most consistent mover today as it just continued to climb higher and higher.
Dec natural gas futures traded sideways overnight, but gained buying interest around 7:20am ET when nat gas was just below $3.60. The energy component rose as high as $3.74 today and finished the day 5% higher at that high of $3.74.
Crude oil was more choppy and spent almost all session in negative territory. Crude gained steam mid-morning and temporarily surged into positive territory, almost hitting the $86 mark. However, crude rose as high as $85.95.
Precious metals rallied sharply this morning to the current session highs. But from there, both gold and silver slowly inched lower finishing slightly lower.DJ30 -14.63 NASDAQ -12.40 SP500 -1.07 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 886/1443.4 mln/1547 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1098/466 mln/1939
4:09PM Cisco Systems beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line ( CSCO) 16.85 -0.01 : Reports Q1 (Oct) earnings of $0.48 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.46; revenues rose 5.5% year/year to $11.88 bln vs the $11.78 bln consensus.
- Cash flows from operations were $2.5 billion for Q1, compared with $2.3 billion for 1Q12, and compared with $3.1 billion for 4Q12.
- Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $45.0 billion at the end of Q1, compared with $48.7 billion at the end of 4Q12.
- Cisco repurchased 15 million shares of common stock under the stock repurchase program at an average price of $16.44 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $253 million. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under this program is ~$5.6 billion with no termination date.
Co will guide for Q2 EPS and rev on the conf. call at 4:30.
Plexus (PLXS) announced that it has received ISO 13485 certification at its San Jose, CA facility. ISO 13485 is an international standard containing requirements for establishing and maintaining quality management systems for medical devices.
7:25AM Arch Coal announced it has commenced a private offering of $350 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2019 ( ACI) 7.37 : Co also announced that it has launched a $250 million incremental, senior secured term loan due 2018, pursuant to an uncommitted accordion provision in the company's existing revolving credit agreement. Completion of the new term loan offering would reduce the size of the company's revolving credit facility to $350 million from $600 million. Concurrent with the term loan offering, Arch announced that it has commenced a private offering of $350 million in senior unsecured notes due 2019.
Analog Devices (ADI) introduced the industry's smallest isolated DC-to-DC converters.
Xyratex (XRTX) announced that it is working with HP (HPQ) to install its ClusterStor High Performance Computing data storage solution at a U.S. federal government site.
RF Micro Devices (RFMD) announced that RFMD has production released two highly linear gallium nitride RF unmatched power transistors.
12:38AM Microsoft announces leadership changes to drive next wave of products ( MSFT) 28.22 : Co announces that Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky will be leaving the co and that Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller retains her roles as chief financial officer and chief marketing officer and will assume responsibility for the business of Windows. Both executives will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Xerox (XRX $6.45 +0.12) issued guidance for the fourth quarter with EPS of $0.33-0.35, ex-$0.05 restructuring charge, may not be comparable to $0.33 Capital IQ consensus. The company issued in-line guidance for fiscal year 2013 with EPS of $1.09-1.15, excluding non-recurring items, versus the $1.11 consensus and with rev flat to +2% YoY (consensus +1.3%). Through its cash-generating annuity rev, Xerox expects operating cash flow of $2.1 billion to $2.4 billion in 2013. Building on its share repurchase plan, the co's board of directors approved a $1 billion increase to the current authorization. Xerox expects to allocate at least $400 million in cash for share repurchase next year, adding to the $900 million to $1.1 billion in stock buyback planned for this year. In addition, subject to approval from its board of directors, the co will increase its dividend by 35 percent to 5.75 cents per quarter, beginning with the dividend payable on April 30, 2013.
Trina Solar (TSL $3.65 +0.00) target lowered to $4 from $6 at Ardour Capital. Firm notes they are lowering estimates on weak 3Q12 volume and gross margin preannouncement as they highlight weakened European demand, oversupply and global trade war continue to impact the solar industry. They now forecast net losses through 2013, but believe the stock will remain under pressure in the current supply and demand environment.
11:04 am Tech Sector trading near the unchanged mark in early trade
The tech sector is trading lower today, trailing gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness as well with the SOX trading 0.4% lower. Within the chip index, POWI (-2.5%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.2% higher today, while the QQQ is down 0.2% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.3% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, QCOM (+1.3%) is showing strength.
In tech earnings this morning, VOD (-2.3%) slightly missed 1H13 ests and guided to the upper half of its prior range. Also, XRX (+1.7%) guided inline and raised its buyback and dividend. In news, the head of MSFT's (-3.2%) Windows division left the company. FB's (-1.4%) lockup of 1.2 bln shares expires tomorrow. Among rumors, there is chatter of GOOG (-0.3%) for PAY (-2.3%) making the rounds. In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, SSYS (+1.1%) was upgraded to Overweight at Piper Jaffray, FFIV (+1.8%) was upgraded to Buy at Goldman, and FIO (+3.2%) was upgraded to Buy at Craig Hallum. Among downgrades, SCOR (-2.4%) was downgraded to Underperform at Raymond James. CSCO (-0.5%) is the notable name in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close. |
