From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : The major averages finished the Tuesday session with solid gains, but outside of a few pockets of considerable relative strength, most sectors could be classified as reluctant participants in the daylong rally. Small caps led the way with the Russell 2000 climbing 1.5% while the S&P 500 advanced 0.7% with nine sectors posting gains.
This morning, equity indices were on track for a lower start to the session, but that changed in a hurry when comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin began making the rounds. Although Mr. Putin did not provide any groundbreaking insight, European markets and equity futures rallied when he said Russia does not want to see a break-up of Ukraine.
The comments also gave a boost to risk sentiment in the foreign exchange market, sending the dollar/yen pair from a morning low of 101.33 to 101.80. Interestingly, the yen weakness was short-lived as the currency pair slid to a fresh session low (101.29) over the next five hours while equity indices built on their opening gains thanks to the outperformance of three heavily-weighted sectors-energy (+0.8%), health care (+1.2%), and technology (+1.4%)-that account for just a shade over 41.0% of the entire S&P 500.
The energy sector drew strength from Dow component Chevron (CVX 116.24, +1.17), which gained 1.0% after being added to the US Focus List at Credit Suisse, while also receiving a boost from the 1.7% gain in crude oil ($99.69/bbl).
Elsewhere, the health care sector was underpinned by companies specializing in biotechnology. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 262.22, +6.75) surged 2.6%, which also factored into the outperformance of the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.
Speaking of the Nasdaq, the index got a big boost from shares of Microsoft (MSFT 39.55, +1.50), which rallied 3.9% in reaction to widespread reports indicating the company will release its Office suite for the Apple (AAPL 531.40, +4.66) iPad.
Strikingly, outside of the three influential sectors, the remaining groups could never catch up with the broader market. Most notably, the financial sector (+0.5%) lagged throughout the session, ending behind most of the remaining growth-sensitive groups.
On the countercyclical side, health care was the only outperformer while consumer staples (+0.2%), utilities (-0.2%), and telecom services (+0.66%) lagged.
Treasuries erased their overnight gains in reaction to the comments from Vladimir Putin, but spent the session in a climb towards the early highs. The benchmark 10-yr yield ended at 2.67% after starting the New York session just north of 2.69%.
Despite the mixed sentiment signals emanating from the foreign exchange, Treasury, and stock markets, participants did not show much demand for volatility protection as indicated by the 7.2% decline in the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 14.52, -1.12).
Trading volume was on the light side for the second day in a row with only 574 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Today's economic data included the February Housing Starts and Building Permits report and February CPI:
- Housing starts fell 0.2% in February to 907,000 from an upwardly revised 909,000 (from 880,000) in January. The Briefing.com consensus expected housing starts to increase to 915,000. After two months where starts surpassed one million, construction levels in January and February returned to their April - October 2013 pace. There wasn't much evidence of significant shocks from winter weather conditions. Building Permits rose to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,018,000, which was better than the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 955,000.
- Consumer prices edged up 0.1% in February after increasing 0.2% in January. The Briefing.com consensus expected the CPI to increase 0.2%. Energy costs, which provided a sizable boost to the PPI, fell 0.5% in February. A 1.7% decline in gasoline prices offset a 3.6% increase in natural gas costs. Food price growth, which had been very low and stable for the past several months, shot up 0.5% in February. That was the largest one-month increase since September 2011. Most of the food components rose more than their long-term trends. That included a 1.2% increase in meats, poultry, fish, and eggs. Excluding food and energy, core CPI increased 0.1% for a third consecutive month in February. That was exactly what the consensus expected.
Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET while the fourth quarter current account balance (Briefing.com consensus -$87.60 billion) will be announced at 8:30 ET. Also of note, the Federal Open Market Committee will conclude its two-day meeting with the latest policy statement scheduled to be released at 14:00 ET. The statement will be followed by Janet Yellen's first press conference as Fed Chair, scheduled to begin at 14:30 ET.
- Russell 2000 +3.8% YTD
- Nasdaq Composite +3.8% YTD
- S&P 500 +1.3% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.5% YTD
DJ30 +88.97 NASDAQ +53.36 SP500 +13.42 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2056/1.82 bln/629 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2368/573.8 mln/706 3:30 pm :
- Precious metals traded lower today following comments from Vladimir Putin, who said Russia does not want to see a break-up of Ukraine and that it wants a partnership with the West. In addition, investors await tomorrow's FOMC decision and Janet Yellen's first press conference as Fed Chief.
- Apr gold extended yesterday's losses, falling to a session low of $1351.10 per ounce in early morning action. Despite trending slightly higher for the remainder of the session, the yellow metal settled with a 1.0% loss at $1359.00 per ounce.
- May silver fell as low as $20.63 per ounce in early morning pit trade and brushed a session high of $20.92 per ounce. It eventually settled at $20.85 per ounce, or 2.0% lower.
- Apr natural gas chopped around in negative territory between $4.45 and $4.50 per MMBtu. Unable to find buying support, it settled with a 1.5% loss at $4.46 per MMBtu.
- Apr crude oil, on the other hand, rose alongside the equities market. It lifted from its session low of $98.16 per barrel set in early morning floor trade and trended higher for the remainder of the session. It settled 1.7% higher at $99.69 per barrel, just below its session high of $99.78 per barrel.
4:30PM Oracle earnigns follow up: ORCL -5% in after hours after missing Q3 earnings estimates ( ORCL) 38.84 +0.62 : Q3 non-GAAP EPS was $0.68 vs. the $0.70 Capital IQ Consensus... Excluding the impact of the US dollar strengthening compared to foreign currencies and excluding Venezuela's exchange loss impact on both reporting periods, Oracle's reported Q3 non-GAAP earnings per share would have been $0.71, up 8%.
4:20PM SolarCity beats by $0.10, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS below consensus ( SCTY) 77.10 +3.40 : Reports Q4 (Dec) loss of $0.46 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.56); reports pre-announced revenues of $47.3 mln (Up 99% YoY).
Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $(0.80)-(0.70), excluding non-recurring items, vs. ($0.49) Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.Co reported preannoucned significant growth in its core business in 2013 with MW Deployed up 78% Y/Y to 280 MW and operating lease revenue growth of 80% Y/Y for the full year Co reports pre-announced Q1 MW deployed of between 78-82 MW, up 74% year-over-year at the midpoint and consistent with its targets for the yearCo reports pre-annuounced guidance for MW deployed of between 475-525 MW. We also continue to expect to generate positive cash flow for the full year 20144:10PM Adobe Systems beats by $0.05, beats on revs; numbers leaked out earlier ( ADBE) 68.52 +0.35 : Reports Q1 (Feb) earnings of $0.30 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.25; revenues fell 0.8% year/year to $1 bln vs the $973.09 mln consensus.
4:02PM Rubicon Tech announces proposed public offering of common stock by selling shareholders ( RBCN) 14.11 +0.32 :
Canaccord Genuity Inc. is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. Co will not receive any proceeds from the sale of common stock by selling stockholders.12:39PM Notable movers of interest ( SCANX) : The following are some of today's most notable movers of interest, categorized by market capitalization (large cap over $10 billion and mid cap between $2-10 billion) and ranked by % change (all stocks over 100K average daily volume).
Large Cap Gainers
HPQ (30.48 +3.39%): Upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays; tgt raised to $38 from $33. MBT (16.75 +3.24%): Reported Q4 results (rev below ests); guided FY14 (rev below ests). FLR (76.42 +1.89%): Initiated with an Outperform at Cowen; tgt $90. Large Cap Losers KORS (96.28 -2.31%): Initiated with an Underweight at Barclays; tgt $85. NEM (25.39 -1.47%): Weakness in select metals/mining stocks (ABX, GG also lower). MHFI (79.42 -1.07%): Co reaffirmed its FY14 guidance; outlined longer-term goals at its Investor Day. Mid Cap Gainers YNDX (32.4 +7.96%): Co purchased Tel Aviv's KitLocate location service technology, according to reports. FDS (113.76 +8.82%): Beat on EPS by $0.02, reported revs in-line; guided Q3 EPS in-line, revs above consensus; co acquired remaining 40% interest in Matrix. EDU (28.84 +6.7%): Co and Tencent (TCEHY) have formed a JV for education, according to reports. Mid Cap Losers CRTO (50.3 -3.86%): Co commenced a public offering of 5.25 mln ADSs, each representing one of Criteo's ordinary shares (525,000 ordinary shares in the form of ADSs by co, 4.725 mln ordinary shares in the form of ADSs by certain existing shareholders). CHH (46.31 -3.92%): Priced secondary offering of 3 mln shares of its common stock by certain selling stockholders at $46.65/share. NDAQ (38.35 -3.47%): Reuters discussed that NY plans probe of high frequency trading (CBOE also lower). 12:06PM New session highs for Nasdaq 100/Comp and small-/mid-caps ( TECHX) : Sectors displaying relative strength on the move to new highs for these indices include: Technology XLK, Semi SMH, Software IGV, Networking IGN, Biotech IBB, Energy XLE, Housing XHB.
12:01PM Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (178) outpacing new lows (23) ( SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ABCB, AGN, AIRT, ALK, ALV, AMKR, AMRI, AR, ASPX, AVA, BAS, BF.B, BKH, BRKR, BRKS, BSTC, BWLD, CAK, CBI, CCE, CENX, CJES, CKSW, CLB, CNL, CODE, CRL, CRVL, CVGW, CVS, CXP, DAVE, DOX, DPZ, DRTX, DST, DXR, ECA, EDE, ELY, EMC, EMES, EPD, EQT, ESLT, ETE, ETFC, EVER, FF, FLML, FNHC, FOE, FSRV, FTR, FUN, GAS, GFN, GIII, GLDC, GLOG, GSM, GTAT, GURE, GVA, GXP, H, HCLP, HELE, HI, HP, HRTX, HTLD, HTM, HZNP, IDN, IDTI, IG, ISBC, ISIL, ISSI, JACK, JE, JVA, KATE, KNDI, KONA, KRNY, LANC, LLL, LOGM, LUV, LXK, MCHP, MDRX, MGPI, MKL, MMC, MMP, MSFT, MTW, MXWL, NEE, NGVC, NOA, NS, NWLI, OMCL, OMN, PAY, PBIO, PCAR, PEB, PES, PFSW, PLL, PLOW, PMC, PNFP, PNM, PNY, POWI, PPBI, PRI, PRTS, PRXL, PSXP, PZZA, QADA, QCOM, QUMU, RCAP, RES, RLYP, RNR, SAFM, SAVE, SGB, SHEN, SIG, SIVB, SLCA, SLP, SNDK, SONC, SPNC, SSL, ST, SUSS, SWN, SXL, TEP, TFX, TOT, TSN, TTWO, TXI, UA, UBNT, UCBI, UGI, UNP, USEG, USMO, UTL, VMW, VNDA, VNET, VOYA, VSB, VTSS, VVC, WEC, WG, WGP, WLB, WLFC, WLP, YDKN
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AMBT, ATE, BODY, CHRW, GGS, GMET, GMO, HMC, HSBC, INTX, KIOR, MCGC, NATR, NEWL, NTLS, NVTL, OIBR, PBR.A, SDRL, SPHS, SUNS, SVM, WRLD
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: COW, DVY, EIS, ENZL, EWI
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: none
8:34AM Apple updates 9.7-inch ipad with retina display, improved cameras & enhanced performance-now available starting at $399 ( AAPL) 526.74 : Co announced iPad with Retina display replaces iPad 2 as the 9.7-inch iPad at $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $529 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
7:33AM MKS Instruments announced it has agreed to purchase the assets of Granville-Phillips, a division of Brooks Automation (BRKS) for $87 million in cash ( MKSI) 30.26 : announced it has agreed to purchase the assets of Granville-Phillips, a division of Brooks Automation (BRKS), for $87 mln in cash. Granville-Phillips is a leading global provider of vacuum measurement and control instruments to the semiconductor, thin film and general industrial markets, with sales of ~ $30 mln in 2013.
"We see the potential for both revenue and cost synergies as we integrate Granville-Phillips into MKS," continued Mr. Colella. "Their profitability and cash flow metrics are aligned with our own operating model, and we expect the acquisition to be accretive to our earnings in 2014. Going forward, with the revenue growth potential that we believe we can achieve with this business, as well as operating synergies to be realized over the next few years, we expect this acquisition to meet or exceed our target return thresholds."
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014.
Entropic (ENTR) announced its System-on-a-Chip solution is powering the world's first hybrid PowerPlug set-top box, the DCP5205 from EKT, a upplier of advanced STB solutions.
Schneider Electric and McAfee, part of Intel Security (INTC), partner to provide cybersecurity solutions for the utility and critical infrastructure market. This collaboration will enable Schneider Electric customers to add tested and certified application whitelisting capabilities in the management of core offerings of water, oil & gas, electric networks and transportation infrastructures. |
