From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : Today marked the beginning of a new week for the stock market, yet the story played out much the same way it did last week. Long-term rates continued to rise, the stock market continued to sink, and trading volume remained light.
The major averages were mixed and little changed for much of the session, but they broke down in late trading as the technology sector gave up its leadership post and other sectors bowed to selling interest.
There wasn't a specific news catalyst for the late-day breakdown, which led some to conclude it was a function of technical factors at work. Whatever one's view is, it was especially clear today that, outside of some specific stocks, buyers didn't want much to do with the market.
The stocks that benefited were familiar names like Boeing (BA 104.72, +1.25), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 90.45, +1.08), Google (GOOG 868.65, +8.74), and Apple (AAPL 507.74, +5.41). Intel (INTC 22.28, +0.37) also found itself on the relative strength list following a Piper Jaffray upgrade to Neutral from Underweight and a positive mention in Barron's.
There wasn't a lot of corporate news to chew on today nor were there any economic releases in the US to digest. That helped explain why volume was light with just 640 mln shares trading at the NYSE.
Some distress in emerging markets, namely Indonesia where the Jakarta Composite declined 5.6%, proved to be a deterrent for participants along with the understanding that the minutes for the July 30-31 FOMC meeting will be released on Wednesday while the Kansas City Fed's Jackson Hole Symposium will get underway on Thursday.
Some anxiousness about what might be heard in the minutes and at the symposium kept pressure on the benchmark 10-yr note whose high yield today stopped just short of 2.90% before settling at 2.88%. The latter is up 30 basis points from the start of last week. The move is seen by some as the market discounting the prospect of a tapering announcement at the September 17-18 FOMC meeting, yet some rumblings are starting to be heard that it might also reflect concern that the Fed has lost control of things.
Undoubtedly, the path long-term interest rates take will be key in determining whether the stock market is going to continue to trade lower or whether it is going to show the buy-the-dip moxie it has been known for since the March 2009 lows.
The rate-sensitive financial sector (-1.3%) was a notable laggard all day and a major drag on the broader market along with the energy sector (-1.5%). The latter got clipped by yet another day of losses for ExxonMobil (XOM 86.92, -0.99), which declined for the 18th time in the last 20 sessions. The financial sector was hurt by a report JPMorgan Chase (JPM 51.83, -1.46) is being investigated for its hiring practices in China and a Wall Street Journal article suggesting the sector could fall out of favor in the wake of a tapering decision.
Other rate-sensitive areas like the high dividend-yielding utilities (-0.8%) and telecom services (-0.8%) sectors also underperformed the market. The home building stocks were among the weakest performers today with losses ranging between 3-5%. The iShares US Home Construction ETF (ITB 20.68, -0.67) fell 3.1%.
On the flip side, volatility was a notable area of strength. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 15.18, +0.81) surged 5.6% and is now up 28% over the last two weeks. Over the same period the S&P 500 has declined 3.6%.
There are no economic releases out of the US on Tuesday, so the market will be fixated early on the performance of foreign markets, the direction of interest rates, and the earnings results and guidance from Home Depot (HD 75.21, -0.17), Best Buy (BBY 30.73, +0.36), J.C. Penney (JCP 13.22, -0.18) and TJX Cos. (TJX 50.75, +0.27).
[Note: a prior version indicated China is investigating JPMorgan Chase for its hiring practices when it should have read JPMorgan Chase is being investigated for its hiring practices in China. The comment has been edited to correct that error] DJ30 -70.73 NASDAQ -13.69 SP500 -9.77 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 761/1.39 bln/1777 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 580/640 mln/2502
3:30 pm : Sep crude oil fell for the first time in seven sessions, dipping as low as $106.56 per barrel. The energy component briefly climbed into positive territory to a session high of $107.80 per barrel but reversed back into the red. It settled 0.4% lower at $107.07 per barrel.
Natural gas, on the other hand, rose to a session high of $3.50 per MMBtu. Despite slightly pulling-back, it booked a 2.7% gain as it closed at $3.46 per MMBtu.
Dec gold fell for the first time in four sessions as it retreated from a session high of $1375.00 per ounce set in early morning pit trade. It dipped to a session low of $1362.00 per ounce and settled with a 0.4% loss at $1365.80 per ounce.
4:00PM Plexus announces $30 mln share repurchase program ( PLXS) 34.24 -0.33 : Co announced that its Board of Directors has approved a new stock repurchase program under which the Company is authorized to repurchase up to $30 million of its common stock during fiscal 2014. The planned repurchase represents approximately 3% of current market capitalization and is expected to be funded with existing cash.
9:01AM Riverbed Technology expands stock repurchase program; increases authorized share repurchase by $200 million; total program now at $500 million ( RVBD) 16.63 :
Marvell (MRVL) announced that Yulong Coolpad launched new Android-based Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access smartphones for China Mobile (CHL) and China Unicom (CHU), with over a billion total subscribers, powered by the Marvell ARMADA Mobile unified quad-core single-chip solution.
HP (HPQ) - HP Autonomy announced Autonomy LinkSite, a hybrid cloud solution that integrates HP Autonomy WorkSite, an on-premises document and email management system with HP Flow CM, HP's public cloud file sharing and collaboration service.
Veeco Instruments (VECO) introduced the GENxplor Molecular Beam Epitaxy Deposition System, the industry's first fully-integrated MBE system for the compound semiconductor R&D market.
7:03AM TranSwitch announces voluntary delisting from NASDAQ ( TXCC) 0.34 : Co announced its intention to voluntarily delist its common stock from the NASDAQ Stock Market, in part due to the Company's non-compliance with the minimum closing bid and stockholders' equity requirements for continued listing on The NASDAQ Capital Market.
6:58AM TranSwitch announces agreement to raise $2.5 million in private placement ( TXCC) 0.34 : Co announced that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement with Ilex Partners an entity managed by Michael Steinhardt, pursuant to which the Company has agreed to sell an aggregate of ~9.8 mln shares of its common stock for total gross proceeds of $2.5 mln. In connection with the transaction, Ilex agreed to surrender the warrant to purchase common stock it holds in exchange for an additional ~900,000 shares of the Company's common stock. The Company also granted to Ilex the right, for a period ending on the earlier of 180 days or one business day prior to the occurrence of a change of control event, to purchase an additional approximately 9.8 mln shares of its common stock for an additional $2.5 mln.
JA Solar Holdings (JASO) announced that its p-type mono-crystalline silicon solar cells, a new family of high-performance solar cells dubbed "PERCIUM," have surpassed 20% conversion efficiency.
10:40 am Technology Sector +1.5% trading higher today and outpacing the broader market
The tech sector is trading higher today, ahead of gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing only modest strength with the SOX trading 0.1% higher. Within the chip index, INTC (+3.3%) is a notable standout. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.1% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.6% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.4% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, INTC (+3.3%) is showing notable strength, while T (-0.6%) is under pressure.
There were no notable tech earnings this morning. In news, Z (-4.7%) announces it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire StreetEasy, a real estate website in New York City, for $50 mln in cash. Also, RVBD (-0.6%) expanded its stock repurchase program and increased its authorized share repurchase by $200 million. Among notable analyst upgrades in tech this morning, INTC (+3.3%) was upgraded to Neutral at Piper. In downgrades, TRLA (-4.6%) was downgraded to Sector Perform at RBC, RVBD (-0.6%) was downgraded to Mkt Perform at JMP, and JCOM (-0.9%) was downgraded to Neutral at Sidoti. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report after the close.
NYSE NASDAQ |
| Advances | 813 (19%) | 754 (29%) | | Declines | 3,309 (79%) | 1,768 (68%) | | Unchanged | 74 (2%) | 82 (3%) | | Up Vol* | 548 (17%) | 386 (28%) | | Down Vol* | 2,638 (82%) | 956 (69%) | | Unch. Vol* | 15 (0%) | 53 (4%) | | New Hi's | 45 | 74 | | New Lo's | 468 | 73 |
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