From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm Closing Market Summary: Minimal Movement on Monday (:WRAPX) :
A belated winter storm stirred up an extreme case of the Mondays as investors left the major averages largely unchanged to start the week. The S&P 500 finished the session relatively flat while the Nasdaq (+0.2%) and the Dow (-0.1%) closed on opposite sides of the benchmark index.
Monday's session was range-bound throughout as sectors failed to deviate from their respective flat lines; all eleven closed the day within 0.3% of their unchanged marks.
The energy sector (unch) closed just above its flat line following crude oil's fifth consecutive retreat. However, today's loss for the energy component was relatively small (0.2%), especially in light of the commodity's 8.8% plunge in the latter half of last week, which was in response to a bearish EIA inventory report. WTI crude finished Monday trading at $48.40/bbl.
Chipmakers started the week on a positive note, pushing the PHLX Semiconductor Index higher by 0.8%, following Intel's (INTC 35.16, -0.75) acquisition of Mobileye (MBLY 60.62, +13.35), an Israeli autonomous driving software company. INTC agreed to pay $15.3 billion, or $63.54 per share, in cash for Mobileye, which represents a 34.0% premium over MBLY's closing price on Friday.
The technology sector (+0.1%) profited from the chipmakers' solid performance, finishing the day with the financials (+0.1%), consumer discretionary (+0.2%), materials (+0.3%), utilities (+0.2%), telecom services (+0.2%), and real estate (unch) groups in the green. The remaining sectors--industrials (-0.1%), health care (-0.2%), and consumer staples (-0.1%)--closed with modest losses.
Tomorrow will mark the start of the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (:FOMC) meeting. It's pretty much a given that the Fed will announce a rate hike in its official decision, but the timing of the announcement may be up in the air considering the impending winter storm that is projected to dump eight to twelve inches of snow on Washington D.C. and a foot, or more, on New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia.
The rate hike decision is currently scheduled for 2:00 pm ET on Wednesday, and with no communication from the Fed to indicate otherwise, that is the time investors are still anticipating.
However, regardless of timing, the real focus will be on the Fed's updated rate projections for 2017 and beyond. In its latest set of projections, the Fed forecast three rate hikes in 2017.
Investors did not receive any economic data on Monday. On Tuesday, February PPI (Briefing.com consensus 0.1%) will cross the wires at 8:30 ET.
Nasdaq Composite +9.2% YTD
S&P 500 +6.0% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +5.7% YTD
Russell 2000 +1.0% YTD
After a slow start, the major averages ended Monday split. The Nasdaq Composite was the best performer, up 14.06 points (+0.24%) to 5875.78. The S&P 500 was also on the favorable side of flat lines, albeit up less than a point (+0.04%) to 2373.47, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the lone laggard, shedding 21.50 points (-0.10%) to 20881.48.
Modestly higher today, the Technology (XLK 53.16, +0.05 +0.09%) space finished slightly off highs. Component Intel (INTC 35.16, -0.75 -2.09%) underperformed today following an announcement that the company would purchase Mobileye N.V. (MBLY 60.62, +13.35 +28.24%) for $63.54 per share in cash. Other sectors as measured by the S&P closed xxx.
In the S&P 500 Information Technology (898.61, +1.04 +0.12%) space, trading closed above flat lines as back and forth action all session eventually ended on a positive note. Component Citrix Systems (CTXS 84.93, +5.40 +6.79%) got some higher ticks going into the close on vague, unsubstantiated M&A chatter. Other names in the space which closed higher today included NVDA +2.75%, SYMC +2.40%, MU +2.05%, LRCX +1.49%, CSRA +1.37%, FSLR +1.34%, YHOO +1.28%, APH +1.19%, EA +1.02%, VRSN +1.01%.
Other notable news items among sector components:
Mobileye N.V. (MBLY) confirmed it has agreed to be acquired by Intel (INTC) for $63.54 per share in cash, or about $15.3 billion.
Snap (SNAP 21.09, -0.98 -4.44%) shares were active today following a Re/Code report which detailed the hiring of a former Apple (AAPL 139.20, +0.06 +0.04%) employee who worked on Apple's News app, to improve the Discover section of Snapchat's mobile app.
According to MacRumors, Apple (AAPL) is expected to unveil select new products next week, including iPads.
Symantec (SYMC 30.75, +0.72 +2.40%) entered into accelerated stock repurchase agreements with financial institutions to repurchase an aggregate of $500 million of common stock.
Pandora Media (P 12.38, +0.25 +2.06%) to launch on-demand streaming tier Pandora Premium this week.
Sphere 3D (ANY 0.28, +0.01 +1.79%) guided Q4 revenues worse than market expectations; sees Q4 revenues of $18.7 million. The company is assessing strategic alternatives.
Parkervision (PRKR 2.22, -0.42 -15.91%) announced the filing of a motion to terminate the ITC investigation following ruling to disallow key evidence.
NCR Corp (NCR 43.29, -5.18 -10.69%) entered into an agreement with Blackstone (BX 30.35, +1.41 +4.87%), under which Blackstone is granted an early release from its lockup to sell a portion of its holdings to allow it to recoup its investment. The company also increased its FY17 adj. EPS guidance, reaffirmed its Q1 adj. EPS guidance and increased the 2017 share repurchase plan to about $350 million from the previous $300 million.
Analyst actions:
IT was upgraded to Top Pick from Outperform at RBC Capital Mkts,
FNSR was upgraded to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James,
EQIX was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup,
MRVL and ENTG were upgraded to Buy from Hold at Needham;
MBLY was downgraded to Sell at Dougherty and to Market Perform at William Blair,
INTC was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies,
SSNI was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Williams Capital Group;
ETFC was initiated with a Buy at UBS
AI
