From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The stock market endured a quiet session that had the S&P 500 confined to a seven-point range. The benchmark index shed 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.3%) and Nasdaq Composite (-0.3%) followed not far behind. Small caps, however, saw some additional weakness as the Russell 2000 lost 0.5%.
All in all, it is worth pointing out that today's lack of aggressive selling or buying followed four consecutive advances that sent the S&P 500 higher by 2.1%. Furthermore, there was no concerted leadership as the top-weighted sectors ended the day in the red. On that note, consumer discretionary (-0.1%), financials (-0.3%), health care (-0.3%), and technology (-0.3%) all struggled to keep pace with the S&P 500.
The discretionary sector had the best showing of the four after seeing some volatility among retailers and homebuilders. In the retail space, Brown Shoe (BWS 29.34, +2.90), and Michael Kors (KORS 97.01, +1.27) posted respective gains of 10.8% and 1.3% after beating earnings estimates, while Chico's FAS (CHS 15.14, -0.47) missed estimates. The stock fell 3.0%, while the overall industry group did not fare much better. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 82.93, -0.77) lost 0.9%.
Also of note, homebuilders displayed intraday strength following above-consensus quarterly results from Toll Brothers (TOL 36.38, +0.74). Shares of TOL jumped 2.1%, while the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB 24.03, -0.04) surrendered its modest gain just ahead of the close.
Elsewhere, a pocket of strength among transports allowed the Dow Jones Transportation Average (+0.7%) to climb to a fresh all-time high. The bellwether complex extended its year-to-date gain to 9.1% and underpinned the industrial sector (+0.1%), which outperformed throughout the session.
Interestingly, the recent strength in the transports has not jived with the economic slowdown argument that has been used to explain the continued strength in Treasuries. The Treasury market rallied once again today with the 10-yr note climbing 21 ticks. As a result, the benchmark 10-yr yield fell eight basis points to 2.44%, ending at levels not seen in nearly a year.
Today's participation marked an improvement over last week, but remained below average as 621 million shares changed hands at the NYSE.
Economic data was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which fell 1.2% to follow last week's uptick of 0.9%.
Tomorrow, weekly initial claims (Briefing.com consensus 318,000) and the second estimate of Q1 GDP (consensus -0.5%) will be reported at 8:30 ET, while the Pending Home Sales report for April (consensus 1.0%) will be released at 10:00 ET.
S&P 500 +3.3% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.3% YTD
Nasdaq Composite +1.2% YTD
Russell 2000 -2.1% YTD
DJ30 -42.32 NASDAQ -11.99 SP500 -2.13 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1042/1.63 bln/1663 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1593/621.4 mln/1468 3:30 pm :
Crude oil sold off in the last 45 minutes of pit trading and hit a new low for the day
At the end of the session, the July contract lost $1.42 to $102.71/barrel
Natural gas, on the other hand, continued to rise during the session, closing just below its high for the day
July nat gas ended 11 cents higher at $4.61/MMBtu
Gold and silver sold off this morning and gold failed to ultimately recover those losses
June gold closed just above its session low, finishing $6.10 lower at $1259.30/oz
July silver, however, ended unchanged at $19.06/oz
4:32 pm Apple to acquire Beats Music & Beats electronics for $3 bln, consisting of a purchase price of approximately $2.6 bln and ~$400 mln that will vest over time (AAPL) : Co announced it has agreed to acquire the subscription streaming music service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics, which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers and audio software. As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple. Apple is acquiring the two companies for a total of $3 billion, consisting of a purchase price of approximately $2.6 billion and approximately $400 million that will vest over time. Subject to regulatory approvals, Apple expects the transaction to close in fiscal Q4.
3:38 pm Tomorrow's events of interest : Events and conferences of interest for tomorrow May 29th include:
Benchmark LLC One-on-One Investor ConferenceScheduled to appear: SBGI, OSIS, INWK, TYL, VTSS, KFX, FTEK, CKEC, SNPS, MOVE, MOSY, OESX, PERY, MCS, PHX, DAKP.OB, CVU, QUIK, HIL, GUID, TZOOS.C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions ConferenceScheduled to appear: REGN, GS, ALL, GD, BLK, TRI, DISCA, NLSN, MMM, MU, CMG, FCX, BAC, NOC, PX, SNDK, HPQ, EIX, DD, USB, BIIB, TIVO, SWK, UTX, CSOD, LLY, TXN, VRX, N, AIG, HII, RRC, SI, CL, LXK, HSP, WIN, C, L, LMT, FFIV, KMB, EMR, ACT, GLW, BA, AMCX, CNI, EMC, EOG, MUR, AXP, CELG, GHL, TEL, TWX, AFSI, MC, CTSH, SWN, TYC, MKC, VTR, OXY, MSCC, ROK, EL, GE, ADI, SPR2014 Des Moines Insurance Conference
Scheduled to appear: ATI, ANSS, BBOX, CCC, EQT, IIVI, KMT, KOP, MYL, STBA, WCC, FSTR3:34 pm Earnings Calendar (:SUMRX) : Today after the close look for the following companies to report:
UHAL, CPRT, PANW, GMAN, TLYS, PLKI, SB, AGTCTomorrow before the open look for the following companies to report:COST, TECD, ANF, PLL, SAFM, FRED, SOL, MOD, QSII, DXLG, THR, IKGH, SBLK12:27 pm 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
JD (24.5 +6.66%): Initiated with a Buy at Credit Agricole, target $24.50QIHU (95.78 +6.45%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.20 ($0.54 ex items vs $0.34 estimate), revs rose 141.3% yoy to $265.14 mln vs $229.44 mln estimate; sees Q2 revs of $300-305 mln vs $270.07 mln estimate; mentioned positively at Maxim GroupTWTR (32.01 +4.93%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Nomura Large Cap Losers AGN (158.33 -4.05%): Received a revised, unsolicited proposal from Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) valuing AGN shares at ~$166INFY (50.98 -3.67%): Disclosed that B.G. Srinivas, President and Member of the Board, has conveyed his intention to step down from the Board and resign from the services of the company effective June 10, 2014HCN (62.51 -2.97%): Priced underwritten public offering of 14 mln shares of common stock at $62.35 per share; offering was increased in size from 12 mln shares Mid Cap Gainers SYNA (66.4 +9.81%): WSJ reporting that co is in talks to purchase Japan's RenesasARMK (27.48 +5.25%): Co announced that certain of its stockholders intend to offer for sale 20,000,000 shares of its common stockJDSU (11.32 +3.66%): Announced $100 mln common stock repurchase agreement Mid Cap Losers DSW (23.59 -27.46%): Missed quarterly EPS by $0.06 ($0.42 vs $0.48 estimate), revs fell 0.4% yoy to $599 mln vs $622.93 mln estimate; comparable sales decreased 3.7% vs estimates for a decrease of 0.3%; lowered FY15 EPS guidance to $1.52-1.67 ex items (from $1.87-2.02) vs $1.90 estimate; downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Sterne AgeeDDD (51.27 -9.48%): Priced a public offerin gof 5.95 mln shares of common stock for estimated total gross proceeds of ~$317 mlnRXN (26.58 -4.77%): Announced public offering of 15 mln shares of common stock by selling stockholders 12:14 pm S&P +1.3 and Dow set new rebound highs -- Nasdaq Comp -1.3 (:TECHX) :
12:05 pm Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (115) outpacing new lows (44) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAPL, ABC, AET, AKRX, AL, ALV, AMKR, AMOT, ARCB, ARRS, ASX, BELFB, BLL, BMO, BR, BWS, BXMT, CAVM, CBG, CLDT, CLS, CM, CMO, CNC, COF, COP, CP, CRT, CTO, CVS, CXDC, DAL, DAVE, DHR, DOW, ECOL, EQM, EVDY, FDEF, FFNM, FGP, GD, HH, HNNA, IDTI, IHS, IPG, JD, JFBI, JOE, KEX, LAZ, LDL, LPNT, LRCX, LSTR, LUV, LYB, MACK, MCO, MGPI, MMI, MMP, MON, MPWR, MSL, MTR, MU, NJR, NLSN, NSC, NTK, NTT, NYLD, OCIR, ODFL, PBI, PCYG, PDH, PFBI, PKY, PPL, R, RE, RFMD, RHI, ROP, RRST, SAN, SEM, SIAL, SKX, SLCA, SNDK, SNN, SOHO, SPCB, SPIL, TD, TDG, TLP, TMUS, TNET, TQNT, TRNX, TRV, TSLX, TSM, TYC, UGI, WFC, WIN, WLK, WLP, YONG
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ACUR, AG, ANR, ANV, AUY, AVEO, BEBE, BGFV, BVN, CDE, CGA, COH, COOL, COVS, CTC, DKS, DRD, DSW, ECTE, EDMC, EPIQ, FBR, FLL, GOMO, GRVY, HIBB, IAG, KGC, NCQ, NWY, ONE, PCTI, SCVL, SGRP, SOQ, SPU, SVM, TROV, VHI, VLTC, WILC, WLT, WTSL, YUME
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: EWT, FAN, IHF, IYT, LQD, MBB, OEF, SHY, SPY, VTI, XLI, XLK
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: TBT, VXX, VXZ
9:51 am Semiconductor Hldrs ETF displays relative strength (SMH) : The sector was a top performer yesterday and has displayed relative strength again this morning as it flirts with its multi-year close high from April at 46.29 --MU +2.6%, AMKR +1.4%, SNDK +1.1%, BRCM +0.8%, CRUS +0.8%, TSM +0.5%, INTC +0.4%, MRVL +0.4%.
9:01 am SolarCity and Groupon to offer deals on solar systems (SCTY) : Groupon (GRPN) will work with SolarCity (SCTY) to offer deals on solar systems in the Groupon marketplace. The SolarCity offer is Groupon's first national deal in the solar category and is part of their growing collection of home and auto services deals.
SunEdison (SUNE) introduced the SunEdison Silvantis R-series solar module. The SunEdison Silvantis R-series increases solar module efficiency via Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell technology, for higher power output and maximum durability
Integrated Silicon Solution (ISSI), a leader in advanced memory solutions, announced it has begun sampling production units of its new 8-gigabit DDR3 and DDR3L SDRAMs. The 8Gb DDR3 device is the IS43TR16512A, which operates at 1.5V, and the IS43TR16512AL, which operates at 1.35V. Both are organized as 512Mx16 and packaged in a 96-ball BGA. Micrel (MCRL) introduced the MIC23099 power management solution. The device is targeted at single AA/AAA battery cell applications. STMicroelectronics (STM) together with Changan Automobile announced a strategic partnership with the setup of the Changan - ST Automotive Electronic Joint Laboratory at the premises of Changan Automotive Engineering, Global Research Institute.
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