From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The major averages began the new week on a modestly higher note. The S&P 500 settled higher by 0.3% with seven sectors registering gains, while the Russell 2000 (+1.0%) and Nasdaq Composite (+0.7%) outperformed. For its part, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.1%) was limited to a slim gain as blue chip listings had a tough time keeping pace.
Equity indices climbed from the opening bell with the early advance supported by upbeat action overseas. Furthermore, a slight improvement on the geopolitical scene was also cited for the improved sentiment. Specifically, a ceasefire was agreed upon in Gaza on Sunday, while pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine also asked for a pause in fighting.
The crisis in Ukraine was in the headlines during the day as conflicting reports about a potential humanitarian mission swirled about. The early reports suggested Ukraine's government agreed to allow a Red Cross-led operation with participation from Russia, Germany, and the United States, but subsequent headlines indicated Kiev never gave permission for Russian involvement.
Despite the advance, today's session lacked clear sector leadership as the consumer staples sector (+0.8%) ended in the lead, while other countercyclical groups underperformed. Meanwhile on the cyclical side, consumer discretionary (+0.4%) and technology (+0.6%) outperformed, while energy (-0.2%) and financials (+0.2%) lagged throughout the session.
Today's leading sector-consumer staples-drew strength from the shares of Sysco (SYY 37.44, +1.17), which rallied 3.2% in reaction to in-line earnings. Peer Dean Foods (DF 15.20, -0.61) was not as fortunate, falling 3.9% in reaction to a bottom-line miss and cautious guidance for the third quarter. In addition, the company withdrew its full-year guidance due to a volatile dairy commodity environment.
Elsewhere among countercyclical sectors, the utilities space (-0.4%) widened its third-quarter loss to 7.0%, while health care (unch) lagged throughout the session.
The health care sector ended on its session low, while the high-beta biotech group ended a bit below its early high. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 253.21, +1.72) gained 0.7% after being up 1.3% during the first two hours of action. Despite the afternoon slip, the biotech group still ended ahead of the S&P 500 and contributed to the outperformance of the Nasdaq.
The tech-heavy index also received noteworthy support from its top component-Apple (AAPL 95.99, +1.25)-and chipmakers. Apple added 1.3%, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index rose 1.0% with all but two components posting gains. Micron (MU 30.74, +0.70) led the way, climbing 2.3%.
Treasuries alternated between gains and losses before ending little changed. The benchmark 10-yr yield remained at 2.42%.
Participation was well below average with fewer than 585 million shares changing hands at the NYSE.
Tomorrow, the June Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey will be released at 10:00 ET, while the Treasury Budget for July will cross the wires at 14:00 ET (Briefing.com consensus -$96.00 billion).
S&P 500 +4.8% YTD
Nasdaq Composite +5.4% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average UNCH YTD
Russell 2000 -1.8% YTD
DJ30 +16.05 NASDAQ +30.43 SP500 +5.33 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2025/1.43 bln/736 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2253/583.1 mln/805 3:35 pm :
Dec gold traded lower today as geopolitical tensions eased over the weekend. Reports indicated that pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine asked for a pause in fighting. In addition, a ceasefire was agreed upon in Gaza on Sunday. Despite dipping to a session low of $1306.90 per ounce in morning action, the yellow metal inched higher as it headed into the close. It erased most of its earlier losses and settled at $1310.60 per ounce, just 40 cents below the unchanged line.
Sep silver chopped around slightly above the break-even level for most of today's floor trade. It touched a session low of $19.93 per ounce in early morning action but pushed higher in the last half hour of the session. It settled 0.7% higher at $20.08 per ounce, just below its session high of $20.11 per ounce.
Sep crude oil traded in positive territory after coming off its session low of $97.46 per barrel in early morning action. It brushed a session high of $98.58 per barrel and eventually settled with a 0.5% gain at $98.08 per barrel.
Sep natural gas pulled back from its session high of $4.00 per MMBtu and dipped as low as $3.92 per MMBtu in morning floor trade. It managed to recover back above the unchanged line in afternoon action and settled with a 0.3% gain at $3.97 per MMBtu.
4:30 pm AXT appoints Gary Fischer as CFO (AXTI) : Co announced that it has appointed Gary Fischer vice president and chief financial officer, effective Aug. 11, 2014. Fischer will have responsibility for AXT's global finance and accounting organization and will report to chief executive officer, Morris Young.
4:05 pm Rackspace reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q3 revs above consensus (RAX) : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.16 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.16; revenues rose 17.3% year/year to $441 mln vs the $437.01 mln consensus.
Total server count in the second quarter of 2014 increased to 107,657, up from 106,229 servers at the end of the previous quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $142 million, a 1.5 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2014. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 32.1 percent compared to 33.2 percent in the previous quarter.Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of $454-461 mln vs. $454.30 mln Capital IQ Consensus.
"We added thousands of new customers, including one of our largest ever, and we saw solid growth from existing customers like Under Armour, SunPower and Alex and Ani. We generated a company record $20 million in incremental revenue in the quarter and revenue per server was an all time high. Total revenue grew 4.3 percent on a constant currency basis, which was the highest rate of growth that we've generated since the fourth quarter of 2012."
1:04 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
KMR (97.18 +26.18%): Acquired by Kinder Morgan (KMI); shareholders will receive 2.4849 KMI shares for each share of KMR (valued at ~$89.75 per share)KMP (95.35 +18.68%): Acquired by Kinder Morgan (KMI); shareholders will receive 2.1931 KMI shares and $10.77 in cash for each share of KMP (valued at ~$89.98 per share)TSLA (260.95 +5.17%): Upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank
Large Cap Losers
RBS (11.37 -2.4%): Reuters reporting that co confirmed it was considering selling the international arm of its private bank in deal worth up to $1 blnVRX (107.97 -1.10%): Mentioned cautiously in Barron's article; AGN also mentioned cautiouslyTMUS (29.64 -1.01%): Mentioned cautiously in Barron's article
Mid Cap Gainers
EPB (41.16 +22.5%): Acquired by Kinder Morgan (KMI): shareholders will receive 0.9451 KMI shares and $4.65 in cash for each share of EPB (valued at ~$38.79 per share)BITA (67.82 +8.05%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.09 ($0.48 ex items vs $0.39 estimate), revs rose 54.5% yoy to $84.2 mln vs $79.4 mln two analyst estimate; sees Q3 revs of $88.7-91.9 mln vs $87.46 mln estimateMNKD (8.73 +7.32%): Announced a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement with Sanofi (SNY) for the development and commercialization of Afrezza (insulin human) Inhalation Powder, a new rapid-acting inhaled insulin therapy for adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes; co also reported Q2 loss of $0.19 per share vs estimate for a loss of $0.12, no revs
Mid Cap Losers
TRLA (56.19 -3.34%): Mentioned cautiously in Barron's article; Zillow (Z) also lowerKING (18.74 -2.85%): Downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at Pacific CrestBLMN (16.14 -1.22%): Mentioend negatively in blog article
12:15 pm Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (111) outpacing new lows (44) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ADM, AGRO, AKS, AMID, AMT, BAM, BCRX, BITA, BLT, BPY, BRK.A, BRK.B, BURL, BWS, CAR, CCI, CENX, CHEV, CHKE, CMCM, CRAI, CRI, CTAS, CTP, CTRP, CVGW, CYBE, DCO, DECK, DEJ, DIS, DKL, DXM, ECHO, EEFT, FDP, FUR, GEO, GFIG, GPRE, GTIM, HPP, INN, JBLU, JMBA, JMEI, KALU, KANG, KMI, KMP, KMR, KRNY, LABL, LEAF, LNBB, MCRL, MFRM, MGA, MGPI, MITSY, MKSI, MMI, MUSA, NLS, NP, NRF, NVEC, NWL, OVTI, PBYI, PCRX, PERY, PLNR, PRXL, PTRY, PTSI, RAIL, REX, RIC, RSG, RUSHB, SBAC, SCI, SEMG, SGC, SKX, SPBC, STLD, STND, SUI, SUSP, SUSS, SXC, THI, TLK, TNET, TPL, TSO, TSRA, UDR, UEIC, WBB, WEX, WFBI, WLB, WNR, WTM, X, XRS, XRX, ZEN
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ACPW, ALTV, ALXA, ARCO, ASTI, BAXS, CBNK, CGG, COCO, COOL, CORI, CPHC, DDE, DVR, ECOM, EDAP, FI, FLL, FWM, GENE, GLCH, GPRC, HDNG, KWK, LINC, MOSY, MR, MRKT, NPTN, PERI, PGN, PLX, PRSS, RNDY, SDT, SGOC, SIGA, SOQ, SSH, STXS, SUTR, TPH, VCRA, ZA
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: EGPT, XME
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: none
Rudolph Technologies (RTEC) has received a large order from one of Taiwan's providers of independent semiconductor manufacturing services in assembly and test. The order includes: multiple NSX systems for two-dimensional macro defect inspection, the Wafer Scanner Inspection Series for three-dimensional inspection and bump height metrology, and Discover software for yield optimization.
The Tech sector today is rebounding as the overall market is slightly higher with the XLK ETF trading higher by +0.5%. News in the sector was relatively slow as earnings season begins to wind down. However, there were a few notable reports.
In-flight connectivity and wireless provider Gogo (GOGO) reported a beat on the bottom line; however revenues were in line with expectations, and the shares are trading lower by -3.5%. GOGO also reaffirmed its revenue guidance for fiscal year 2014 with revenues of $400-422 million, which was in line with estimates.
Magic Software (MGIC) reported EPS that was in line with expectations, while revenues topped estimates. The shares are trading higher in today's session by +5.4%.
In news, thinly traded TransAct Technologies (TACT) shares are trading higher by 3.5% following news of a $7.5 million share repurchase program.
Finally, the Semiconductor sector is trading higher today by 1.1%. Micron Technology (MU +2.4%) is a notable leader in the sector, while Nvidia (NVDA -0.8%) is a notable laggard.
As we look ahead to the close, RaxSpace (RAX +2.1%) is a notable technology name due out tonight.
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