From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The major averages endured another whipsaw session that ended with a flat finish for the S&P 500 while the Russell 2000 (+1.1%) registered its second consecutive advance. The price-weighted Dow was the weakest performer of the day with a loss of 0.2%.
Equity indices tumbled out of the gate for the second day in a row amid broad-based selling pressure that also weighed on equities in Europe. The S&P 500 marked a session low near the 1,835 level during the first hour, but spiked more than 20 points following comments from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard. Mr. Bullard appeared on Bloomberg TV and said the Fed should consider delaying the end of its Quantitative Easing program, which is set to wind down at the October FOMC meeting.
The market jumped from lows in reaction to the comments, but it is worth noting that Mr. Bullard is not a voting FOMC member this year and only an alternate voter on next year's schedule. The non-voter status did not get in the way of a surge in equities while Minneapolis Fed President (and FOMC voter) Kocherlakota provided a similar view, saying there is more the Fed can do to achieve maximum employment.
The intraday rebound was paced by some of the groups that faced the most aggressive selling in recent days. The energy sector (+1.7%) led the way, trimming its October loss to 9.0%. Crude oil also rallied, climbing 1.0% to $82.61/bbl after recovering from its overnight low near $79.91/bbl. Meanwhile, the other commodity-linked group-materials (+1.0%)-followed not far behind.
Elsewhere, the industrial sector (+0.7%) advanced with help from transport stocks. Delta Air Lines (DAL 33.32, +0.94) jumped 2.9% after beating earnings estimates while the Dow Jones Transportation Average (+1.1%) extended this week's gain to 1.7%.
The three growth-sensitive sectors spent the entire afternoon in the green while other cyclical groups were a bit more reluctant in joining the rebound. Financials settled in-line with the S&P 500, but the sector was weighed down by Goldman Sachs (GS 172.58, -4.66), which fell 2.6% despite reporting better than expected earnings.
Also of note, the discretionary space (+0.2%) was underpinned by major apparel names like Nike (NKE 87.04, +1.86) and V F Corp (VFC 63.98, +1.18) with their strength masking a 19.4% plunge in the shares of Netflix (NFLX 361.70, -86.89). The video streaming service surpassed its earnings estimates, but guided Q4 results below consensus and said its recent price hike has resulted in slower user growth.
On the downside, the technology sector lost 0.6% even as chipmakers rallied broadly, sending the PHLX Semiconductor Index higher by 1.5%. Large cap listings kept the sector in the red with Apple (AAPL 96.26, -1.28) falling 1.3% after refreshing its product lineup during an afternoon press event. Similarly, Google (GOOGL 536.53, -4.20) lost 0.8% ahead of its quarterly report.
Treasuries ended on their lows after a steady slide from early morning highs. The 10-yr yield ticked up two basis points to 2.16%, which represented an 18-bps spike from the low.
Strong participation continued with more than a billion shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Economic data included Initial Claims, Industrial Production, Philadelphia Fed Survey, and the NAHB Housing Market Index:
The weekly initial claims level fell to 264,000 from an unrevised 287,000, while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase to 290,000
The Department of Labor said there were no special factors influencing the report
Industrial production increased 1.0% in September after falling a downwardly revised 0.2% (from -0.1%) while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of 0.4%
Manufacturing production did a full 180 degree turnaround. After falling 0.5% in August, production rose 0.5% in September. That gain was in-line with the improvements in the Federal Reserve regional manufacturing surveys and the national ISM production index
The Philadelphia Fed's Business Outlook Survey Dipped to 20.7 in October from 22.5, while the Briefing.com consensus expected a decline to 19.8
Production levels softened as the Shipments Index fell to 16.6 from 21.6 in September
Employment conditions worsened with the Number of Employees Index falling to 12.1 from 21.2
The NAHB Housing Market Index for October fell to 54 from 59, while the Briefing.com consensus expected the reading to hold at 59
Tomorrow, September Housing Starts (Briefing.com consensus 1013K) and Building Permits (consensus 1030K) will be released at 8:30 ET while the preliminary reading of the Michigan Sentiment survey for October (expected 84.0) will cross the wires at 9:55 ET.
Nasdaq Composite +1.0% YTD
S&P 500 +0.8% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -2.8% YTD
Russell 2000 -6.8% YTD
DJ30 -24.50 NASDAQ +2.07 SP500 +0.27 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1924/2.15 bln/1052 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2202/1.03 bln/898 3:35 pm :
Crude's LoD of $79.78 was reached in early morning trading on light volume, and futures have since trended higher, rallying as much as 5 points hitting its HoD of $84.83 shortly after lunch.
Futures pulled back slightly following this mornings inventory data that showed inventories had a build of 8.923 mln (consensus called for a build of 2.7 mln), but recovered quickly.
Natural gas sold off sharply to its LoD of $3.744 after data natural gas inventory data showed a build of 94 bcf vs expectations for a build of ~91 bcf.
Nov crude oil closed the day 0.9% higher at $82.51/barrel, while Nov nat gas -0.3% at $3.97/MMBtu.
Despite settling in negative territory, gold trended higher during the pit session after hitting its LoD of $1235.2 ~15min before the US equity market opened.
Dec gold ultimately fell 0.3% at $1241.20/oz, while Dec silver lost 0.2% at $17.43/oz
Copper prices fell below $3/lb, finishing the day 0.9% lower at $2.98/lb
5:00 pm This week's biggest % gainers/losers (:SCANX) : The following are this week's top 20 percentage gainers and top 20 percentage losers, categorized by sectors (over $300 mln market cap and 100K average daily volume).
This week's top 20 % gainers
Utilities:CLNE (6.35 +22.64%)
Services:SALE (17.26 +22.64%)
Industrial Goods:XONE (23.97 +31.19%),GTI (4.35 +21.79%)
Healthcare:NLNK (29.35 +72.27%),EXAS (23.77 +29.8%),RNA (11.35 +28.82%),UNIS (3.78 +28.21%),ACRX (6.74 +21.09%),MDXG (8.29 +19.75%)
Financial:GCAP (7.36 +20.35%)
Consumer Goods:WPP (9.1 +18.95%)
Basic Materials:ACI (1.97 +44.81%),XCO (2.68 +30.38%),CLF (8.74 +28.55%),MTL (0.83 +23.75%),SD (4.23 +20.58%),HCLP (49.49 +20.45%),CDE (4.78 +19.72%),ANR (1.99 +19.27%)
This week's top 20 % losers
Technology:NTCT (33.84 -27.07%),KN (18.82 -19.25%),CODE (16.16 -18.65%),CYOU (17.54 -17.45%)
Services:NFLX (357.09 -21.65%),MWW (3.95 -18.46%),ENOC (13.47 -15.24%)
Healthcare:SHPG (179.15 -30.29%),ESPR (21.53 -25.66%),GWPH (63.46 -18.37%),NVDQ (10.65 -16.99%),TTPH (24.11 -15.15%)
Consumer Goods:GPRO (74.63 -18.49%),PPC (27.92 -17.93%),CALM (79.75 -15.68%)
Basic Materials:SSE (14.91 -24.48%),PHX (18.49 -22.39%),BXE (4.92 -17.38%),BAS (14.27 -15.81%),CPE (5.95 -15.09%)
3:32 pm Earnings Preview for the week of October 20 - 24 (:SUMRX) : Of the companies reporting earnings for the week of October 20 - 24 some of the bigger names include:
Monday: Pre Market - HAL, PHG, SAP, GPC, VFC, VRX, BTU, HAS, GCI, NVR, LII
After Hours - AAPL, IBM, TXN, STLD, CE, PKG, CMG, RCII, ZION, ILMN
Tuesday: Pre Market - VZ, UTX, KO, LMT, MCD, TRV, MAN, KMB, OMC, ITW, SAH, RAI, PNR, CP, ABG, RF, HOG, ATI, GPK, LXK, CSL, APOL, EAT, AOS
After Hours - ACE, CNI, DFS, BRCM, FTI, NBR, VMW, CLS, RHI, YHOO, UIS, HA, SIX, ISRG, CREE, ETFC, IBKR
Wednesday: Pre Market - BA, DOW, ABB, WIT, GD, EMC, NOC, ABT, XRX, USB, TMO, IR, NSC, SWK, BIIB, FDML, BSX, IPG, R, OC, APH, PII, SLGN, SPG, BEAV, NTRS, GRA, TUP, After Hours - T, WFT, ORLY, NXPI, RE, USTR, TSCO, RJF, LRCX, CA, LEG, TMK, VAR, BCR, CTXS, EFX, LOGI, CAKE, SLG, SCSS, YELP
Thursday: Pre Market - GM, CMCSA, CAT, AAL, UAL, MMM, AVT, CS, UNP, OXY, RTN, NUE, LLY, LUV, AEP, CVE, RCI, NOK, CAM, RS, GPI, PCP, RCL, ALV, CCE, JAH, WCC, CELG, DGX, DAN, PHM, NLSN, CMS, POT, JBLU, DPS, UFS, ALK, ARG, LO, ORI, SJR, BMS, FAF, CFX, WSO, ZMH, MJN, TROW, UA, AB, DO, KKR, JNS, DNKN
After Hours - MSFT, AMZN, IM, CBI, CB, PFG, WRB, FLS, FSL, JNPR, SWFT, POL, HUBG, CERN, VMI, SWN, SRCL, KLAC, EW, MTX, DECK, DV, RMD, SYNA, P, VRSN, DLB, BJRI
Friday: Pre Market - ERIC, F, PG, UPS, LYB, CL, LEA, DLPH, BMY, STT, DTE, OCR, AVY, WYN, SHPG, LPNT, MGLN, MCO, VTR, WBC, AAN, NDAQ, COG, EDU
11:58 am 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
REGN (375.02 +10.07%): Announced its EYLEA injection demonstrates significantly greater gains in visual acuity than both bevacizumab and ranibizumab in NIH-sponsored diabetic macular edema study; also a favorable mention on Thursday's Mad Money.
EQIX (205.99 +7.15%): Declared special distribution of $416 mln or ~$7.57 per share in connection with planned REIT conversion.
XLNX (41.26 +7.2%): Beat by $0.07, reported revs in-line; guided Q3 revs ~in-line -- midpoint just below consensus; Upgraded at Wells Fargo to Outperform.
Large Cap Losers
NFLX (344.74 -4.69%): Continued weakness following earnings; Unfavorable mention on Thursday's Mad Money.
COF (76 -3.22%): Missed by $0.09, beat on revs; Tgt lowered at RBC Capital Mkts.
MAT (29.21 -1.38%): Price target lowered to $28 at MKM Partners, firm maintains their Neutral rating.
Mid Cap Gainers
TXT (37.65 +11.85%): Beat by $0.07, missed on revs; raised FY14 EPS in-line.
SUNE (16.89 +8.48%): Upgraded to Outperform from Mkt Perform at Cowen; tgt raised to $24 from $20.
CPHD (47.69 +6.75%): Beat by $0.06, beat on revs; guided FY14 EPS in-line, revs above consensus; Bullish commentary from analysts at Oppenheimer, Mizuho, others.
Mid Cap Losers
URBN (29.75 -13.92%): Reported Q3 negative comparable retail segment net sale has continued quarter-to-date; gross profit margin may deleverage at a rate greater than during 1H; Downgraded at Goldman, Morgan Stanley, others.
MYGN (34.99 -7.34%): Issued guidance for Q1 (Sep), sees EPS of $0.25, vs. $0.43 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 (Sep) revs of $168 mln, vs. $183.47 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
ATHN (110.25 -8.5%): Reported EPS in-line, revs in-line; guided FY14 EPS in-line, revs in-line.
11:44 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (36) outpacing new lows (34) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AHS, ARE, BABY, CCBG, CMRX, CNSL, CORE, CUNB, DPZ, DTSI, EDE, ELLI, EROS, EXR, HTBK, ICUI, MGEE, NATH, NAVI, NRIM, PTRY, PTX, QTS, RBCAA, RDNT, REGN, SAFT, SCLN, SONC, STRA, TAYD, TREE, UHT, USPH, UUU, VAC
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AU, AXU, BAMM, CLRB, CNSI, CPHI, CTG, DDE, DXPE, ENVI, ESSX, GBIM, GENE, IMGN, ISSC, KGC, MDCA, MWW, NSPR, NVDQ, OGEN, OIBR, OIBR.C, PED, PME, PRSS, PT, PULS, PWX, RPRX, SBCP, TS, ULBI, URBN
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: none
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: none
9:41 am JinkoSolar Holding and sPower partnership brings 34 megawatts of solar power to Antelope Valley, California (JKS) : The co's announced details of the first partnership between the two companies. According to the terms of the contract, JinkoSolar supplied nearly 115,000 of its 305W high efficiency solar PV modules to sPower for the 34MW solar facility, which is comprised of four separate projects located in Lancaster and Victorville, California.
9:03 am JinkoSolar Holding supplied 34MW of solar modules to sPower for four solar power projects in Antelope Valley, California (JKS) : According to the terms of the contract, JinkoSolar supplied approx 115,000 of its 305W high efficiency solar PV modules to sPower for the 34MW solar plant which is comprised of four separate projects located in Lancaster and Victorville, California.
SunEdison (SUNE) announced that the China Institute of Energy Economics and China Energy News awarded Ahmad Chatila, Pres. and CEO, the coveted "Global New Energy Business Leader" award.
6:37 am General Electric beats by $0.01, misses on revs (GE) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.38 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.37; revenues rose 1.4% year/year to $36.17 bln vs the $36.86 bln consensus.
Industrial sales of $26.0 bln increased 3% YoY. Industrial segment profits rose 9% in the third quarter to $4.3 bln and industrial segment margins expanded 90 basis points. Industrial segment organic revenue growth was 4%. Orders were up 22% in the quarter, with increases in five of six segments. Growth market orders rose 34% with increases in five of nine growth regions. GE expects industrial organic revenue growth for the year to be at the higher end of the 4-7% range.
GE's backlog of equipment and services at the end of the quarter was a record $250 bln, up $21 bln over the year-ago period.
GECC revenues of $10.5 bln decreased 1% from last year.
Company is on track to meet its 2014 goal of $14-$17 bln in CFOA.
GE ended the quarter with $90 bln of consolidated cash and cash equivalents.
Our total-year framework is intact, GE expects Alstom to be accretive to earnings in 2015, and add $0.06-0.09 per share in 2016. Through these transactions, GE is executing on its strategy to achieve 75% of its earnings from its Industrial businesses by 2016.The stock market had a really good day on Friday. It would have been better if the Russell 2000 (-0.4%) went along for the ride, but alas, it didn't. That's what made it a really good day instead of a great day.
Participants are watching the small-cap average closely. It led the market into its recent selling mess and it wants to be sure that it is going to help lead it out of it.
The Russell 200 outperformed on Wednesday and Thursday, so its lackluster performance on Friday versus the blue-chip averages may have just been a case of traders spreading the "rebound wealth." Still, market participants will be looking for the Russell 2000 to find its rebound stride come Monday or doubts may start to creep in that the broader rebound effort in the latter part of the week wasn't built to last.
This Friday belonged mostly to the large-cap stocks. That benefited the S&P 500 information technology sector (+1.2%) nicely and it was a welcome move at the right time considering Google (GOOG 511.17, -13.34)) was left stranded at the station after its weaker than expected third quarter report.
What Google took away, though, Apple (AAPL 97.67, +1.41), Cisco (CSCO 23.25, +0.43), EMC Corp. (EMC 27.11, +0.22), Facebook (FB 75.95, +3.32), Intel (INTC 31.38, +0.53), IBM (IBM 182.05, +2.21), Mastercard (MA 71.56, +0.70), Microsoft (MSFT 43.63, +0.89), Qualcomm (QCOM 72.43, +1.29), Salesforce.com (CRM 55.63, +1.76), and Visa (V 206.00, +3.00) returned and then some.
Recall that it was the large-cap stocks that held the information technology sector back on Thursday... but not on Friday. They were scooped up in a bargain-hunting bid that began in Europe and continued in the U.S. with the help of some comforting economic data and better than expected earnings results and/or guidance from other large-cap companies like General Electric (GE 24.82, +0.57), Schlumberger (SLB 93.97, +3.33), and Morgan Stanley (MS 33.22, +0.69).
Within the technology sector, Sandisk (SNDK 82.80, -2.51) wasn't feted in the same way after reporting its earnings results. The maker of flash memory storage products put up some better than expected third quarter results but saw that news get overshadowed by some weaker than expected fourth quarter revenue guidance.
Xilinx (XLNX 41.05, +2.56), on the other hand, was celebrated after reporting better than expected fiscal second quarter results and issuing better than feared third quarter guidance. Its stock surged 6.7% and helped pace another winning session for the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (+0.8%).
After losing 9.9% in the prior week, the SOX Index rebounded 2.5% in the week just concluded.
QLogic (QLGC 10.71, +1.16) was another big winner after the network infrastructure provider posted better than expected fiscal second quarter earnings and third quarter guidance due in part to strong Ethernet growth. After the report, RBC Capital said it is maintaining its Outperform rating on the stock and $13 price target.
In other developments, CA Tech (CA 26.35, +0.53) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays, which believes the recent weakness has presented a buying opportunity to own a structural self-help story at a compelling valuation.
A number of other software stocks did quite well on Friday, including Electronic Arts (EA 34.28, +1.66), Adobe Systems (ADBE 64.52, +1.66), Intuit (INTU 81.03, +2.39), and SAP (SAP 68.99, +2.54).
For the week, the S&P 500 information technology sector declined 1.1%, leaving it up 6.0% for the year versus a 2.1% gain for the S&P 500.
On Monday, Apple, IBM, and Texas Instruments (TXN 43.67, +0.08) will report their quarterly results after the close.
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