From Briefing.com: The Technology sector is trading higher by 0.8% today. Apple (AAPL) is showing strength once again, adding to gains from yesterday after the tech giant crossed the $700 billion market cap level.
Hewlett Packard (HPQ) shares are trading higher by 3.8% after the company reported fourth quarter earnings of $1.06 which was higher than expected, with revenues of $28.41 billion which was slightly lower than expected. The company also reaffirmed guidance for fiscal year 2015. The company said Personal Systems revenue was up 4% YoY with a 4.0% operating margin. Commercial revenue increased 7% and Consumer revenue decreased 2%. Total units were up 5% with Desktops units down 2% and Notebooks units up 8%.
Infoblox (BLOX) is also showing relative strength today with a 5.7% gain. The company reported strong first quarter earnings last night and guiding in-line with expectations for 2Q15 (Jan). They also announced a new CEO which seems to be partly responsible for the move higher as well. The stock has sold off hard twice in just the past year as the company has been facing some headwinds. But they now have strung together a couple of pretty good quarters.
In terms of non-GAAP operating margin, it fell to 5.5% from 12.1% in the year ago period but it was above the 3.2% achieved in JulQ. During the quarter, BLOX says it made good progress in new customer acquisitions and added some marquee names as customers. The EMEA region also helped drive OctQ performance as it was up 14% YoY.
As you can see by the YoY declines in EPS and margins, this is a tough time for BLOX. They have suffered from a slowdown in growth in the general IP address management market as companies are favoring other IT priorities such as IT security. BLOX has also been hurt by contract delays and a slowdown in customer additions.
The Technology sector is trading higher by 18% based on the XLK ETF. There are no notable tech names to report tonight ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
4:10 pm Closing Market Summary: Stocks Advance Despite Disappointing Economic Data (:WRAPX) : The major averages ended the session near their best levels of the day with the Nasdaq Composite (+0.6%) finishing in the lead. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% to another record high while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.1%) hovered near its flat line throughout the session.
Meanwhile, the benchmark index spent the day in a slow and steady advance despite a heavy batch of disappointing economic data that was reported this morning. The index did show some signs of defensive posturing as all four countercyclical sectors ended ahead of the market while cyclical sectors traded in mixed fashion.
The telecom services sector (+1.2%) finished in the lead after trending higher throughout the day, but more notably, the heavily-weighted health care sector (+0.7%) posted a solid gain with help from biotechnology. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 303.87, +4.20) settled higher by 1.4% to extend this week's gain to 3.0%. Conversely, biotechnology helped the Nasdaq spend the day in the lead.
Although biotech provided a measure of support, the Nasdaq also drew significant strength from chipmakers after Analog Devices (ADI 54.56, +2.85) reported better than expected results. The stock spiked 5.5% while the PHLX Semiconductor Index jumped 2.1% with all but one component ending in the green.
The solid gains among chipmakers helped the technology sector (+0.9%) spend the day in a steady uptrend. However, the same could not be said for the remaining cyclical groups. Financials (+0.2%) held a slim gain throughout the day while consumer discretionary (unch), energy (-1.1%), industrials (-0.2%), and materials (+0.1%) lagged.
Notably, the energy sector widened its November loss to 2.8% as crude oil took another leg down, falling 0.5% to $73.75/bbl.
Treasuries spiked following today's data, but slipped into the close. The 10-yr yield ended lower by a basis point at 2.24%.
Intraday participation was well below average, but volume spiked into the close. As a result, just under 685 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Economic data was plentiful and almost entirely disappointing. Initial claims, durable orders ex-transportation, personal income/spending, Chicago PMI, Michigan Sentiment, and October pending/new home sales all missed expectations while headline durable orders beat:
Initial claims came in at 313,000 (Briefing.com consensus 288,000), which was above the revised prior week count of 292,000 (from 291,000) Continuing claims fell to 2.316 million from 2.330 million Durable goods orders increased 0.4% in October following an upwardly revised 0.9% (from -1.3%) decline (Briefing.com consensus -0.6%) A 45.3% increase in defense aircraft orders helped boost total aircraft demand by 8.7%. The gains in aircraft orders drove overall transportation orders up 3.4% after declining 3.3% in September Excluding transportation, orders fell 0.9% in October after increasing an upwardly revised 0.2% (from -0.2%) (consensus +0.5%) Personal income increased 0.2% for a second consecutive month in October (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%) Personal spending increased 0.2% in October after an upward revision resulted in no change (from -0.2%) in September (consensus +0.3%) The Chicago PMI for October fell to 60.8 from 66.2 (consensus 63.0) The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment report for November was revised down to 88.8 from 89.4 (consensus 90.0) Pending home sales for October fell 1.1% (expected +0.5%) New home sales increased 0.7% in October to 458,000 from a downwardly revised 455,000 (from 467,000) (consensus 470,000) The weekly MBA Mortgage Index fell 4.3% to follow last week's 4.9% increase Equity markets will be closed tomorrow and Friday's session will end early at 13:00 ET.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Nasdaq Composite +14.6% YTD S&P 500 +12.1% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +7.6% YTD Russell 2000 +2.3% YTD 2:13 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
BDX (140.91 +4.59%): Upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan; tgt raised to $160 from $134.
ADI (54.5 +5.4%): Beat Q4 consensus EPS estimates by $0.01, beat on revs; guided Q1 EPS in-line, revs in-line ; Tgt raise at RBC Capital Mkts.
MYL (58.62 +4.36%): Up following a note from Jefferies suggesting that MYL is the most likely takeover candidate for Pfizer (PFE).
Large Cap Losers
SDRL (16.23 -21.63%): Reported Q3 (Sep) results, beat on revs; slashed their dividend to focus on debt reduction.
AGU (96.51 -2.36%): Downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
EOG (94.14 -2.69%): Weakness in oil & gas companies as crude prices continue move lower ahead of tomorrow's OPEC meeting (COG & CHK also lower).
Mid Cap Gainers
VEEV (32.17 +11.55%): Beat Q3 consensus estimates by $0.01, beat on revs; guided Q4 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus; Tgt raised at JP Morgan.
ZAYO (26.71 +4.58%): Round of analyst initiations following the IPO; Initiated at Outperform at Raymond James, William Blair, Cowen, others.
GPRO (78.27 +4.77%): Reports out that the company is working on bringing a drone product to the market by the end of the year.
Mid Cap Losers
DO (32.31 -10.65%): Lower following the dividend cut from Seadrill (SDRL) and cautious analysts comments warning the dividend news could spread to other offshore drillers (RIG also lower).
CTRP (52.62 -9.99%): Beat Q3 consensus estimated by $0.04, beat on revs; guided Q4 revs below consensus; Downgraded at UBS, Barclays, others.
FMSA (11.69 -8.77%): Initiated with a Market Perform at Wells Fargo; Frac sand plays lower following a downgrade to U.S. Silica (SLCA) from Outperform to Market Perform at Wells Fargo
11:34 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (196) outpacing new lows (61) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAL, AAVL, ABAX, ABBV, ABC, ABMD, ACCO, ACE, ACT, AEC, AGIO, AIV, ALOT, AMAG, AMAT, AMBA, AMOT, AMT, ANAC, ARE, AVB, AVGO, AVNR, BAP, BBW, BDL, BDR, BDX, BFAM, BJRI, BNDX, BOOT, BRCM, BRK.A, BRK.B, BSET, BSF, BWS, CACI, CAF, CAH, CATO, CELG, CENX, CFA, CFN, CIM, CMN, COST, COTY, COV, CSCO, CSX, CTLT, CVA, CVTI, DBL, DDC, DFT, DIS, DLR, DPLO, DRH, DSPG, EAT, EEFT, EFX, ENH, ENL, EQIX, EQR, ERIE, ESRX, EXR, FAF, FEUZ, FFC, FFNW, FGL, FIS, FMS, FOLD, FTCS, FV, GGG, GGP, GTT, HA, HAIN, HBNK, HCN, HIW, HLT, HON, HPI, HPQ, HPS, HQH, HRG, HSIC, HSP, IDTI, IFN, INCR, INFY, INGR, INTC, IPXL, JBLU, JBSS, JCOM, JRS, KEYS, KNX, LBRDA, LBRDK, LBTYA, LBTYK, LEG, LFC, LQ, LRCX, MA, MACK, MGPI, MHFI, MIK, MKC.V, MMU, MNDO, MU, MYL, NFBK, NIE, NKTR, NVDA, OMER, ONEQ, OPLK, OVAS, PAYC, PDCO, PEP, PERY, PGRE, PLL, PMCS, PPS, PRE, PSCT, PSG, QQXT, QTEC, QTM, RBA, RENT, RFI, RFMD, RHP, RMAX, RT, RUK, SAGE, SBAC, SEIC, SHO, SSNC, ST, STK, STOR, SWKS, TASR, TBK, TCO, TFX, THG, TQNT, TQQQ, TRI, TSM, TSRA, TTWO, TXN, UNH, USAK, USCR, V, VAR, VEC, VR, VTAE, VTR, VWR, WFC, WY, XNPT
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: API, ATW, AVH, BIND, BLRX, BPZ, BRN, CSTM, CSUN, DATE, DCTH, DWSN, ECT, ESEA, EVGN, FES, FOXF, GER, GNBC, HAL, HERO, HNR, JMEI, KGJI, LPI, MCEP, MCP, MEMP, MIND, NADL, NBR, NCQ, NDRO, NSLP, NSPH, NSPR, OCIP, OKS, PHMD, PRSS, RFIL, RGDO, RIG, RIGP, RNO, RTGN, SALT, SDLP, SDRL, SOFO, SOL, SQQQ, SZYM, TOPS, VIEW, VJET, VRTA, WLL, WPRT, WRES, XNET
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: ICF, IGN, IHF, IHI, IYF, IYH, IYR, PPH, PSK, QQQ, SMH, SOXX, URE, UYG, XLK, XLV
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: BNO, FXA, OIL, USO, VXX
Semtech (SMTC) announced the RClamp0531TQ, a high-performance, ultra-low capacitance transient voltage suppression device. The single-line, automotive-qualified RClamp0531TQ offers unparalleled low-clamping voltage performance, an essential requirement for safeguarding the sensitive electronics common in today's automotive infotainment and telematics systems.
7:02 am Tessera Tech announced that a California state appellate court affirmed a lower court ruling denying a petition by Amkor Technology (:AKMR) (TSRA) : The petition from Amkor Technology (AKMR) was to correct an arbitration award that the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce issued in July 2012 in favor of Tessera in its contract dispute with Amkor. This award was the basis for the arbitrators' ultimate damages award that a California trial court recently confirmed in the amount of $128.3 million plus ongoing post-judgment interest in Tessera's favor.
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
