From Briefing.com: With the steep drop in oil prices(-9.3% to $66.85/bbl), Black Friday took on a new meaning this year. That drop was precipitated by a Thanksgiving Day decision out of OPEC to leave its production quota unchanged at 30 million barrels per day.
Worries about excess supply were wrapped up in the price decline, yet OPEC's non-move was also seen as a shot across the bow of higher-cost U.S. shale producers whose output has lessened the need for OPEC's oil. Those concerns were easy to spot in the S&P 500 energy sector, which declined 6.3% on this black-and-blue Friday.
The broader market held up reasonably well.
While plummeting oil prices are a negative for the energy companies, they are a bonus for users of oil, like the transportation companies. In turn, lower oil prices will translate into lower gas prices, which is a positive for consumer discretionary spending.
Technology companies are largely immune to oil price swings or are certainly less exposed to price swings. Accordingly, the S&P 500 information technology sector was neither abnormally high nor abnormally low on Friday. It was up, though, gaining 0.4% versus a 0.3% decline for the S&P 500.
Not surprisingly, there wasn't a lot of news in the space on Friday. The retail and energy companies hogged most of the spotlight in that respect. Still, there was a positive bias in the sector, which saw 53 of its 66 components trade higher.
Apple (AAPL 118.93, -0.07) was among the minority of stocks that lost ground despite early reports from the retailers highlighting strong demand for Apple's products. Separately, a Digitimes article cited sources as saying chip orders for the latest iPhone will slow in the first quarter from the fourth quarter and that shipments for its latest iPhone devices might have already peaked.
Google (GOOG 541.37, +1.00), meanwhile, shrugged off a report indicating the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution that calls for antitrust regulators to break up Google.
Amazon.com (AMZN 338.46, +4.89) certainly drew its fair share of Black Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday interest. Channel Advisor reported that Amazon's online sales rose 25.9% year-over-year on Thanksgiving Day. Piper Jaffray for its part raised its price target for AMZN to $400 from $350; the firm has an Outperform rating on the stock. Amazon was also seen as a beneficiary of the drop in oil prices, which should help lower transportation and shipping costs.
First Solar (FSLR 48.74, -2.78), on the other hand, got knocked around pretty good along with alternative energy stocks, which got clipped on the drop in oil prices.
First Solar, which dropped 5.4%, was the S&P 500 information technology sector's worst-performing component by far on Friday. Its nearest competitor was SanDisk (SNDK 103.04, -1.22), which declined 1.2% on no news.
The best-performing sector component was KLA-Tencor (KLAC 69.44, +2.11). It gained 3.1% in the face of a report that the analyst at Berenberg started coverage with a Hold rating, saying she thinks the stock is fairly valued. The same analyst started coverage of Lam Research (LRCX 82.75, +0.56) with a Buy rating on the belief it is positioned to gain market share in the etching market.
Their gains helped the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index outperform with a 0.3% gain. Industry peer Applied Materials (AMAT 24.05, +0.18) helped, too, advancing 0.8%. Prior to the open, it was said that the effective date of the Tokyo Electron Share Exchange has been moved from December 30, 2014, to March 24, 2015. The merger of equals between the two companies was first announced on September 24, 2013.
Weekly Recap - Week ending 28-Nov-14Dow +0.49 at 17828.24, Nasdaq +4.31 at 4791.63, S&P -5.27 at 2067.56
The stock market endured some post-Thanksgiving indigestion brought on by severe weakness in the energy sector (-6.4%). The S&P 500 (-0.3%) ended at its lowest point of the day while the Nasdaq (+0.1%) eked out a slim gain thanks to the absence of energy stocks within the tech-heavy index.
Equities began the Black Friday session with investors paying more attention to the oil pits than mall parking lots as black gold was taking a beating. This morning, crude oil was trading near $69.00/bbl after yesterday's OPEC decision to maintain output at 30 million barrels per day. That represented a 6.0% loss, which led to comparable weakness in the energy sector.
Despite the plunge in energy, the market was able to recover with help from health care (+0.6%), technology (+0.5%), and the two consumer sectors (discretionary +1.2%; staples +1.3%), both of which benefited from strength among retailers. Dow component Wal-Mart (WMT 87.54, +2.56) spiked 3.0% after more than 22 million customers visited Wal-Mart stores on Thursday, suggesting a strong start to the holiday shopping season. The broader SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 94.31, +0.84) advanced 0.9%.
However, as the session neared the end, the focus shifted to the oil pits once again where crude dropped below yesterday's low to $67.28/bbl, representing an 8.7% decline.
In turn, the slide in crude pressured the energy sector, and the broader market, to a fresh low for the day. Major sector components took a beating with BP (BP 39.32, -2.27), Chevron (CVX 108.87, -6.24), ExxonMobil (XOM 90.54, -3.94), and Halliburton (HAL 42.20, -5.14) sinking between 4.2% and 10.9%.
Elsewhere, the materials sector (-2.3%) could not escape the overall weakness among commodities. Copper tumbled 3.7% to $2.847/lb while gold fell 2.5% to $1.167.80/ozt. Last, but not least, silver cratered 7.0% to $15.44/ozt. Miners and steelmakers felt the weight with Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 39.50, -1.42) and Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 18.36, -1.74) plunging 3.5% and 8.7%, respectively.
Making matters worse for commodities was the strengthening dollar, evidenced by a 0.5% advance in the Dollar Index (88.41, +0.39).
The commodity weakness also pressured some components of the industrial sector (-0.8%) like Caterpillar (CAT 100.60, -5.19), which fell 4.9%. However, the sector was able to avoid larger losses thanks to a flat finish from the Dow Jones Transportation Average. Still, the bellwether surrendered its intraday gain after a tug-of-war between railroad stocks and airlines. Rail carriers, who benefit from higher oil prices, tumbled with CSX (CSX 36.49, -1.42), Norfolk Southern (NSC 111.67, -5.53), and Union Pacific (UNP 116.81, -6.00) falling between 3.8% and 4.9%. In turn, air carriers like Delta Air Lines (DAL 46.67, +2.43) and United Continental (UAL 61.23, +4.63) cheered lower fuel prices, soaring higher by 5.5% and 8.2%, respectively.
When the dust settled, the major outage in the energy sector proved too much for the stock market to overcome. Furthermore, the inability of the sector to recover even a small portion of its losses, led to profit taking from areas that displayed strength. For instance, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 303.90, +0.03) ended flat after being up near 1.0% at the start. Meanwhile, small caps made new lows into the afternoon with the Russell 2000 ending lower by 1.5%.
Treasuries benefited from the sloppy equity session with the 10-yr yield sliding five basis points to 2.18%.
Participation was relatively heavy considering the abbreviated session. More than 635 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Monday's data will be limited to the November ISM Index, which will be released at 10:00 ET (Briefing.com consensus 58.0).
Week in Review: Stocks Climb Into Thanksgiving
The major averages kicked off the holiday-shortened week with an advance that was paced by the Russell 2000 (+1.2%). The small-cap index was followed by the Nasdaq Composite (+0.9%) while the Dow (+0.04%) and S&P 500 (+0.3%) ended closer to their flat lines. Stocks rallied out of the gate with upbeat action overseas contributing to the early strength. Equities in China and Hong Kong spiked in reaction to Friday's PBoC rate cut while European markets were boosted by increased expectations of a forthcoming sovereign QE program from the European Central Bank. To that point, Credit Suisse said it expects the ECB to announce plans for sovereign asset purchases in December. ECB member and German Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann pushed back against the easing expectations, reminding that monetary policy alone is unable to create growth and requires corresponding measures from the fiscal side. Despite Mr. Weidmann's comments, the market's expectation for more QE manifested itself through increased demand for Italian and Spanish debt. Italian and Spanish 10-yr yields both fell five basis points to their respective 2.15% and 1.97%.
Equities ended the Tuesday session on a flat note. The S&P 500 shed 0.1% after spending the day in a ten-point range while the other indices also settled near their unchanged levels. Despite the flat finish, equity indices rallied at the start after the second revision to Q3 GDP surprised to the upside (3.9%; Briefing.com consensus 3.2%). However, the opening spike marked the session high for the S&P 500, which returned to unchanged by the end of the first hour.
The key indices ended Wednesday near their best levels of the day with the Nasdaq Composite (+0.6%) finishing in the lead. The S&P 500 settled higher by 0.3% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average 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 on Wednesday. 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.
Index Started Week Ended Week Change % Change YTD %
DJIA 17810.06 17828.24 18.18 0.1 7.6
Nasdaq 4712.97 4791.63 78.66 1.7 14.7
S&P 500 2063.50 2067.56 4.06 0.2 11.9
Russell 2000 1172.42 1173.23 0.81 0.1 0.8
Take a FREE TRIAL of Briefing.com's complete Live market analysis of the U.S. stock and bond markets, technology stocks, economic releases, earnings reports, and day trading highlights
12:36 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
AAL (49.12 +9.23%): Strength in major airlines and cruise companies due to decreasing oil prices: UAL, LUV, DAL, RCL, CCL also higher
WMT (87.71 +3.21%): Co issued positive comments on early Black Friday results; reiterated with a Neutral at MKM Partners
TGT (73.93 +2.45%): Co said it had a "strong early start" to Black Friday weekend; reierated with a Neutral at MKM Partners
Large Cap Losers
CLR (40 -21.83%): Weakness in large cap oil & gas companes following OPEC decision to not cut production: CXO, WFT, CPG, EC, STO, HAL, APA, ECA also lower
CP (193.09 -8.00%): Weakness in railroads following declines in natural gas prices which lessens the demand for thermal coal: NSC, KSU, UNP, CNI, CSX also lower
ABX (11.96 -7.54%): Weakness in gold companies: GG also lower
Mid Cap Gainers
JBLU (14.71 +8.16%): Strengh in regional airlines following the decrease in oil prices: ALK, SAVE, ALGT, CPA, LFL also higher
JCP (8.03 +3.65%): Mentioned positively in blog article
VEEV (33.35 +3.00%): Continued strength following strong Q3 results and Q4 guidance reported on Tuesday
Mid Cap Losers
LPI (10.25 -34.80%): Weakness in mid-cap oil & gas companies following OPEC decision to not cut production: OAS, EPE, KOG, PE, WLL, TLM, PWE, RSPP also lower
SLCA (31.46 -24.95%): Continued weakness following downgrade to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo on Wednesday
GLNG (41.55 -15.98%): Price target lowered to $52 from $57 at Jefferies, reiterated with a Hold
11:52 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session- New highs (176) outpacing new lows (60) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAL, ABBV, ABC, ACE, ACN, ADP, AGN, AIV, AKAM, ALK, ALL, AMAT, AMGN, AMT, AON, APH, AVGO, AVNR, BC, BDX, BEE, BERY, BIG, BKW, BMY, BRCM, BRK.B, BUD, CAG, CAH, CB, CBG, CCL, CDNS, CELG, CENX, CFN, CHKP, CHTR, CIM, CLX, COL, COST, COV, CSCO, CTSH, CUBE, CVA, CVS, DAL, DGX, DHR, DIS, DISH, DLPH, DLR, DLTR, DPS, DRH, DRI, EAT, EIX, EQR, ESRX, FDX, FIS, FISV, FNF, FOXA, FTNT, GD, GGP, HAS, HBAN, HCN, HCP, HD, HLT, HON, HPQ, HST, INCY, INFY, INTC, JBHT, JBLU, JWN, KIM, KMB, KMX, KO, KR, LB, LBRDK, LBTYA, LBTYK, LEG, LHO, LM, LRCX, LUV, LYV, M, MA, MAC, MAR, MCK, MDT, MDVN, MHFI, MMC, MNST, MO, MU, MYL, NAVI, NCLH, NKE, NOC, NVDA, NVS, NWL, NXPI, OMC, PANW, PEP, PG, PGRE, PPG, QVCA, RAI, RCL, RGC, ROST, RPAI, RTN, SAVE, SBAC, SCG, SCI, SEE, SHO, SKT, SNE, SPR, STOR, STZ, SWFT, SWKS, SYK, SYMC, TGT, TJX, TMO, TQNT, TRV, TSM, TXN, UAL, UDR, UNH, UPS, USB, V, VFC, VRTX, VTR, WFC, WMT, WU, WYN, XEL, XL, XRAY, ZMH, ZTS
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AM, APA, ATW, BBEP, BHP, BP, CAM, CIE, CLR, CVE, DNOW, DNR, DO, ECA, EPE, ESV, FCX, FLS, FMSA, FTI, HAL, HP, JOY, KOG, KOS, LINE, LNCO, LPI, MBT, MDU, MEOH, MRO, MUR, NBL, NBR, NE, OAS, OIS, OKS, OXY, PDS, PGH, PTEN, PWE, PXD, RES, RIG, ROSE, SDRL, SID, SLB, SM, SPN, STO, TLM, TS, VIP, WFT, WLL, WPX
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: DIA, IBB, ICF, IGN, IGV, IHF, IHI, ITA, IWF, IYF, IYG, IYH, IYK, IYR, IYT, KIE, OEF, PFF, PPA, PPH, PSK, QQQ, RTH, SDY, SMH, SOXX, SPY, URE, UYG, VNQ, XBI, XLF, XLK, XLP, XLV, XLY, XRT
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: BNO, DBC, DJP, FXA, FXY, GSG, JJC, OIH, OIL, REMX, RSX, UGA, UHN, USCI, USO, XES, XOP
Note: To reduce the list of stocks making 52 week highs/lows to a manageable size we have filtered out stocks below $2 bln in market cap and below 1 mln average volume. Without this filter 459 stocks made 52 week highs and 228 stocks made 52 week lows.
9:01 am Ingram Micro announced that it has made a binding offer for the acquisition of ANOVO (IM) : Co announced it has made a binding offer for the acquisition of ANOVO, a France based provider of reverse logistics and repair services for high-tech products such as smartphones and set-top boxes across Europe and Latin America. Upon completion of the acquisition, which is expected in early 2015, ANOVO is anticipated to contribute in excess of $300 mln in annual revenue and be modestly accretive to IM's non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. Further details were not disclosed.
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
