From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The stock market slumped on Monday as the S&P 500 ended lower by 0.7% with seven sectors in the red. The price-weighted Dow (-0.6%) finished a little ahead of the benchmark index while the Nasdaq (-0.8%) and Russell 2000 (-1.3%) lagged.
Equity markets around the world started the new week on a mostly lower note. However, continued hopes for stimulus from the PBoC sent China's Shanghai Composite higher by 2.8% to extend its gain over the past month to 25.0%. The advance took place after the latest trade data showed a better than expected surplus of $54.47 billion, which resulted from a 6.7% drop in imports (expected +3.5%). Hopes for additional stimulus were also present in Europe, but the key indices there could not stay out of the red amid weakness in growth-sensitive listings.
Fittingly, cyclical sectors were also responsible for the weakness in the U.S. with energy (-3.9%) taking it on the chin amid another decline in crude oil. The sector gave back its entire advance from last week while Chevron (CVX 106.80, -4.07) and ExxonMobil (XOM 91.70, -2.12) lost 3.7% and 2.3%, respectively. As for crude oil, the energy component plunged 5.5% to $63.10/bbl, which represents the lowest level since August 2009. Oil was not the only weak spot among commodities as copper and iron ore also retreated following China's trade data. This kept the pressure on the materials sector (-1.6%), which settled only ahead of energy.
Elsewhere, the technology sector (-1.2%) held up relatively well through the morning, but slipped into the afternoon amid broad weakness. Apple (AAPL 112.40, -2.60), Intel (INTC 37.21, -0.46), and Microsoft (MSFT 47.70, -0.73) lost between 1.2% and 2.3% while the PHLX Semiconductor Index sank 1.4%.
Also of note, the consumer discretionary sector (-0.8%) underperformed with shares of McDonald's (MCD 92.61, -3.70) diving 3.8% after the fast food giant reported a 2.2% decline in global comparable store sales in November, paced by a 4.6% decline in U.S. sales.
Although cyclical sectors were responsible for the bulk of the weakness, financials (+0.4%) tried to resist the broad pressure. The sector climbed through the first two hours of action, but returned in the middle of its range by the close to maintain its market-leading December gain of 2.2%.
Meanwhile, the second-best performer of the month-health care (+0.3%)-followed the same pattern as financials. The sector received an early boost from biotechnology after Merck (MRK 61.88, +0.39) agreed to acquire Cubist Pharmaceuticals (CBST 100.60, +26.24) for $102/share, which represents a 35.0% premium to CBST's average stock price over the past five days. Cubist soared 35.3% while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 313.79, +4.98) jumped 1.6% to a new record high.
Treasuries ended the day near their highs with the 10-yr yield slipping five basis points to 2.26%. However, the front of the curve saw little change with the 2-yr yield slipping one basis point to 0.64%.
For its part, the Dollar Index (89.16, -0.18) took a step back from its multi-year high, but the index is still up more than 11.5% since May. That strength has prompted the Bank of International Settlements to issue a warning about the rising dollar and the potential impact to $1.1 trillion in dollar-denominated loans held by Chinese banks. The BIS said that continued dollar strength increases the potential for a credit shock being sent through East Asia.
Today's participation was in-line with average as roughly 794 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Tomorrow's economic data will be limited to October Wholesale Inventories (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) and October JOLTS with both reports set to be released at 10:00 ET.
Nasdaq Composite +13.5% YTD
S&P 500 +11.5% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +7.7% YTD
Russell 2000 +0.3% YTD
DJ30 -106.31 NASDAQ -40.06 SP500 -15.06 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 712/1.81 bln/2159 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 921/793.6 mln/2198 3:35 pm :
Oil prices tanked today as oversupply concerns continue, which following OPEC's call of not reducing output on Thanksgiving
Jan crude oil dropped 5.5% to end the day at $63.10/barrel
Jan natural gas also tanked, dropping 5.3% to $3.60/MMBtu
Precious metals staged a late-day rally
Feb gold closed +$4.8 at $1195/oz, while Mar silver rose +0.02 to $16.28/oz
Mar copper lost 1 cent to $2.89/lb
4:31 pm Photronics misses by $0.02, misses on revs (PLAB) : Reports Q4 (Oct) earnings of $0.07 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.09; revenues rose 17.3% year/year to $124.3 mln vs the $128.2 mln consensus.
1:06 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
CELG (118.94 +4.21%): Announced a number of positive developments in some of its clinical trials including favorable trends in REVLIMID for treatment of myeloma; PDUFA date for REVLIMID set for Feb 22, 2015.
EW (132.37 +2.05%): Outlined its growth strategy at Investor Conf.; sees FY15 in-line, reaffirms FY14 guidance.
UTX (113.42 +1.91%): Upgraded to Outperform from Mkt Perform at Bernstein; al were reports out that the company's Pratt & Whitney unit could receive an investment from the Canadian government.
Large Cap Losers
AR (38.31 -9.39%): Continued weakness in oil & gas companies as WTI crude drops 3.75% on the day to another five year low, now at $63.40 (ECA, CLR, CPG also lower).
TWTR (36.47 -5.25%): Cautious view profiled in Barron's on TWTR over the weekend.
INFY (32.49 -3.49%): Reports out that the founders plan to sell $1 bln of stock
Mid Cap Gainers
CBST (100.74 +35.48%): Entered into an agreement to be acquired by Merck (MRK) for $102/share, in a deal valued at ~9.5 bln.
ALNY (107.67 +8.49%): The co filed a Clinical Trial Application with the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial with ALN-CC5 for the treatment of complement-mediated diseases.
ISIS (57.66 +9.29%): Reported positive phase 2 data for ISIS-FXI Rx for the prevention of Venous Thrombosis in patients undergoing total knee replacement surgery; Tgt raised to $66 at Stifel.
Mid Cap Losers
YNDX (19.49 -11.06%): Downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
PSEC (8.15 -8.38%): Co suspended its at-the-market equity issuances for the indefinite future; reduced monthly cash dividends to shareholders.
BTU (8.43 -5.17%): Reaffirmed its prior guidance regarding 2014 coal sales volumes, U.S. revenues per ton, operating costs and expenses per ton and capital spending.
12:12 pm Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session- New highs (124) outpacing new lows (80) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ABBV, ABC, ABT, ACAD, ACE, AET, ALL, ALTR, AMAT, AMGN, AMTD, AON, APH, AVNR, BEN, BG, BK, BMRN, BMY, BRCM, BRK.B, C, CAG, CAH, CB, CELG, CERN, CHKP, CI, CME, CMS, COV, DCT, DHR, DIS, DRH, DRI, EAT, ESRX, EXAS, FDX, FHN, FOX, FOXA, FTNT, GGP, GNTX, GS, HBAN, HCA, HD, HIG, HLT, HST, HTA, IDTI, INCY, IP, ITW, IVZ, JBLU, JNS, JPM, KAR, KR, LHO, LLY, LOW, LYV, MAC, MAR, MCK, MDT, MHFI, MMC, MNK, MO, MS, MTG, MU, MWV, NAVI, NSAM, NU, NVDA, NWL, OMC, PLD, PNC, RAI, RAX, RCL, RDN, RFMD, RMD, RPAI, SAVE, SBUX, SCI, SEE, SHO, SKT, SLM, SNV, ST, STI, STR, STT, SUSQ, SYF, SYK, SYMC, TEL, TQNT, TRV, TXN, USB, V, WDC, WEC, WY, WYN, XL, XRX
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ANF, APA, AR, ATW, BBEP, BHP, BTU, CFX, CIE, CLR, CNQ, CRZO, CVE, CXO, CZZ, DNOW, DNR, ECA, ENLK, EPE, ERF, ESV, FMSA, FTI, GGB, GPOR, HAL, HFC, HP, KOS, LINE, LNCO, LPI, MBT, MDU, MEOH, MRC, MRD, MRO, MUR, NBR, NE, NOV, OAS, OIS, OKE, PBR, PBR.A, PDS, PGH, PSEC, PTEN, PWE, PXD, RDC, RDS.A, RES, RIG, ROSE, RRC, SDRL, SID, SM, SPWR, STO, SU, SWN, TCK, TLM, TS, UPL, VALE, VALE.P, VIP, WFT, WLL, WPX, WYNN, YNDX, ZU
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: DVY, IAI, IBB, ICF, IHF, IHI, ITA, IYF, IYG, IYH, KIE, PPA, PPH, SDY, SMH, SOXX, UYG, VNQ, XBI, XLF, XLV
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: AFK, BNO, CSJ, DBC, DIG, DJP, EWM, FXA, FXC, FXE, FXF, GSG, IEO, IGE, IXC, IYE, OIH, OIL, REMX, RSX, SLX, UGA, UHN, UNG, 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 361 stocks made 52 week highs and 380 stocks made 52 week lows.
9:01 am Microvision announced it has received a $1.9 mln purchase order for key components for a high definition display module being developed by its Fortune Global 100 customer (MVIS) : Co announced it has received a $1.9 million purchase order for key components for a high definition display module being developed by its Fortune Global 100 customer. This order follows previous orders announced in September of nearly $1.9 million. The value of component orders for this customer totals $3.8 million to date. The customer has informed MicroVision that it plans to incorporate the components from MicroVision in a high definition display module.
Marvell (MRVL) announced the world's first DRAM-less NVMe solid state drive controller for mass market mobile computing solutions with industry-leading NANDEdge low-density parity check technology supporting triple-level cell and 3D NAND.
AMAT +0.8% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank)
6:43 am Tower Semicon announced that it has decided to early redeem its ~$45 mln 8% coupon senior notes originally due June 30, 2015 (TSEM) : In accordance with the Indenture dated as of July 15, 2010, the Company can early redeem these notes in its discretion, and save future interest accruals and payments. The notes will be redeemed on January 7, 2015, causing all of the outstanding 8% Senior Notes due June 2015 to become fully repaid as of such date.
As a result, the Company will save approximately $1.7 million of interest payments that otherwise would accrue and be paid during 2015.
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