From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Remember last week's rally effort following the pronouncement from the FOMC that it will be patient in raising the fed funds rate? Well, it's not over yet. The stock market on Monday continued its winning ways with each of the major indices adding to their gains. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed at new all-time highs.
Throughout Monday's trading, there was a clear preference for owning Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks. Our sense of things is that participants were favoring these names for their liquidity, which is optimal in the event positions need to be exited quickly, and for their appeal as conservative options to participate in further upside should the year-end rally continue.
Either way, it was a good day for the price-weighted average, which saw 27 of its 30 components advance. IBM (IBM 161.45, +2.94) was the biggest price mover while Intel (INTC 37.22, +0.85), up 2.3%, was the biggest percentage gainer.
Those stocks helped lead the information technology sector (+1.1%), which was the best-performing sector in the S&P 500. Its gains helped offset weakness in the health care (-1.2%) and energy (-1.0%) sectors.
Health care was weak due in large part to a large loss in Gilead Sciences (GILD 92.90, -15.55), which followed reports that pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts (ESRX 82.34, +1.37) is going to displace Gilead's hepatitis C drug, Sovaldi, in favor of a less expensive offering from AbbVie (ABBV 66.96, -0.75), Viekira Pak, which recently won FDA approval and will become the exclusive option in the formulary for patients with genotype 1 hepatitis C.
Essentially, the decision by Express Scripts created some angst about potential pricing pressures for the drug makers. Not all drug makers were weak on Monday, yet Merck (MRK 58.95, -0.63) was one of Dow's three losers, which also included Chevron (CVX 112.05, -0.88), and ExxonMobil (XOM 93.31, -0.33).
The energy sector traded in negative territory throughout the day, pressured by a renewed drop in oil and natural gas prices. WTI crude futures dipped 3.3% to $55.27/bbl while natural gas futures, hit with forecasts for warmer winter temperatures ahead in the northeast, plunged 8.2% to $3.18/btu.
Commodities in general were weak on Monday with a stronger dollar pressuring some of the action. To that end, gold futures slipped 2.0% to $1172.60/troy ounce; meanwhile, copper futures fell 0.4% to $2.87/lb.
There didn't appear to be any abject concerns in the stock market about the weakness in commodity prices signaling economic trouble ahead. Granted the materials sector (0.05%) underperformed, yet the industrials (+0.9%), consumer discretionary (+0.9%), and financial (+0.6%) sectors outperformed.
Interestingly, the 10-yr Treasury note battled back from modest losses and went out at its highs for the day as stocks were advancing into the close to finish at their best levels of the session. The highs weren't that high for the Treasury market. The 10-yr note was unchanged at 2.165%, yet its steady state didn't necessarily reflect the same amount of confidence in the outlook that the stock market's continued gains did.
A weaker-than-expected Existing Home Sales report for November, which showed a 6.1% decline in homes sold from October to an annualized rate of 4.93 million units (Briefing.com consensus 5.20 mln), lent a measure of support to the Treasury market.
Tuesday will feature an extensive lineup of economic releases that includes the Durable Orders, Third Estimate for Q3 GDP, Personal Income and Spending, University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment, and New Home Sales reports.
Volume was on the lighter side of recent averages as 772 million shares traded at the NYSE.
Nasdaq Composite +14.5% YTD
S&P 500 +12.5% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +8.3%
Russell 2000 +3.1% YTD
DJ30 +154.64 NASDAQ +16.04 SP500 +7.89 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1772/1.57 bln/1097 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1827/772 mln/1287
4:03 pm Advanced Energy announced that it has started to explore strategic alternatives for its Solar Inverter business (shares halted) (AEIS) :
Co announced that it has started to explore strategic alternatives for its Solar Inverter business. The company is considering various options including a sale, joint venture, partnership, licensing or other alternatives including additional product line optimization and rationalization. The company plans to continue offering its inverter products and services, and supporting its customers during this process. As a result of the company's strategic review and resulting retirement of certain central inverter legacy products, the company expects to record a non-cash inventory charge of between $10 and $14 million in the fourth quarter. This non-cash inventory charge will reduce net income and earnings per share on a GAAP-basis for the fourth quarter and full year 2014 on a GAAP basis.1:38 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
RTN (109.98 +2.96%): Announced it was awarded $2.4 bln contract to provide the State of Qatar with Patriot Air and Missile Defense System.
TWTR (38.24 +3.13%): Renewed rumors that CEO Costolo may resign.
BA (128.38 +1.7%): Announced that Air China has committed to purchase 60 737s, including Next-Generation 737 and 737 MAX airplanes. The commitment when finalized will be valued at more than $6 billion at current list prices.
Large Cap Losers
GILD (95.38 -12.05%): Express Scripts (ESRX) agreed to make AbbVie's (ABBV) Hep C drug (Viekira Pak) its sole treatment instead of GILD's Sovaldi and Harvoni.
CHK (18.59 -6.39%): Energy companies with exposure to Nat Gas notably lower on the day as the fossil duel drops 8% following continued milder winter forecasts (SWN & RRC also lower).
Mid Cap Gainers
EXAS (27.6 +6.28%): Announced that The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will issue a correction to the 2015 lab fee scheduled; to reimburse Cologuard at $500.76.
RAD (7.13 +5.3%): Upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen.
BBRY (10.43 +4.4%): Upgraded to Buy from Hold at TD Securities.
Mid Cap Losers
OCN (15.53 -29.09%): Confirmed that it has reached a settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services related to a recent investigation of related to erroneously dated borrower correspondences; to pay $150 mln and its founder and Executive Chairman has agreed to stepdown.
GSAT (2.84 -8.09%): Negative blog post out over the weekend leading to the sell-off.
NGD (4.2 -7.28%): Gold companies lower as the precious metal drops $16.5 on the day to $1179 (KGC & AU also lower).
12:56 pm Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (272) outpacing new lows (61) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAL, ABAX, ACC, ACHN, ACOR, ADXS, AEPI, AHC, AHS, AIV, ALCO, ALL, AMAG, AMAT, AMED, ANCX, APH, AVB, AVY, AXL, AXTA, AYN, BKN, BMS, BNDX, BRCD, BXP, CAVM, CBG, CBRL, CDR, CEMP, CHD, CHFN, CHH, CHKP, CHRW, CHSP, CL, CLX, CMCSA, CMCSK, CME, CMRX, CODE, CQB, CSCO, CTAS, CTCT, CUBA, CUBE, CUNB, CVS, CXW, CY, D, DCT, DD, DGX, DHR, DIN, DOC, DPZ, DRE, DRII, DYAX, EA, EAT, ECHO, ED, EDR, EIGI, ELS, ENTA, EQIX, EQR, EQY, ESGR, ESS, ETM, FARM, FARO, FB, FCAP, FDS, FHN, FISV, FLML, FMS, FNF, FOX, FOXA, FPRX, FTCS, FTNT, G, GGP, GIB, GIII, GK, GNCMA, GPT, GSH, HA, HAWK, HAWKB, HCA, HCN, HD, HFBC, HII, HIW, HNP, HON, HPP, HPQ, HPT, HR, HSIC, HST, HTA, IART, IBKR, IDCC, IMDZ, INFN, INGN, INGR, IRC, JBL, JCOM, JLL, JOB, JRN, JRVR, KAI, KFRC, KMX, KNL, KR, KRC, KRFT, KTWO, KWR, LJPC, LLL, LMT, LNBB, LOW, MAA, MAC, MACK, MARA, MAS, MCA, MD, MDXG, MFI, MGPI, MHN, MMM, MNK, MS, MSFG, MTSI, MUA, MYJ, NAC, NAVI, NBB, NBH, NCLH, NDAQ, NHI, NICE, NKX, NNN, NOC, NPF, NRO, NTC, NUVA, NVRO, NWL, NXR, NXTM, O, OCR, OCUL, ORLY, OSUR, OVAS, PANW, PCQ, PFD, PFPT, PIKE, PKG, PLL, PPG, PPS, PRI, PSCC, PSCT, PVTB, QLYS, QSR, RAND, RCII, RCL, RCMT, RCPT, RDUS, REXR, RFMD, RIT, RKT, RMD, RPAI, RPM, RPT, RTN, SFBS, SFST, SGBK, SGC, SHW, SIRO, SKH, SKYS, SKYY, SLGN, SMCI, SNA, SO, SOR, SPB, SPG, SPLS, SQBK, STBZ, STZ, STZ.B, SUI, SURG, SWIR, SWK, SWKS, SXT, TA, TASR, TCX, THS, TJX, TQNT, TROW, TTWO, TUBE, TVPT, UDR, UNF, USAK, UTL, VOYA, WASH, WCG, WIFI, WPC, WSBF, WYN, XOXO, ZFGN
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AAMC, APF, ASPS, ATU, BORN, CERE, CHLN, CHN, CHNR, CNNX, CPAH, CRCM, DHRM, DSWL, ENVA, EVAR, EXD, EXE, FINL, FRPT, GALE, GDF, HIE, HOTR, HSOL, IBTX, JPEP, KWK, LALT, LUB, MN, MOMO, MY, NCTY, NEFF, NEOT, OCN, ONP, PBIB, PSTR, PT, PTNR, PTNT, RLJE, RXII, SB, SBSA, SDLP, SGOC, SOFO, SRF, TGD, TOPS, UQM, VGSH, VIEW, VLTC, VOC, VSCI, WMGI, WOR
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: IAI, ICF, IGN, IHF, IHI, IYR, RTH, SKYY, URE
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: BJK, CHN, DJP, FXS, UNG
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
