From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The S&P 500 spiked 1.7% on Thursday, continuing its rebound that began on Wednesday when the index found support at its 100-day moving average (2005). Today, the benchmark index surged past its 50-day moving average (2044) and returned to unchanged for the year. The Nasdaq Composite had an even better showing, surging 1.8%.
Equity indices didn't waste any time after yesterday's rebound, extending higher in the futures market in reaction to evening comments made by Chicago Fed President, and more importantly, 2015 FOMC voting member Charles Evans. Presenting at the University of Chicago, Mr. Evans reiterated his belief that due to low inflation, the Fed should not rush to raise rates, adding for good measure that such move would be a "catastrophe."
Interestingly, Fed insider Jon Hilsenrath of the Wall Street Journal wrote this morning that the Fed could indeed raise rates soon if it is believed that low yields at the long end of the curve reflect an influx of capital into dollar-denominated assets, which could spark a surge in prices. Mr. Hilsenrath added that this was the view espoused by NY Fed President and this year's voting member William Dudley, who argued a similar situation presented itself in 2000s, leading to the housing bubble.
The signs of an impending tug-of-war at the Fed over when to pull away the punchbowl did not stop the stock market from spiking out of the gate and adding to its advance in afternoon action. Meanwhile, Treasuries retreated, sending the 10-yr yield higher by six basis points to 2.01%.
All ten sectors finished the day in positive territory with cyclical groups pacing the rally. The materials sector (+2.4%) ended atop the leaderboard, but more notably, the technology sector, which is roughly six times the size of materials, jumped 2.2%.
The largest sector by weight enjoyed broad-based support. Apple (AAPL 111.89, +4.14) spiked 3.8%, buoyed by reports of strong sales in China. Other influential sector members also posted impressive gains with Facebook (FB 78.18, +2.02), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 40.68, +0.95), and Microsoft (MSFT 47.59, +1.36) soaring between 2.4% and 2.9%. Even Google (GOOGL 506.91, +1.76) was able to end in the green after being down as much as 1.5% after Stifel downgraded the stock to 'Hold.' However, the relative strength was not isolated to large names. Chipmakers rallied across the board with the PHLX Semiconductor Index advancing 2.9%.
The combination of unwavering strength among technology stocks of all sorts helped the Nasdaq Composite finish ahead of the S&P 500 even though biotechnology struggled to stay in the green. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 314.44, +2.44) gave up most of its opening gain during the first hour and flirted with its flat line, but still ended higher by 0.8%. For its part, the health care sector (+1.7%) settled in-line with the S&P 500.
Like health care, the remaining countercyclical sectors finished in-line with or just behind the broader market. Consumer staples (+1.5%) and telecom services (+1.7%) spent the day just behind the S&P 500 while utilities (+0.7%) underperformed amid the increase in Treasury yields.
Elsewhere, the energy sector (+2.2%) was able to finish among the leaders even though crude oil remained on slippery footing. The energy component crept above the $49.50/bbl level overnight, but was beaten back to its flat line. The commodity was down in excess of 1.0% intraday, but fought back to a slim gain of 0.2% at $48.80/bbl.
Today's participation was in-line with average with 830 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Economic data was limited to Initial Claims and Consumer Credit:
Initial claims decreased to 294,000 from an unrevised 298,000 while the Briefing.com consensus expected a decline to 290,000
Anecdotal reports of increased layoff activities in the energy sector due to low oil prices have not led to changes in unemployment insurance trends so far. That being said, we could see an uptick in claims in the coming weeks if fracking becomes unprofitable and energy companies continue slashing capital expenditure budgets.
The continuing claims level increased to 2.452 million from a downwardly revised 2.351 million (from 2.353 million) while the consensus expected an increase to 2.365 million
Consumer credit increased by $14.10 billion in November, down from an upwardly revised $16.00 billion (from $13.20 billion) in October. The Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of $15.0 billion
For the last 12 months, consumer credit has increased by at least $10.00 billion per month
Tomorrow, the Nonfarm Payrolls report for December (Briefing.com consensus 245K) will be released at 8:30 ET while November Wholesale Inventories (consensus 0.3%) will be reported at 10:00 ET.
Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.5% YTD
S&P 500 +0.2% YTD
Nasdaq Composite UNCH YTD
Russell 2000 -0.7% YTD
DJ30 +323.35 NASDAQ +85.72 SP500 +36.24 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2195/1.93 bln/711 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2420/829.2 mln/715 3:35 pm :
Energy futures rose just modestly today, while precious metals and grains were mostly lower
WTI crude oil began to sell-off sharply in afternoon trading, but recovered just as fast
Feb crude fell as low as $47.73, but recovered those losses in the last 29 minutes of trading to end with a small gain
Feb crude finished $0.11 higher at $48.81/barrel.
Feb nat gas gained $0.05 to $2.93/MMBtu
Feb gold lost $2.20 to $1208.50/oz, while Mar silver fell $0.17 to $16.37/oz
5:16 pm SunEdison Semiconductor announces commencement of public offering of 12 mln ordinary shares by selling shareholders (SEMI) : Co announced today the commencement of an underwritten public offering of 12,000,000 ordinary shares by selling shareholders. SunEdison Semiconductor Limited will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the ordinary shares. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. is serving as lead book-running manager for the offering.
12:09 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
VRX (153.68 +5.9%): Issued upside guidance on guidance call; sees FY15 EPS of $10.10-10.40 vs. $10.01 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
STZ (107.32 +4.14%): Beat Q3 consensus estimates by $0.09, beat on revs; raised FY15 EPS guidance above consensus driven by strong beer business shipment volume.
TSCO (81.53 +4.88%): Upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Large Cap Losers
SIG (123.92 -5.29%): Reported holiday comps +3.6%; reaffirmed Q4 adj. EPS $2.95-3.05 vs. $2.99 consensus, comps +3-4%.
ADM (48.95 -2.04%): Downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital.
ALXN (183.8 -2.2%): Provided an update on its Phase 2 clinical trial with Eculizumab in Antibody Mediated Rejection; primary composite endpoint did not reach statistical significance.
Mid Cap Gainers
IPXL (35.49 +14.52%): Announced that the FDA approved RYTARY for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
SHLD (34.14 +6.69%): Jumping after 10% owner, B. Berkowitz, bought 11,800 shares at $30.97-31.84 worth ~$371K.
GPN (84.79 +6.94%): Beat Q2 consensus estimates by $0.07, beat on revs; guided FY15 EPS above consensus, raised FY15 guidance.
Mid Cap Losers
APOL (27.79 -12.77%): Beat Q1 consensus estimates by $0.02, missed on revs; guided Q2 revs below consensus; lowered FY15 guidance.
PODD (41.44 -6.94%): Lowered Q4 rev guidance to $71-73 mln (from $76-81 mln) vs $79.56 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; Peter Devlin resigned as Chief Commercial Officer.
AFSI (51.05 -5.46%): Announced the commencement of public offering of 3 mln shares common stock.
11:47 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (246) outpacing new lows (63) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAP, AAT, AAVL, ACOR, ADC, ADXS, AFFX, AGN, AIV, AKR, ALGT, ANTM, APTS, APU, ARE, AUO, AUXL, AVB, AVIV, AVY, AXL, AXTI, BAF, BAM, BBC, BC, BCC, BDX, BERY, BFAM, BFY, BFZ, BKE, BKS, BMR, BMRN, BR, BRX, BSX, BTT, BTX, BURL, BWLD, BXP, BYM, CAH, CAKE, CASY, CATO, CBOE, CBPO, CCL, CDR, CERU, CF, CFI, CFN, CHRS, CI, CIVI, CLDT, CLX, CMG, CNBKA, CNLMU, COR, CORE, COV, CPT, CRL, CSL, CST, CTRN, CUBE, CUK, CUTR, DDR, DEI, DEPO, DGICA, DHI, DIN, DMB, DPZ, DRE, DRI, DY, EAT, EBIX, EDR, EDUC, EFX, EPR, EQR, ESPR, ESRT, ESS, ETH, EXR, FOLD, FR, FRT, FSBW, G, GFI, GGP, GNCMA, GRT, GT, HCN, HCP, HD, HII, HIW, HPF, HPP, HPS, HSIC, HTA, HTBK, HWAY, HZO, IART, IDT, IFNA, ILMN, IMKTA, IPXL, IRF, ISIS, ITC, JACK, JFC, JMBA, JNS, JRS, KIM, KR, KRG, LABL, LEG, LH, LOW, LTC, M, MAA, MANT, MAS, MCK, MIFI, MIK, MNR, MNST, MPA, MRGE, MRK, MSBF, MTOR, MUA, MUSA, MWV, NATH, NAZ, NBB, NBIX, NHI, NKX, NLS, NNP, NPSP, NQP, NRO, NUVA, NVR, NXN, OCR, OFED, OHI, ONNN, OPHT, OVAS, PDCO, PEB, PEI, PENN, PFNX, PHM, PLAY, PLCE, PLD, PLKI, PPS, PSA, PZZA, RCL, RECN, REG, REXR, RIF, RIT, RMD, ROIC, ROST, RPAI, RPI, RPT, RQI, SBRA, SHO, SIRO, SNFCA, SPG, SRC, SSS, STAG, STZ, STZ.B, SUI, TCO, TDG, TGT, THS, TMO, TNET, TNK, TREE, TRNO, TSRO, TSS, TXRH, UHT, VCV, VMO, VNO, VRX, VTR, WAT, WK, WMT, WOOF, WSM, XENE, XPLR, ZAGG, ZMH, ZUMZ
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AKO.A, AMCF, AMID, ANR, AOI, ASTI, ATU, BAK, BCBP, BIS, BWEN, CFNB, CHOP, CIG.C, CLD, CRC, CS, DMD, ECF, ECR, ELTK, FRD, FXEN, GLNG, GOOGL, GPRK, GYRO, HIE, ICLD, IGLD, IGOV, ISHG, IX, KBIO, KUTV, MCF, MCP, MEET, MTSL, NBG, NEFF, NES, PANL, PTNR, RCON, RELL, REN, REXX, RFIL, RLOC, RRC, SAN, SCHN, SD, SWN, TRCH, UPL, UQM, VRTS, VSCI, VTG, WAC, XNY
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: FXI, ICF, IHI, IYR, RTH, URE, UUP, VNQ, XBI, XHB, XRT
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: FXE, FXF, GREK
11:30 am Relative sector weakness (:TECHX) : Sectors that have underperformed the S&P in recent trade as the morning momentum slows (A/D Line did not confirm new index highs) include: Bank KBE, Reg Bank KRE, Internet FDN, Casino, Coal KOL, Biotech IBB, Retail XRT.
11:00 am Silicon Motion seeing little reaction this morning after narrowing rev, raising Q4 gross margin guidance (SIMO) : Co issues guidance for Q4 (Dec), narrows Q4 (Dec) rev to down 7-8% QoQ (from down 5-10%) to ~$79.7-80.5 mln vs. $80.61 mln Capital IQ Consensus; co raises gross margin guidance to 51.5-52.5% from 50-52%.
The co will release its full fourth quarter 2014 results after the market closes on January 26, 2015.
SanDisk (SNDK) announced that it has completed the spin-out of the company's ioControl solutions business. The new entity will be known as NexGen Storage, taking on the name it originally held before the entity was acquired by Fusion-io.
ntegrated Silicon Solution (ISSI) and Spansion (CODE) announced a licensing agreement that provides ISSI access to Spansion's HyperFlash memory and HyperBus technology portfolio, as well as access to MirrorBit technology in Spansion's foundries. The agreement will expand Spansion's licensing revenue from Spansion's MirrorBit technology, HyperFlash memory and HyperBus interface licensing program.
7:32 am SunEdison purchases new turbines that will enable it to develop up to 1.6 gigawatts of incremental wind energy projects which qualify for the U.S. federal production tax credit (SUNE) :
SUNE and and TerraForm (TERP) announced that SunEdison had purchased new turbines that will enable SunEdison to develop up to 1.6 gigawatts of incremental wind energy projects which qualify for the U.S. federal production tax credit. TerraForm will purchase the projects from SunEdison once they achieve commercial operation. On November 17, 2014, SunEdison and TerraForm announced that they had signed a definitive agreement to acquire First Wind for $2.4 billion. The purchase included over 1.6 GW of pipeline and backlog projects of which 1.4 GW were already PTC and or ITC qualified projects and an additional 6.4 GW of project development opportunities.
Market Data 
Markets 
