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From Briefing.com: After six-and-a-half hours of trading, the S&P 500 ended Monday down all of 0.64 points. Not long before the close it looked like there would be a larger loss, but a broad-based rally in the final thirty minutes of trading lifted all of the major indices in noticeable fashion.

The Nasdaq for its part jumped 13 points in the last 30 minutes, enabling it to log a five-point gain that marked its ninth consecutive winning session.

Apple (AAPL 133.00, +3.51, +2.7%) was naturally at the helm of the advance, having exhibited relative strength throughout the day that was fortified by some speculative chatter that it could be added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is often rumored to be a candidate for the Dow; but whatever the case may have been, Apple is a stock that can seemingly do no wrong these days. Since the end of 2014, it has risen 20%.

Apple was one of only three components in the S&P 500 information technology sector (+0.2%) to gain in excess of 1.0%. The other two were First Solar (FSLR 49.62, +0.60, +1.2%) and Computer Sciences (CSC 71.74, +4.81, +7.2%), the latter of which spiked on rumors it could be an M&A target.

Actually, it wasn't a great day for the S&P 500 information technology sector. 53 of its 66 components closed the session with a loss, which goes to show the influence Apple has over the sector's performance. It didn't hurt either that Microsoft (MSFT 44.15, +0.29, +0.7%) was one of the other winners for the day.

The newsflow out of the sector was pretty light. Notable items included the following:

Altera Corporation (ALTR 35.90, -0.23, -0.7%): Announced Microsoft is using Altera Arria 10 FPGAs to achieve compelling performance-per-Watt in data center acceleration based on CNN algorithms. These algorithms are frequently used for image classification, image recognition, and natural language processing.

Apple (AAPL 133.00, +3.51, +2.7%): Announced a 1.7 billion plan to build and operate two data centres in Europe, each powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The facilities, located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark's central Jutland, will power Apple's online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe. Separately, there was also some chatter of Apple being added to the Dow.

Fiserv (FISV 78.80, -0.25, -0.3%): Announced that Bank of the Ozarks, headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, successfully converted to the Premier bank platform. In addition, the bank is implementing a host of additional Fiserv solutions to enhance capabilities and optimize processes for the institution.Elsewhere in the technology space:

Amazon.com (AMZN 380.14, -3.52, -0.9%): Viacom and Lionsgate joint venture EPIX announced extension of agreement with Amazon to license movie titles for Prime Instant Video

CenturyLink (CTL 36.63, -0.39, -1.1%): Announced that it has successfully delivered superchannel transmission speeds of one terabit per second (1 Tb/s) on a portion of its fiber network in central Florida using technology from

Ciena Corp. (CIEN 20.03, -0.28, -1.4%).

Electro Scientific (ESIO 6.32, -0.23, -3.5%): The company announced that its Board of Directors has suspended the quarterly dividend to focus its resources on growth. In conjunction with that news, ESIO reaffirmed guidance for Q4 (Mar), saying it sees EPS of ($0.32) - ($0.22) and revenues of $32-40 mln, both of which were in-line with analysts' average expectation.

MicroStrategy (MSTR 177.39, -2.16, -1.2%): Announced that Banco Mare Nostrum, with headquarters in Madrid, Spain, has implemented MicroStrategy as its enterprise analytics standard to drive analysis and insight for its 4,700 employees.

NXP Semiconductors (NXPI 84.50, -0.16, -0.2%): Announced that as a result of a partnership with Sonova -- the leading manufacturer of innovative hearing care solutions -- they have collaboratively developed Venture, a landmark next-generation hearing instrument platform, which offers users exceptional performance.

Twitter (TWTR 48.47, -0.64, -1.3%): Issued blog update in favor of net neutrality

Verizon (VZ 48.77, -0.20, -0.4%): Disclosed that 2015 labor negotiations --encompassing less than 27% of its workforce -- have potential to create work stoppages, negatively affecting operations

Analyst Action:

Advanced Micro (AMD 3.06, unch, 0.00%): initiated with a Underperform at Exane BNP Paribas; target $2.30

Broadcom (BRCM 44.25, -0.43, -1.0%): target raised to $43 at Barclays; Equal Weight

Fiserv (FISV 78.81, -0.24, -0.3%): downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Monness Crespi & Hardt; target lowered to $79

Intel (INTC 33.76, -0.65, -1.9%): initiated with Outperform at Exane BNP Paribas; target $42

Teradata (TDC 44.63, -0.66, -1.5%): initiated with a Hold at Deutsche Bank

4:31 pm First Solar and SunPower plan to partner to form joint YieldCo vehicle (FSLR) : First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) and SunPower Corp. (SPWR) announced that they are in advanced negotiations to form a joint YieldCo vehicle (the YieldCo) to which they each expect to contribute a portfolio of selected solar generation assets from their existing portfolio of assets. Upon the execution of a master formation agreement, the parties intend to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) for an initial public offering of limited partner interests in the YieldCo (the IPO). Formation of the YieldCo and completion of the IPO are subject to, among other things, the execution of definitive documentation, each party's board approval and regulatory approval. There is no assurance that the YieldCo will be formed or that the IPO will be consummated or that any other transaction will occur.

4:26 pm AXT disclosed that on February 23, 2015, the Board announced that pursuant to an anonymous whistleblower complaint, the Audit Committee has conducted an investigation of certain potential related-party transactions involving Davis Zhang, the Company's President, China Operations (AXTI) : The investigation did not conclude that there was any intentional misconduct by Mr. Zhang, or that he received any improper benefit from these transactions. Further, the investigation did not reveal any inaccuracies in the Company's financial statements resulting from these transactions. However, the investigation identified the following historical related-party transactions that were not previously disclosed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On February 20, 2015, the Board waived any potential inconsistencies with the Company's Code of Conduct and Ethics arising from the transactions identified in the investigation. Also, the Audit Committee approved the related-party nature of such transactions to the extent it had not previously approved such transactions. The Board and Audit Committee specified that such waiver and approval would have retroactive effect to the date of commencement of the transactions covered by such waiver and approval.

4:10 pm : The major averages began the new week on a sleepy note. The S&P 500 ended flat after spending the day in a seven-point range while the Nasdaq (+0.1%) finished a little ahead of the benchmark index.

In large part, the lack of activity on Monday could be explained by participants sticking to the sidelines ahead of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's semiannual testimony on monetary policy. Tomorrow, Ms. Yellen will appear before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 ET while her appearance in front of the House Financial Services Committee will follow on Wednesday. Since the minutes from the latest FOMC policy meeting showed waning support for increasing the fed funds rate during the first half of the year, participants will be on a lookout for similar hints from the Fed Chair tomorrow.

Meanwhile in Europe, Greece's government was expected to present a list of reforms today, but it remains unclear whether the Eurogroup received that list. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told CNN that the list was indeed delivered today, but separate reports indicated reform plans will be submitted tomorrow.

The wait-and-see tone resulted in range-bound action on light volume with only 720 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Six of ten sectors registered losses with all six cyclical sectors ending in the red. Most notably, the energy sector (-0.4%) slumped to the bottom of the leaderboard at the start, exerting pressure on the market throughout the day. The group lagged as crude oil fell 2.5% to $49.56/bbl. The energy component saw a brief afternoon spike into the $50.00/bbl area after Nigeria's oil minister said the sharp slide in crude prices could lead to an emergency OPEC meeting. WTI crude returned to its afternoon low after OPEC refuted the report, announcing no plans for an emergency meeting at this time.

Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, financials (-0.4%) and industrials (-0.4%) lagged while technology (+0.2%) finished ahead of the broader market thanks to the shares of Apple (AAPL 133.00, +3.50). The top-weighted sector component spiked 2.7% after announcing a EUR1.70 billion plan to build two data centers in Europe.

In addition to boosting its sector, the largest tech stock helped the Nasdaq spend the day ahead of the S&P. Biotechnology also contributed to the outperformance with the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 338.00, +1.57) adding 0.5% after being up more than 1.0% intraday. In turn, the health care sector (+0.4%) ended in the lead with Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX 198.75, +25.49) spiking 14.7% after agreeing to acquire Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP 155.76, -2.09) for $158.00/share.

Elsewhere among countercyclical groups, consumer staples (+0.3%) and utilities (+0.7%) posted gains while the telecom services sector (-0.6%) lagged.

Treasuries climbed throughout the day, ending on their highs with the 10-yr yield down five basis points at 2.06%.

Economic data was limited to the Existing Home Sales report, which showed a 4.9% decline in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.82 million from an upwardly revised 5.07 million (from 5.04 million) in December while the Briefing.com consensus expected a decline to 4.95 million SAAR.

The existing home sales data is derived from actual closings. Even though mortgage rates declined significantly in January, the impact from lower mortgage rates will not be felt until February. Furthermore, inventory levels continue to be troublesome for growth. During normal sales periods, inventory levels typically hold at roughly 6 months at the current sales rate. In January, inventories represented only a 4.7 months' supply.

Tomorrow, the Case-Shiller 20-city Index for December (Briefing.com consensus 4.3%) will be released at 9:00 ET while February Consumer Confidence will cross the wires at 10:00 ET (consensus 99.3).


Nasdaq Composite +4.8% YTD
S&P 500 +2.5% YTD
Russell 2000 +2.3% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.7% YTD

DJ30 -23.60 NASDAQ +5.01 SP500 -0.64 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1196/1.64 bln/1592 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1522/720.3 mln/1544 3:40 pm :

Oil futures showed some volatility today as investors/trader remained concerned about the global oversupply
This kept WTI crude prices over 3% earlier this morning.
Oil spiked this afternoon following headlines that OPEC may possibly hold an emergency meeting, which would be well before its scheduled meeting in June.
Oil erased those losses after headlines later came out refuting the earlier FT reports... go figure
Ultimately, Apr crude closed $1.26 lower at $49.56/barrel today.
Mar nat gas fell $0.07 to $2.88/MMBtu
Apr gold lost $3.80 to $1200.80/oz, while Mar silver fell $0.03 to $16.27/oz

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

VRX (196.34 +13.32%): Announced it will acquire Salix Pharma (SLXP) in a $14.5 bln deal; Reported Q4 earnings which beat consensus EPS estimates by $0.02, beat on revs; guided Q1 EPS above consensus.
TDG (221.98 +3.86%): Announced a definitive agreement to purchase the Telair Cargo Group of businesses from AAR Corp (AIR) for a total purchase price of ~$725 mln in cash.
KSU (120.24 +3.11%): Initiated with a Overweight at JP Morgan; tgt $148.

Large Cap Losers

BA (154.53 -2.39%): Downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman.
PXD (154.57 -2.64%): Weakness in various Oil & Gas companies as WTI crude declines 3.3% on the (CLR, numerous others also lower).

Mid Cap Gainers

PPO (59.74 +12.82%): Signs definitive agreement to be acquired by Asahi Kasei for $60.50 per share.
NSM (30.1 +7.77%): Signed an agreement in principle to purchase a $9.8 bln portfolio of
mortgage servicing rights from Ocwen Financial (OCN).
IPGP (97.01 +4%): Price target raised to $102 from $98 at Needham; Buy rating maintained.

Mid Cap Losers

CYBR (60.7 -13.72%): Downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
ERF (10.05 -6.86%): Downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill; Downgraded to Hold at TD Securities and Desjardins.
CTB (35.28 -6.44%): Reported Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.45 per share, excluding the gain on the joint venture interest sale, $0.19 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.64; revenues fell 4.8% year/year to $819.6 mln vs the $806.66 mln consensus.

12:02 pm Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (230) outpacing new lows (53) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAPL, ABC, ACAD, ADBE, ADP, ADT, AET, AGN, AIR, AKRX, ALGT, ALKS, ALR, AMOT, AMZN, ANIP, ANTM, AOS, ASH, ASPX, AVG, AVGO, AXL, AXTA, AZO, BBC, BBP, BCV, BDX, BFR, BIB, BIIB, BMA, BMRN, BRK.B, BURL, CAH, CAVM, CELG, CEMP, CERN, CF, CFN, CGI, CHD, CHH, CHKP, CI, CNC, CNMD, COTY, COWN, CRL, CRMD, CSC, CSGS, CSWC, CXW, DD, DEG, DEI, DG, DIS, DISH, DLTR, DLX, DM, DOOR, DOX, DPZ, DRI, DWAT, DXCM, DXGE, DY, EA, EBS, EGL, EIGI, ENL, EPAM, ESLT, ESRX, EXPE, FCAU, FCCO, FLEX, FNFV, FNRG, FORM, FTCS, FV, GB, GFF, GIB, HAE, HASI, HBI, HD, HIFR, HII, HNT, HOLX, HQH, HQL, HRL, HUM, IBB, IFF, IGT, IMAX, INCY, INT, INTL, IPG, IPGP, IPXL, JACK, JBLU, JW.A, JYNT, LABL, LAMR, LBTYK, LCI, LEA, LH, LLNW, LMT, LO, LOW, LUX, LVLT, LXFT, MA, MASI, MCK, MD, MDT, MFLX, MIDD, MMM, MMSI, MNK, MNRO, MNST, MO, MOH, MOS, MPC, MPWR, MSCI, MSG, MTSN, NBIX, NOW, NRZ, NSAT, NVAX, OCUL, OMAM, ONCE, ONEQ, PAM, PANW, PAYX, PCYC, PLKI, PPO, PSCH, PSO, PTLA, PUK, PZZA, Q, QQEW, RAI, RCKY, RDVY, RECN, RMCF, ROP, ROST, RUK, SBUX, SERV, SGU, SHW, SIAL, SKX, SKYW, SKYY, SONC, ST, STWD, SWKS, TAST, TDG, TECH, TFX, TM, TMO, TREX, TRR, TSCO, TSEM, TSO, TSRO, TSS, TXRH, UNFI, UNH, UTHR, V, VIPS, VLO, VONE, VONG, VRX, WAB, WBC, WCG, WM, WPPGY, XON, Y, ZBRA, ZFGN, ZIOP, ZSPH

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ADEP, ADGE, AGYS, AMBR, ARCW, BIS, CACQ, CAS, CIB, CLTX, CMLP, CRRS, DNOW, DRL, DWSN, EGAN, ENZ, GEOS, GLF, GRMN, GSOL, HLX, HSBC, I, INVT, JIVE, JONE, KZ, MCF, MGH, MNI, MRIN, MX, NEWS, NMIH, NUTR, OPXA, PRXI, QIHU, RAVN, RELV, SCHN, SGOC, SODA, SPPI, SVVC, TDW, TGD, TRX, TTI, VBLT, WBAI, XRA

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: IBB, IHF, IHI, ITA, IWF, IYH, PPA, PPH, RTH, SKYY, XBI, XHB, XLK, XLV, XLY, XRT

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: JO

8:03 am Samsung Elect: Samsung SDI to acquire Magna International's (MGA) battery pack business (SSNLF) : Co announces it has agreed to acquire the battery pack business of Magna International (MGA). The acquisition is expected to enhance SSNLF's SDI's capabilities in batteries for electric vehicles by combining the co's established leadership in battery cells and modules with MGA's expertise in battery packs. Financial terms of the deal will not be disclosed. The transaction is expected to be completed during the first half of 2015.

8:02 am Violin Memory signs EMEA distribution agreement with Arrow (VMEM) :

Co and and Arrow announced the signing of an EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) distribution agreement.Violin will be leveraging Arrow's sales, support and technical resources to continue Violin's expansion into the all-flash array market in EMEA as enterprise flash storage adoption increases.Arrow has technical applications teams and specialists that assist its extensive channel community across the EMEA region to benefit from improved application performance based on enhanced workload handling, application speed and durability functionalities.