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From Briefing.com: The major indices logged some robust gains on Monday in a session that saw oil prices drop 2.1% to $43.88/bbl, the U.S. Dollar Index dip 0.7% to 99.65, and every economic report (Empire Manufacturing, Industrial Production, and NAHB Housing Market Index) check in weaker than expected.

It was rally helped along by thoughts that the Federal Reserve might not sound as if it is in a hurry to raise the fed funds rate when it releases its latest policy directive on Wednesday, even if that directive doesn't include the word "patient" in it.

Time will tell, but the tale of the tape on Monday had a somewhat defensive story line to it. The health care (+2.1%) and utilities (+1.7%) sectors were the best-performing sectors and the Treasury market also moved higher simultaneously with the stock market.

To be fair, though, it wasn't as if the cyclical sectors didn't do well. Every sector gained at least 1.1% with the exception of the telecom services (+0.8%) and basic materials (-0.1%) sectors.

Nearly every component in the S&P 500 information technology sector (+1.2%) logged a gain on a fairly slow news day. The information technology sector, however, still trailed the S&P 500 (+1.4%).

Notable news items from the sector included the following:


Alliance Data (ADS 289.32, +1.04, +1.2%): Provided update on its Private Label segment for February 2015. Average receivables totaled $10,604,279 (in thousands), up 33% year-over-year. The Delinquency rate as of February 28, 2015, was 4.2%.

Facebook (FB 78.05, unch, 0.00%): Acquired TheFind.com; terms not available

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 32.38, -0.05, -0.2%): A U.S. District Judge approved its settlement with shareholders over Autonomy deal, according to reports. Separately, HP Enterprise Services Ltd announced that it has been selected by international express delivery services company TNT to help achieve its goal of delivering the perfect customer transaction. Under the six-year contract, HP will support TNT's business by consolidating and virtualizing its IT infrastructure and moving some functions to an HP Helion Managed Virtual Private Cloud environment.

MasterCard (MA 88.71, +0.96, +1.1%): Company and Ita (ITUB) confirmed the signing of a new 20-year agreement that further strengthens the long-term relationship between the two companies. As part of the agreement, Ita and MasterCard will establish and operate a new electronic payments network in Brazil. In addition, Ita will issue payment solutions including credit, debit and pre-paid cards as part of the newly created payments network and focus on enhancing the efficiency of their payment value chain. MasterCard will be responsible for managing the operations of the new network and transaction routing.

Microsoft (MSFT 41.53, +0.15, +0.4%): Announced the availability of new products and services designed to enable people and organizations to put data to work, driving better results for businesses of all sizes. The announcements were made at Convergence 2015, Microsoft's annual conference for its business customers.

Motorola Solutions (MSI 65.86, +1.06, +1.6%): Made a strategic investment in CyPhy Works; terms not disclosed. CyPhy Works is a developer of advanced unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones.Elsewhere in the technology space:

Arrow Electronics (ARW 60.72, +1.04, +1.7%): Company and Splunk (SPLK) announce distribution agreement. Under the agreement, Arrow's enterprise computing solutions business will distribute Splunk software that lets users search, monitor and analyze all machine-generated IT and business data from a single location in real time.

Cree (CREE 37.08, +0.46, +1.3%): Announced that it has demonstrated that its best-in-class SiC MOSFET and diode technologies enable previously unattainable levels of power density in string solar inverter products, yielding ultra-high efficiencies at one-fifth the average size and weight of today's silicon-based inverter units.

Electro Scientific (ESIO 6.43, -0.06, -0.8%): Announced a corporate restructuring expected to streamline its manufacturing and development operations. The restructuring will result in the closure of the assembly plant and development center located in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and overall staff reductions of approximately 45 employees. Products currently developed and manufactured in the Chelmsford plant will be transferred to other corporate facilities.The financial impact is expected to produce annualized pre-tax cost savings of approximately $4.5 million once fully implemented during the fiscal third quarter ending December 2015. The company expects pre-tax charges of approximately $5.5 million in severance and facility-related costs, of which $2.0 million is expected to be recorded in the fiscal fourth quarter ending March 2015.

JDS Uniphase (JDSU 13.93, +0.30, +2.1%): Announced that SoftBank (SFTBY) Mobile has chosen to implement JDSU's ariesoGEO platform and GEOperformance application across its 3G and LTE networks in downtown Tokyo. SoftBank will use ariesoGEO to help improve customer satisfaction by using location intelligence data from its network.

LinkedIn (LNKD 260.17, +1.05, +0.4%): Acquired software company Careerify; terms not disclosed

Sprint (S 5.15, +0.03, +0.5%): Filings show CFO disclosed the purchase of 3,600 shares at $5.05 per share (transaction date 3/13)

Zillow Group (Z 106.17, +0.68, +0.4%): Announced that the largest multiple listing service in the country, California Regional MLS, along with 17 additional MLS partners, have signed agreements to send their listings directly to Zillow and Trulia, bringing thousands of new listings directly to both sites.Analyst Action:

Avago Technologies (AVGO 129.86, +4.86, +4.0%): upgraded to Buy from Neutral at DA Davidson; target to $150 from $125

Jabil Circuit (JBL 22.22, +0.49, +2.3%): upgraded to Buy from Hold at Cross Research

Microsoft (MSFT 41.53, +0.15, +0.4%): target lowered to $49 from $52 at UBS; Buy

Oracle (ORCL 43.41, +1.03, +2.4%): target raised to $48 from $47 at RBC Capital Markets; Sector Perform

Qorvo (QRVO 76.30, +3.73, +5.2%): upgraded to Buy from Neutral at DA Davidson; target raised to $100 from $70

Seagate Technology (STX 54.84, +1.08, +2.0%): upgraded to Strong Buy from Buy at Needham; target $65

Xilinx (XLNX 41.39, +1.65, +4.2%): upgraded to Buy from Hold at Drexel Hamilton

4:15 pm : The stock market rebounded from last week's decline with a Monday rally that sent the S&P 500 (+1.3%) back above its 50-day moving average (2,060). The benchmark index narrowed its March loss to 1.1% while the Nasdaq (+1.2%) and Russell 2000 (+0.6%) underperformed, but still logged solid gains to start the week.

Unperturbed by disappointing economic data, equity indices rallied out of the gate and registered the bulk of their gains during the first hour of action. Countercyclical health care (+2.2%) and utilities (+1.7%) held the lead throughout the session, but most other sectors also posted solid gains.

The only group that couldn't make it out of the red was the materials sector (-0.1%) as Dow component DuPont (DD 77.07, -3.43) weighed after Bank of America/Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock to 'Underperform' from 'Buy.' DuPont lost 4.3% while steelmakers also pressured the sector with Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 30.91, -0.06) sliding 0.2%.

Meanwhile, another commodity-linked sector-energy-began the day in negative territory, but rebounded to end higher by 1.4% even as crude oil dropped to a new low for the year. The energy component settled lower by 2.1% at $43.94/bbl after testing the $43.00/bbl level this morning.

Crude oil spent the day in the red after OPEC's monthly oil market report indicated that global demand growth is unlikely to increase from the previous month's 1.17 million barrels/day. Furthermore, a pullback in the Dollar Index (99.71, -0.63) failed to provide support. The Dollar Index lost 0.6% with the greenback giving up 0.7% to the euro, which tested the 1.0600 level.

Today's relative weakness in the dollar combined with the lack of a negative response to disappointing economic data suggests that participants were not all that concerned with the possibility that the Fed will strike a hawkish tone in Wednesday's policy statement. There was no strong demand for volatility protection today with the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 15.61, -0.39) falling 2.4%.

As mentioned earlier, the health care sector ended in the lead. Biotechnology supported the advance step-for-step with the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 353.97, +8.64) climbing 2.5% to a new record high.

In turn, the relative strength within the biotech group was not enough to keep the Nasdaq in-line with the broader market. The tech-heavy index underperformed slightly as Facebook (FB 78.07, +0.02) and Intel (INTC 30.83, -0.10) spent the day in negative territory. Intel shed 0.3%, but that had little impact on its peers as the broader PHLX Semiconductor Index gained 1.5%.

Elsewhere among cyclical groups, the industrial sector (+1.6%) outperformed with help from transport stocks. The Dow Jones Transportation Average jumped 1.7% with 19 of its 20 components posting gains while Matson (MATX 40.73, -0.42) lost 1.0%.

Treasuries registered modest gains with the 10-yr yield slipping three basis points to 2.09%.

Today's participation was in-line with recent averages as 740 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data included Empire Manufacturing Index, Industrial Production, and NAHB Housing Market Index:


The Empire Manufacturing Survey for March registered a reading of 6.9, which was below the prior month's reading of 7.8 and below the Briefing.com consensus estimate, which was pegged at 8.8
Industrial production increased 0.1% in February after declining a negatively revised 0.3% (from +0.2%) while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of 0.3%
Manufacturing production declined 0.2% in February after declining 0.3% in January, representing the third consecutive monthly contraction
Capacity utilization declined to 78.9% from 79.1% (consensus 79.5%)
The NAHB Housing Market Index for March fell to 53 from 55 while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase to 56

Tomorrow's economic data will be limited to the 8:30 ET release of February Housing Starts (Briefing.com consensus 1.041 million) and Building Permits (consensus 1.07 million).

Nasdaq Composite +4.1% YTD
Russell 2000 +2.9% YTD
S&P 500 +1.1% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.9% YTD

DJ30 +228.11 NASDAQ +57.75 SP500 +27.79 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1584/1.59 bln/1223 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1988/739.7 mln/1087 3:40 pm :

Oil prices sold off again today on broad market weakness
WTI crude came back some, but ultimately closed below $44/barrel
Apr contract finished the day $0.95 lower at $43.94/barrel
Apr nat gas closed $0.02 lower at $2.71/MMbtu
Despite weakness in the dollar index, precious metals closed with only modest gains
Apr gold ended floor trading $2.80 higher at $1153.40/oz, while May silver gained $0.12 at $15.61/oz
May copper rose $0.01 to $2.67/lb

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

EW (147.12 +8.7%): Announced that five-year outcomes for high-risk Sapien patients demonstrated equivalence to surgery, durable valve performance.
AMGN (162.23 +5.17%): Reported that New Detailed Data From Phase 3 study show Amgen's Repatha in combination with Statins reduced LDL-C by 67-76% compared to placebo in Japanese patients with high cardiovascular risk and high cholesterol.
QRVO (76.03 +4.77%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at DA Davidson; tgt raised to $100.

Large Cap Losers

NFLX (418.84 -4.46%): Downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Evercore ISI; tgt to $380 from $450.
EC (13.52 -4.22%): Ecopetrol and Pacific Rubiales Energy announce that they have agreed not to extend the Rubiales risk participation and Piriri joint venture contracts that expire in 2016.
MPEL (20.82 -2.69%): Downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Mid Cap Gainers

LTM (70.61 +5.07%): To be acquired by affiliates of Leonard Green & Partners and TPG; Life Time Shareholders will receive $72.10 per share in cash.
JBLU (18.72 +3.31%): Upgraded to Outperform from Mkt Perform at Raymond James.
MIK (29.16 +3%): Price target raised to $31 from $24 at Raymond James; Outperform.

Mid Cap Losers

WLL (37.58 -6.05%): Pulling back following a surge late Friday on reports the company has attracted potential buyers in its rumored sales process.
AVP (7.29 -5.57%): Replaced by Hanesbrands (HBI) in the S&P 500.
LINE (10.67 -4.73%): Numerous Oil & Gas names under pressure as WTI crude futures decline to fresh multi-year lows (WPX, PTEN, BTE also lower).

11:56 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (271) outpacing new lows (145) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ABC, ACGL, ACHC, ACT, ADXS, AEO, AET, AFAM, AFFX, AFG, AGN, AIR, AKAM, ALG, ALNY, AMBA, AMPH, AMRN, AMSG, ANAC, ANTM, APH, ASPX, AWH, BANR, BBC, BBNK, BBP, BBY, BFR, BHB, BIB, BLUE, BMA, BMRN, BMY, BPOP, BSFT, BURL, CACC, CAF, CBRL, CBRX, CEMP, CEVA, CFI, CFNL, CFRX, CGNX, CHDN, CI, CIVI, CLDN, CME, CNC, CNK, CNMD, COKE, COL, CONE, COO, CPF, CPRX, CRL, CRMT, CRUS, CSBK, CSF, CSFL, CTAS, CTLT, CUK, CUTR, CVTI, CYAN, DEPO, DG, DGX, DHIL, DIS, DLTR, DNBF, DSPG, DVA, DW, DXGE, DXJS, DYAX, EBIX, EBSB, EIG, EOS, ESLT, ESPR, ESS, ETFC, EW, EXLS, FCAU, FCS, FDP, FEIM, FL, FMS, FRSH, FSL, FV, FWRD, G, GB, GCI, GFF, GGAL, GHC, GMK, GOOD, GY, HAIN, HBI, HBOS, HMHC, HNT, HOLX, HPTX, HTLF, HUM, HXL, IBB, IBP, ICUI, IIVI, IMKTA, INAP, INCR, INFN, INSM, INTU, IPXL, IRS, ISLE, JBHT, JBLU, JEQ, JOF, JRN, KAI, KR, KSS, KYO, LBIO, LEG, LH, LION, LLNW, LPSB, LTM, MAC, MANH, MASI, MCS, MD, MDCA, MGLN, MHFI, MIK, MLR, MNK, MSCC, MSO, MTG, MTN, MTU, MVIS, NCLH, NEWT, NLNK, NSP, OA, ONCE, PAM, PATK, PAYX, PBH, PBIP, PCYC, PF, PFPT, PKI, PLT, PLUS, PNFP, PNK, PRQR, PRXL, PSCH, PVTB, Q, QADA, QADB, QGEN, RAX, RDI, REGN, REV, RGA, RHP, RLI, RMD, ROL, ROST, SAGE, SBNY, SCHL, SCI, SCMP, SEIC, SFNC, SHLM, SIGI, SKYW, SPLP, SPNC, SPR, SPTN, SRCL, SRDX, SSP, STC, STZ, SUPN, SWKS, SYNT, TA, TBNK, TGT, TLMR, TMO, TRR, TRV, TSRO, TWOU, TYL, TYPE, UAM, UBSI, ULTI, UNH, URBN, USCR, USPH, UTHR, VAC, VLRS, VOYA, VRTX, VTWG, WAL, WAT, WBA, WBB, WBS, WCG, WERN, WETF, WRLD, WSH, WSM, WSO, XPO, ZAGG, ZFGN

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ACI, ACRX, AETI, ANR, AP, ARLP, ARP, ATL, ATLS, ATNM, AXPW, BAS, BBDO, BIS, BTU, CEQP, CHK, CHNR, CIG.C, CLD, CLF, CNNX, CNX, COMT, DDD, DNN, DRQ, DSKY, DWSN, DYNT, EGLE, EJ, ELON, ENBL, EPM, ESV, FBIZ, FHCO, FTEK, FTGC, FTK, FUEL, GEOS, GHI, GLF, GRAM, GRMN, GULTU, HELI, HERO, HGT, HNR, HOLI, HOS, IF, IRG, JMT, JOEZ, KBR, KYE, LAQ, LAYN, LEJU, LFL, LITB, MARK, MDM, MERU, MIL, MPEL, MPET, MRIN, NAO, NDRO, NE, NGLS, NOA, NOR, NOV, NRP, NSLP, NTG, NTP, OII, ORIG, ORMP, OXY, PBT, PDBC, PFIE, PGN, PHII, PQ, PRGN, PT, PVH, PWE, RDC, REDF, REN, RIG, RNET, ROYL, ROYT, RYAM, SBLK, SCON, SDLP, SDPI, SDRL, SFUN, SHOS, SINA, SJT, SKBI, SRF, SRV, SSE, SSL, SWSH, SXCP, TAHO, TCPI, TDW, TENX, TGB, TGC, TICC, TMST, TTF, UCP, UNT, USEG, UUUU, VNCE, WHZ, WIA, WILN, WRES, WYNN, XGTI, XPL, YOKU, ZEUS

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: EWJ, IAI, IBB, IHF, IYH, PPH, RTH, XBI, XLV, XRT

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: COW, DBC, DJP, GREK, KOL, OIH, OIL, PPLT, RJA, USCI, USO, VNM, XES, XME