Sector Investing

[ReturntoSender]

From Briefing.com: It was another seesaw day of trading, marked by a downswing early, an upswing in mid-morning and early afternoon action, and then a downswing in the late afternoon. Ultimately, the market ended the session with modest losses that erased roughly half of Monday's modest gains.

The most interesting action of note occurred away from the stock market and in the currency market. Following a higher-than-expected CPI print for May out of the eurozone, the euro spiked 2.2% against the dollar to 1.1148. That pressured the U.S. Dollar Index (-1.5%) in a big way, which lent some support to dollar-denominated commodity prices.

The stock market for its part was a pretty mixed bag. The only sector that finished more than 1.0% away from where it started was the utilities sector (-1.4%). The rate-sensitive sector got hit as the yield on the 10-yr note jumped eight basis points to 2.26%.

That move occurred despite a weak Factory Orders report for April (-0.4%), which suggested there may have been some unwinding action on the part of European investors looking at higher yields at home and a strengthening euro that made ownership of Treasuries look a little less attractive than it did before the CPI report.

The S&P 500 information technology sector (-0.3%) trudged through the day without a lot of fanfare and without a lot of leadership. Semiconductors were a pressure point, evidenced by the 1.2% decline in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index that can be largely attributed to profit taking after a big M&A-related run that has seen the index jump nearly 6% in the last month.

Notable news items from sector components included the following:

Adobe Systems (ADBE 79.82, -0.05, -0.1%): Confirmed Mixamo acquisition a San Francisco-based company that enables designers to create and customize a broad range of high quality 3D characters and animations; terms not disclosed.

Akamai Technologies (AKAM 75.46, +0.23, +0.3%): Company and Trustwave announced a new strategic alliance designed to help businesses more effectively fight a wide range of malicious online activities through vulnerability assessment, denial of service prevention and incident response.

Facebook (FB 80.45, +0.16, +0.2%): New York Times reported that Facebook will expand advertising on Instagram, opening the feed to all advertisers later this year

Google (GOOG 539.18, +5.19, +1.0%): to release M, the next version of Android

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 33.88, +0.12, +0.4%): Announced that DreamWorks Animation has selected HP to automate its IT infrastructure, by deploying the HP Datacenter Care-Infrastructure Automation solution. Also announced that its portfolio of Windows-based PCs currently shipping are expected to be able to upgrade to Windows 10 when available on July 29, 2015.

Jabil Circuit (JBL 23.97, -0.19, -0.8%): ViZn Energy Systems announced that it has entered into a strategic relationship with Jabil Circuit to manufacture ViZn's redox flow batteries in Jabil's manufacturing facilities.

Juniper Networks (JNPR 27.25, +0.19, +0.7%): At the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Global Tech Conference, management said it expects to gain market share over the next 3 years in the areas of routing, switching and security. Company expects Q3 and Q4 improvements in demand from carrier and web service clients, which is the basis for an improved outlook for the second half of 2015 (versus the first half of 2015, and the last half of 2014). Juniper is still targeting a 25% operating margin and reiterated its plan to achieve this target through 3-5% revenue growth over the next 3 years, with cost growth limited to less than that figure.

Microsoft (MSFT 46.92, -0.31, -0.7%): Confirmed that it has acquired 6Wunderkinder GmbH, the creator of the to-do list app, Wunderlist. Terms were not disclosed, although The Wall Street Journal cited a person familiar with the matter saying the reported the deal was for between $100 million and $200 million.

NetApp (NTAP 33.34, +0.19, +0.6%): Company announced George Kurian has been appointed by the board as chief executive officer and also appointed to the board of directors. Lead independent director Mike Nevens has been elected chairman of the board. These announcements follow the departure of Tom Georgens, the company's former chairman and chief executive officer. Mr. Kurian joined NetApp in 2011 and has served as the company's executive vice president, Product Operations where he was responsible for overseeing the strategy and development of NetApp's Product and Solutions portfolio since September 2013.

Qualcomm (QCOM 69.35, -0.07, -0.1%): Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, and Allwinner Technology announced that they will be collaborating to further extend QTI's Snapdragon processors into the connected tablet segment which is experiencing strong growth. Qualcomm also announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, is launching the industry's first hybrid wireless range extender utilizing Qualcomm Atheros' leading HomePlug AV2 multi-input/multi-output Powerline and 802.11ac Wi-Fi technologies.

Elsewhere in the technology space:

Celestica, Inc. (CLS 12.70, -0.11, -0.9%): Announced the preliminary results of its "modified Dutch auction" to purchase for cancellation up to $350 million of its subordinate voting shares. Shareholders of Celestica had the opportunity to tender Shares at a price of their choice between $11.70 and $13.30 per share, and approximately 28,498,588 Shares were properly tendered to the offer.

Cray (CRAY 31.05, -0.02, -0.1%): Announced the establishment of its European, Middle East and Africa headquarters at the Company's new office in Bristol, United Kingdom.

PMC-Sierra (PMCS 8.96, -0.10, -1.1%): Announced appointment of Edward Sharp as Chief Strategy and Technology Officer. Prior to joining PMC, Sharp was vice president of NetApp's (NTAP) Emerging Products Group.

Priceline (PCLN 1196.02, +29.36, +2.5%): At Goldman Sachs Conference, CEO said he remains bullish; and that law of large numbers is a headwind. Notes Priceline's core market is small countries where they don't speak English and that the Chinese will define the travel market 10 years from now. Ctrip (CTRP 77.04, -4.59, -5.6%) partnership/investment offers access to Chinese travelers who are primarily domestic (intra-China). Says Priceline is absorbing friction during a transition as new supply (sharing, Airbnb) comes on the market. Notes Demand for bookings 0-2 days out and 45+ days out is growing.

Progress Software (PRGS 26.57, +0.18, +0.7%): Announced the release of two new drivers for its DataDirect enterprise data connectivity suite. The new drivers for MongoDB and SparkSQL add to an already robust portfolio of drivers to better enable integration and support of more than 200 of the most popular data sources.

Ruckus Wireless (RKUS 10.87, +0.17, +1.6%): Announced that it is working with Smartac Group China Holdings to help build Ruckus Smart WiFi networks covering more than 300 passenger stations for three major railroad systems in China-Beijing, Guangzhou, and Lanzhou.

Unisys (UIS 20.95, +0.38, +1.9%): Received contract from Australia's New South Wales Government's Office of Finance and Services to provide IT services for clients of its current shared services provider.

Analyst Action:

Altera (ALTR 51.70, +0.02, +0.04%): downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James

Avago Technologies (AVGO 144.16, -2.46, -1.7%): initiated with a Buy at Drexel Hamilton; target $180

Intel (INTC 33.27, -0.64): downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital

Juniper Networks (JNPR 27.25, +0.19, +0.7%): downgraded to Hold from Buy at Standpoint Research
4:05 pm Violin Memory misses by $0.01, misses on revs -- co will guide on call (VMEM) : Reports Q1 (Apr) loss of $0.22 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.21); revenues fell 33.1% year/year to $12.1 mln vs the $20.97 mln consensus.

The Company will provide second quarter fiscal year 2016 guidance during today's conference call. Guidance will be posted on Violin Memory's investor relations website at investor.violin-memory.com following the conclusion of the conference call

1:22 pm Integrated Silicon: Cypress Semi (CY) send letter to the Board of ISSI, indicating it strongly disagrees that its offer poses the regulatory or financing risks ISSI claimed (ISSI) : Co's letter stated:

"I am writing to respond to certain assertions in the June 1, 2015 press release issued by Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. ("ISSI") regarding our offer to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of ISSI for $20.25 per share in cash. For the reasons described below, we strongly disagree that our offer poses the regulatory or financing risks you claim. Furthermore, on a comparative basis, we have a high degree of conviction that Cypress's proposal has far less timing and closing risk than the Agreement and Plan of Merger dated as of March 12, 2015 between ISSI and Uphill Investment Co. The concerns articulated in the June 1 press release about antitrust risk and overlap between Cypress and ISSI in what you characterize as the "SRAM market" are misleading. We appreciate that there will be antitrust review processes that may address competitive interaction in some SRAM applications. However, we believe that the antitrust agency reviewers will see this to be a fundamentally procompetitive transaction within an exceptionally dynamic industry populated by many far larger players and customers. As we said two weeks ago, we would have preferred to participate in your sale process, but were surprisingly not contacted. As such, we are simultaneously releasing this letter to the public as we believe that it is in the best interest of ISSI and its stockholders to have full information regarding our proposal."

11:44 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (83) outpacing new lows (67) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ADPT, ADXS, ALN, AMED, ANCX, ATTU, BRSS, CBPO, CBS.A, CE, CFG, CLCD, CLS, COLL, COWN, CRIS, CSGS, CTSH, CVRS, DOX, EBAY, EBF, ERN, FCAP, FENX, FEYE, FLML, FOE, FSI, FTAI, GDDY, GSBD, GSIG, GSL, HMHC, HZNP, IPAR, IVC, JNP, LOGI, LYTS, MNTA, MSBF, MW, NAT, NPTN, NVEE, NYCB, NYLD, OLED, OMG, OPK, PFNX, PPO, PROV, QCRH, RARE, REGI, RENN, RPTP, RTRX, RXDX, SBCP, SBSA, SCI, SEDG, SGEN, SGMS, SGU, SIEN, SNFCA, STNR, SUPN, TCX, TNK, TTMI, TV, UCBA, UEPS, WBS, YLCO, ZAGG, ZBRA

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AEGR, AHC, AMBR, ARO, ASM, AZUR, BKK, BLT, BWG, CLUB, CSTM, CTL, CTP, CUR, CVSL, CZR, EARN, EDD, EQGP, EZPW, FCFS, FHCO, FSNN, GRVY, HEAR, ICAD, IF, IMRS, INF, IO, ISH, LMIA, LTRX, MFV, MNI, MPA, MXWL, NCS, NMRX, NSPH, NTX, OB, OGE, OGEN, ONDK, PSUN, QUMU, RDEN, RELL, RFIL, RMGN, RNO, SHLO, SHOS, SMT, SSN, TRIV, UCP, UFPT, VCLT, VPV, VRA, WBK, YRCW, ZAZA, ZQK, ZSAN

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: none

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: LQD