From Briefing.com: The markets are seeing red again, on back to back sessions weighed down today by more volatility in the Chinese markets. In addition, the continued drop in crude oil futures seems to be taking us lower on the Wednesday session. WTI Oct. Crude Oil prices dipped below $41 per barrel today, speeding the markets lower at about midday as the morning gave us a crude oil inventory build of 2.62 million barrels, when consensus was calling for a draw. We finished Wednesday trade with the Dow Jones Industrial Average leading the way lower by 163 points (-0.93%) to 17348, the S&P 500 following lower by 17 (-0.83%) to 2079, and the Nasdaq Composite lower by 40 (-0.80%) to 5019.
Due out today were the July 2015 Fed minutes, were leaked early, initially taking the markets higher. In the leaked minutes, the Fed even noted the spillover volatility from China and recent declines in oil prices pose some concerns. As noted, the markets took a run up to flat lines following the leak, but quickly reversed those gains and returned to earlier levels just as fast as the initial run up. The minutes noted that rate hike conditions are 'approaching,' but that the labor market still has room to go before such a time.
Notable sector movers included XLE -2.76%, XLB -1.27%, XLI -0.93%, XLP -0.92%, XLF -0.91%, XLK -0.66%, IYZ -0.47%, XLV -0.41%, XLY -0.18%, XLU +0.42%, with only Utilities managing to stay out of the hole. Energy was led lower on the session on oil weakness, while weakness in Materials' (XLB 45.12, -0.56 -1.23%) components LYB -1.46%, PPG -1.98% and DOW -1.39% led the sector lower.
In particular today, Solar stocks (TAN 31.85, -1.26 -3.81%) were getting hit hard on the back of sector component Canadian Solar's (CSIQ 20.21, -4.48 -18.15%) Q2 results. The stock traded lower today in spite of the better than expected results as Q3 and FY15 revenue guidance fell short of what the street was expecting. Sector component JinkoSolar Holdings (JKS 21.42, -1.83 -7.87%) also traded lower on the session, ahead of Q2 results slated for tomorrow morning.
For its part, the S&P 500 Information Technology sector (702.50, -6.05 -0.85%) performed in-line with the broader market - albeit with slightly tamer losses. Components dragging the sector down today were SNDK -5.43%, STX -5.03%, FSLR -3.27%, EA -3.03%, MU -2.93%, HPQ -2.29%, while shares of SWKS +1.79%, SYMC +0.97%, ADI +0.83%, GOOGL +0.77%, GOOG +0.73%, ALTR +0.65% helped tame the overall losses.
Other news items among sector components:
Seagate Technology (STX 49.43, -2.62 -5.03%) entered a definitive agreement to acquire Dot Hill
Systems (HILL 9.68, +4.50 +86.87%) in an all-cash transaction valued at $9.75 per share, or a total of about $694 million. Seagate expects the transaction to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings in FY16.
Cisco Systems (CSCO 27.80, -0.45 -1.59%) provided an update on litigation with Arista (ANET 79.54, -0.34 -0.43%) in which the company noted that they believe all patents covered in the suit were produced by individuals who worked for CSCO and who are now at Arista, or by individuals at CSCO who worked with executives who are now at Arista.
PayPal (PYPL 37.19, -0.80 -2.11%) acquired mobile-commerce firm Modest - financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Elsewhere in the technology space:
Toshiba (TOSBF 3.17, +0.26 +8.93%) issued a notice of a change to its management team, as CEO Masashi would cease to serve as Chairman of the Board. The company is considering outside candidates for the inclusion to the Board. The company will therefore reduce the Board size to 11 from 16 members and increase the ration of outside directors to above 50%. The company also disclosed its current status for past financial results, from FY08-FY14.
Eltek (ELTK 1.10, +0.06 +5.77%) announced it received several orders from three U.S. customers in the medical device sector, amounting to $1.1 million since the beginning of Q3.
Remark Media (MARK 4.14, +0.05 +1.10%) acquired Vegas.com for an undisclosed amount. The deal would develop partnerships and strengthen the company's presence for millennial travelers.
Web.com (WWWW 21.52, -2.25 -9.47%) disclosed it discovered an unauthorized breach to one of its computer systems on August 13, 2015. Credit card information from about 93,000 customers may have been compromised.
Elephant Talk (ETAK 0.33, -0.04 -11.84%) announced it is exploring strategic alternatives for its ValidSoft subsidiary. The company is evaluating joint venture, strategic disposition, or merger of the subsidiary which provides security software and transaction verification technology to clients.
Synacor (SYNC 1.53, -0.07 -4.38%) announced the acquisition of certain assets from Zimbra for about $24.5 million. Subsequently, the company revised its FY15 revenue guidance up to $102-108 million versus prior guidance of $97-102 million. The company also raised FY15 EBITA guidance to $4-6 million from $3.5-5 million. Zimbra is a collaborative software suite that includes email servers and web clients.
Analyst actions:
GOOG/GOOGL was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Atlantic Equities,
INTU was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank, MRVL was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Ladenburg Thalmann,
ADI was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Sun Trust Rbsn Humphrey,
MBT was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup, COHU was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Sidoti; HILL was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Sidoti
4:33 pm Semtech reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (SMTC) :
Reports Q2 (Jul) earnings of $0.24 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.24; revenues fell 13.7% year/year to $125.7 mln vs the $124.37 mln consensus.
Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.21-0.27, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.29 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $110-120 mln vs. $129.02 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
4:05 pm NetApp beats by $0.06, reports revs in-line; guides OctQ EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (NTAP) :
Reports Q1 (Jul) earnings of $0.29 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.23; revenues fell 10.3% year/year to $1.34 bln vs the $1.32 bln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2 (Oct), sees EPS of $0.55-0.60, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.46 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $1.40-1.50 bln vs. $1.39 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
NetApp clustered Data ONTAP node shipments increased 114% YoY
All Flash FAS units grew 137% YoY; fifth consecutive quarter of triple-digit growth
Co says $484 million was returned to shareholders in share repurchases and cash dividends.
4:10 pm : The stock market ended the Wednesday session on a lower note after enduring a volatile day that included opening weakness, an afternoon rebound, and a slide from rebound highs. When the dust settled, the S&P 500 ended lower by 0.8%, turning a slim weekly gain into a 0.6% week-to-date loss.
Equities stumbled at the start after the overnight session featured more uninspiring action in China. Specifically, the Shanghai Composite climbed 1.2%, but not before being down more than 5.0% in the early going. The wild turnaround was followed by a retreat across European markets while U.S. equities opened in the red and continued their slide with the energy sector (-2.8%) pacing the move.
The growth-sensitive group extended its weekly loss to 3.2% while crude oil fell to a new low for the year, ending the pit session lower by 4.3% at $40.80/bbl. Similarly, the other commodity-related sector-materials (-1.2%)-ended at the bottom of the leaderboard amid weakness in steelmakers. The Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 25.63, -0.75) lost 2.8%. That being said, mining shares represented a pocket of strength, evidenced by a 2.9% spike in Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 15.20, +0.43). On a related note, gold futures climbed 1.2% to $1130.70/ozt.
The early selling pressured the S&P 500 below its 200-day moving average (2,078), but the benchmark index crawled back above that mark during afternoon action and charged to an intraday high after the minutes from the July FOMC meeting crossed the wires about 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled release time.
Overall, the minutes appeared to be quite dovish with members "generally agreeing" that more information is needed before hiking rates. Furthermore, most members believed that "conditions for policy firming had not yet been achieved," but they agreed that conditions were nearing that point.
The minutes were followed by a spike in the Treasury market, sending the 10-yr note to its high (10-yr yield -8 bps to 2.12%) while the Dollar Index (96.37, -0.67) fell 0.7%.
Interestingly, the afternoon rebound dissolved just as fast as it had crystalized with the S&P 500 returning to its pre-FOMC levels roughly 45 minutes after hitting its rebound high.
Eight sectors ended the day in negative territory while rate-sensitive telecom services (+0.01%) and utilities (+0.4%) eked out gains thanks to lower yields.
Meanwhile on the cyclical side, the aforementioned energy and materials struggled throughout the day while other growth-sensitive groups fared a bit better. Technology (-0.9%) and financials (-0.9%) ended essentially in-line with the broader market while the consumer discretionary sector (-0.2%) spent the day ahead of the benchmark index. Select restaurant names displayed gains with Yum! Brands (YUM 86.08, +1.88) spiking 2.2% after naming a new CEO for its division in China. Also of note, Lowe's (LOW 74.37, +1.35) climbed 1.9% despite missing bottom-line estimates and reaffirming its guidance.
Today's participation was ahead of recent averages with more than 810 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Economic data was limited to CPI and the MBA Mortgage Index:
Total CPI rose 0.1% (Briefing.com consensus +0.2%) in July while Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, also rose 0.1% (Briefing.com consensus +0.2%)
The indexes for food (+0.2%) and energy (+0.1%) helped push up the all items index while a 0.4% increase in the shelter index was the key driver behind the increase in the all items index, excluding food and energy
On a year-over-year basis, total CPI is up 0.2% and core CPI is up 1.8%
The weekly MBA Mortgage Index rose 3.6% to follow last week's 0.1% uptick
Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 272,000) will be reported at 8:30 ET while July Existing Home Sales (consensus 5.42 million), July Leading Indicators (expected 0.2%), and the Philadelphia Fed survey for August (consensus 0.2%) will all be released at 10:00 ET.
Nasdaq Composite +6.0% YTD
S&P 500 +1.0% YTD
Russell 2000 -0.3% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -2.7% YTD
DJ30 -162.61 NASDAQ -40.29 SP500 -17.31 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 743/1.66 bln/2141 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 763/822.6 mln/2299
3:35 pm :
In commodities, the big story is WTI crude falling below $41/barrel briefly
WTI oil is now at a 6 -year low. Both brent and WTI crude oil fell sharply today
In electronic trade, both are still sitting near today's lows
Sept WTI crude oil finished the floor session -4.4% at $41.25/barrel
In other energy, Sept natural gas gained one cent to finish at $2.71/MMBtu
Following the FOMC minutes headlines earlier, the dollar index sold off, which gave some commodities a boost
However, it really wasn't a notable boost.
In recent trade, the euro spiked further, which caused the dollar index to push lower
In current trade, the index is -0.7% at 96.37, near today's new low now, which is helping gold and silver futures remain near today's high in electronic trade
?In floor trading, Dec gold ended the day +1.0% at $1128.00/oz, while Sept silver finished +2.6% at $15.19/oz
Since the close, gold has inched higher by a few dollars and just hit a new high for today
12:12 pm Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session- New lows (63) outpacing new highs (8) (:SCANX) :
Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ARMK, DHI, FBHS, FIS, LEN, SPF, TOL, USG
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AA, AAXJ, ABEV, ABY, AMH, ASX, ATHM, ATI, AUO, BBD, BG, BHP, BP, BSMX, CIG, CNQ, CNX, COP, CVE, CVX, DOV, DVN, ECA, FCX, FTI, GGB, GOL, GRPN, HPQ, HUN, KLAC, LC, MEOH, MJN, MRO, MT, MU, MUR, NAVI, NOV, NTAP, PBR.A, PG, PX, QCOM, RDS.B, RIO, SAN, SDRL, SPIL, SPN, STO, TCK, TTM, UMC, VALE, VALE.P, WFM, WFT, WMT, WYNN, XOM, YNDX
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: XHB
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: AFK, BKF, BNO, CHN, DBC, DJP, EEB, EEM, EGPT, EPP, EPU, EWC, EWS, EWT, EWW, EWY, EWZ, EZA, GAF, GSG, HYG, IDX, ILF, IXC, JJC, JNK, KOL, OIH, OIL, PBW, REMX, SEA, SLX, THD, USO, UYM, VNM, VWO, XES
Note: To reduce the list of stocks making 52 week highs/lows to a manageable size we have filtered out stocks below $2 bln in market cap and below 1 mln average volume. Without this filter 27 stocks made 52 week highs and 424 stocks made 52 week lows.
12:01 pm iRobot receives a $4 mln order from the US Navy for the company's odel 110 FirstLook robots and accessories; orders to be completed by February 2016 (IRBT) :
QLogic (QLGC) announced a strategic distribution agreement with ASI, a distributor of solution building I/O and reference architecture blueprints. QLogic and ASI will work together to provide increased sales and profitability to resellers who deliver optimized server and storage networking infrastructure solutions
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