From Briefing.com: The Bears again ruled the market as all three major indices were in the red from bell-to-bell. The third straight day of losses brought the Nasdaq Composite (-2.8%) to its 200 day simple moving average for the first time since the middle of last October. The S&P 500 index (-2.1%) fell lower, after yesterday crossing its 200 day simple moving average on the way down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-2.1%) also closed Thursday trade in the red, as sector components DIS -6.04%, MRK -4.54%, BA -3.99%, INTC -2.82%, UNH -2.78%, CSCO -2.73% led the losses.
In tech, North American Tech Software (IGV 99.42, -3.67 -3.56%) traded lower as sector components IMPV -10.1%, FEYE -8.4%, BLOX -7.6%, WDAY -6.5%, SPLK -6.4% led the sector into negative territory, while NUAN -0.6%, HUBS -1.1%, SNCR -1.5% mostly resisted the broader market/sector selloff but still finished Thursday trade in the red.
In addition, notable tech names traded lower on the session included Twitter (TWTR 26.00, -1.60 -5.80%) - which continued recent weakness, falling at one point below the 2013 IPO price of $26 per share, Facebook (FB 90.56, -4.75 -4.98%) - which turned lower along with other social media names, and Yahoo! (YHOO 34.10, -1.09 -3.10%) - which continued recent weakness lower.
In a session that saw the Dow and S&P turn negative for the year (in addition to the Dow at one point shedding 300 points), the S&P 500 Information Technology sector (685.23, -17.27 -2.46%) also turned red at the open, mirroring broader market selling pressure. Sector component Analog Devices (ADI 53.82, -4.56 ) was downgraded today after it reported Q3 results on August 18, and traded lower by more than 7.8% on the session, ending Thursday trade near the $53.70 level -- which has not been seen since early February 2015.
Notable news items among sector components:
Oracle (ORCL 38.63, -0.90 -2.28%) acquired Maxymiser, a provider of cloud-based software that enables marketers to test, target and personalize what a customer sees on a Web page or mobile app - financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Visa (V 73.95, -0.48 -0.64%) saw initial upside following a Sky News story which noted that the company was considering a $21 billion bid to merge European units. The report noted that the company is targeting to resolve these discussions by the end of October.
Elsewhere in the technology space:
Dynasol Corporation of America (DYSL 1.62, +0.12 +8.00%) entered into a three year arrangement to supply crystal components to a global supplier of security inspection equipment. The company believes that it may receive orders up to $6.0 million in product over the next 12 months and potentially $20 million over the three year term of the agreement.
One Horizon (OHGI 1.45, +0.04 +2.84%) signed a cooperation agreement with YTO Express to commence a trial of the Aishou VoIP platform in Jiangsu province.
Marvell (MRVL 11.42, -0.49 -4.11%) has postponed its Q2 earnings release and conference call. The company was originally scheduled to report this afternoon, but rescheduled to allow for more time to finalize its quarterly financial results.
CGI Group (GIB 36.38, -1.14 -3.04%) won a $124 million, five year contract with the US Army TRADOC Directorate for the program management and technical support of its core training functions.
In reaction to earnings:
Tech Data (TECD 63.65, +7.38 +13.12%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.43 and revs of $6.51 billion - both of which beat expectations.
NetApp (NTAP 30.78, +1.00 +3.36%) reported Q1 EPS of $0.29 and revs of $1.34 billion - EPS was better than anticipated and revs were in-line. For Q2, NTAP sees EPS and revs better than expected.
Semtech (SMTC 16.14, +0.08 +0.50%) reported Q2 EPS of $0.24 on revs of $125.7 million - EPS was in-line and revs beat expectations. SMTC also guided Q3 EPS and revs worse than expected.
Youku Tudou (YOKU 15.79, -1.96 -11.04%) reported a Q2 EPS loss per share of $0.18 on revenues of $259.6 million - both of which were better than expected.
Synopsys (SNPS 48.60, -3.70 -7.07%) reported Q3 EPS of $0.63 on revs of $555.8 million - EPS beat anticipations and revs were mostly in-line. The company also guided Q4 EPS worse than expected, but revs in-line; guided FY15 EPS in-line and revs better than expected.
Analyst actions:
ADS was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel,
SYNT was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Robert W. Baird, MMS was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Sidoti, CHA was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup,
IQNT was upgraded to Strong Buy from Buy at BWS Financial;
MU was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird, KN was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird, BRCM was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus,
ADI was downgraded to Reduce from Neutral at Nomura
(Disclosure -- Briefing.com has a business relationship with Yahoo!)
4:11 pm Hewlett-Packard beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS below consensus; separation on track (HPQ) :
Reports Q3 (Jul) earnings of $0.88 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.85; revenues fell 8% YoY (-2% ex-FX) to $25.35 bln vs the $25.45 bln consensus.Personal Systems revenue was down 13% YoY with a 3.0% operating margin. Commercial revenue decreased 9% and Consumer revenue decreased 22%. Total units were down 11% with Notebooks units down 3% and Desktops units down 20%. Printing revenue was down 9% YoY with a 17.8% operating margin. Total hardware units were down 2% with Commercial hardware units down 6% and Consumer hardware units flat. Supplies revenue was down 6%. Enterprise Group revenue was up 2% YoY with a 13.0% operating margin. Industry Standard Servers revenue was up 8%, Storage revenue was down 2%, Business Critical Systems revenue was down 21%, Networking revenue was up 22% and Technology Services revenue was down 9%. Enterprise Services revenue was down 11% YoY with a 6.0% operating margin. Infrastructure Technology Outsourcing revenue was down 13%, and Application and Business Services revenue declined 7%. Software revenue was down 6% YoY with a 20.6% operating margin. License revenue was down 11%, support revenue was down 3%, professional services revenue was down 8% and software-as-a-service (SaaS) revenue was down 4%. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.92-0.98, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.00 Capital IQ Consensus. "I am very pleased that we have continued to deliver the results we said we would, while remaining on track to execute one of the largest and most complex separations ever undertaken."
4:10 pm : The stock market registered its third consecutive decline on Thursday with the S&P 500 (-2.1%) slashing below its 200-day moving average (2,078). The benchmark index slid to levels not seen since early February while the Nasdaq Composite (-2.8%) displayed relative weakness throughout the day.
The daylong selloff was brought on by a heightened sense of uncertainty among investors, pulling the S&P 500 into the red for 2015 (-1.1%). To be sure, some of the uncertainty (rate-hike speculation, concerns about the global economy, plunging commodity prices) had been brewing for a while, whereas today's session reminded investors about ongoing concerns related to China and Greece.
Overnight, China's Shanghai Composite tumbled 3.4% amid reports the country's official GDP target could be lowered to 6.5% from 7.0%. Sellers maintained control despite a CNY120 billion injection from the People's Bank of China into capital markets.
As for Greece, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned from his post and called for a snap election, set for September 20, just three days after the FOMC concludes its September meeting. It is worth noting that there are indications Greece's minority parties could try to form a coalition government, which would block the September 20 vote.
All ten sectors ended the day in negative territory with cyclical sectors pacing the retreat while two of four countercyclical groups (consumer staples and utilities) posted losses slimmer than 1.0% apiece. The rate-sensitive utilities sector (-0.6%) ended ahead of its peers thanks to lower Treasury yields (10-yr yield -4 bps to 2.08%). The utilities sector is the only group that will enter the Friday session with a razor-thin week-to-date gain (+0.02%) while the remaining nine groups hold weekly losses between 0.9% (telecom services) and 5.4% (energy).
The energy sector has paced this week's retreat, but the growth-sensitive group finished today's session just behind the broader market after showing some relative strength in the early going. That brief strength coincided with an intraday gain in crude oil, but the energy component retreated during the afternoon to end the pit session little changed at $41.26/bbl.
Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, heavily-weighted consumer discretionary (-2.8%) and technology (-2.5%) underperformed throughout the day, which prevented the market from stringing together a rebound, considering the two groups represent more than 30% of the entire market.
The top-weighted technology sector suffered from broad weakness with large cap names like Apple (AAPL 112.65, -2.36), Google (GOOGL 679.48, -14.56), Facebook (FB 90.56, -4.75), and Microsoft (MSFT 45.75, -0.86) losing between 1.9% and 5.0%. High-beta chipmakers also registered sharp losses with the PHLX Semiconductor Index diving 3.8% with all 30 components ending in the red.
Today's selloff invited above-average participation with more than 900 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Economic data included Initial Claims, Existing Home Sales, Leading Indicators, and Philadelphia Fed Survey:
Initial claims for the week ending August 15 were 277,000, up from the prior week's downwardly revised level of 273,000 (from 274,000) while the Briefing.com consensus estimate expected a reading of 272,000
The four-week moving average for claims increased by 5,500 to 271,500, but remains near multi-decade lows
Existing Home Sales for July increased 2.0% from June to an annualized rate of 5.59 million units while the Briefing.com consensus expected a reading of 5.42 million
Sales in July were at their highest level since February 2007 and were up 10.3% from the year-ago period, which marked the tenth consecutive month in which existing home sales increased year-over-year
The Leading Indicators report for July was down 0.2% while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of 0.2%
The Philadelphia Fed Survey for August rose to 8.3 from 5.7 while economists polled by Briefing.com had expected an improvement to 7.0
There is no economic data on tomorrow's schedule.
Nasdaq Composite +3.0% YTD
S&P 500 -1.1% YTD
Russell 2000 -2.6% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -4.7% YTD
DJ30 -357.91 NASDAQ -141.56 SP500 -43.85 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 440/1.98 bln/2489 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 460/903.7 mln/2638
3:35 pm :
The dollar index remained in the red today, which helped give commodities a boost
In electronic trade, metals such as gold, silver and copper are all holding gains
Dec gold closed pit trading today +2.2% at $1153.30/oz, while Sept silver +2.1% at $15.52/oz
Sept copper gained 1.8% to $2.32/lb, but is up +2.0% here in electronic trade
WTI crude oil sold off heading into the close of floor trading, finishing the day $0.01 higher at $41.26/barrel
Sept nat gas rose +1.5% to $2.75/MMBtu
11:55 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session- New lows (59) outpacing new highs (2) (:SCANX) :
Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: EXPD, FIS
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AA, AAXJ, ABEV, AMAT, AMH, ASML, ATHM, BEN, BG, BSMX, CBS, CIG, CNQ, CP, CSX, CVX, CX, DISCA, DOV, DVN, ECA, ERIC, GGB, GMCR, GPS, GRMN, GRPN, HPQ, JMEI, KLAC, KSS, LC, LNKD, MJN, MRO, MRVL, MU, MUR, NAVI, NOV, PAH, PG, SAN, SFM, SNDK, SPN, STR, TTM, TV, TWTR, UMC, UNP, VIV, WFM, WFT, WLL, WYNN, XOM, YNDX
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: none
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