From Briefing.com: The broader market closed the week out with a Friday session on a sell-off. All three major indices began the session lower and never poked into the green. The worst losses today came in the Nasdaq Composite which lost 111.71 points (-2.21%) to 4933.46. The S&P 500 shed 39.86 points (-1.94%) to 2012.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted the most shallow losses today, albeit losing 309.54 points (-1.76%) at the close to end 17265.21. This weeks action has taken the Dow and S&P further into negative territory YTD, while only the Nasdaq remains in positive territory relative to January levels.
Today's economic data came in the form of Producer Price Index for November, as both total PPI and core PPI increased +0.3%. The November Retail Sales report was worse than expected with an increase of +0.2%, with sales excluding autos coming in better than expected at +0.4%. The preliminary reading for the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment for December was 91.8, up from the November reading of 91.3. Finally, total business inventories were unchanged in October following a downwardly revised 0.1% increase in September.
Trading in Technology (XLK 42.80, -0.91 -2.08%) on Friday was not immune to the broader market selling action. Shares of component Adobe Systems (ADBE 91.42, +2.46 +2.77%) were strong on the session as the company reported better than expected EPS for Q4 on better than expected subscriber growth.
The S&P 500 Information Technology sector (719.66, -15.20 -2.07%) closed near session lows as trading at the open quickly turned to negative territory and did not look back. Shares of component Corning (GLW 18.68, +0.99 +5.60%) resisted the broader market sell-off as the company announced it would exchange its 50% interest in Dow Corning Corporation (a 50/50 JV with Dow Chemical (DOW 53.37, -1.54 -2.80%)) for 100% of the stock of a newly formed entity that will become wholly owned subsidiary of GLW. Said entity will hold about 40% ownership in Hemlock Semi Group and about $4.8 billion in cash.
Other notable news items among sector components:
Electronic Arts (EA 67.17, +0.80 +1.21%) disclosed COO Peter Moore is moving into a new role as Exec VP and Chief Competition Officer, leading EA's new Competitive Gaming Division.
Dow Chemical (DOW) announced a transaction to restructure the ownership of Dow Corning JV, a 50/50 joint venture between the two parties. Corning (GLW) received $4.8 billion in cash and retains 40% of Hemlock Semiconductor.
Yahoo! (YHOO 32.91, -1.72 -4.96%) Re/Code reported that SVP of Advertising Products, Prashant Fuloria, is leaving the company at the end of the year.
Qualcomm (QCOM 47.46, -1.11 -2.29%) Digitimes reported the company will begin delivering server-use CPU samples to potential customers in China.
Intuit (INTU 96.12, -0.87 -0.90%) and Stride Health partnered to help freelancers get health insurance as the Tuesday, Dec. 15, deadline for Open Enrollment approaches.
Facebook (FB 102.12, -3.30 -3.13%) a Wired report detailed the potential for the company to open source the designs of a new computer service to power artificial intelligence software.
Elsewhere in the technology space:
Sprint (S 3.64, -0.31 -7.72%) appointed Roger Sol as Chief Marketing Officer effective immediately.
Unwired Planet (UPIP 0.99, +0.04 +4.68%) announced a 1:12 reverse stock split. The company also authorized stock repurchase program for up to 5 million shares.
SunEdison (SUNE 4.15, +0.06 +1.47%) announced that it has agreed to sell 333 megawatts of wind-power assets to Terra Nova Renewable Partners for $209 million.
Transcat's (TRNS 9.21, -0.10 -1.07%) CFO John Zimmer will retire in 2016. MichaeI Tschiderer will be appointed CFO on March 27, 2016.
Zendesk (ZEN 26.58, -0.65 -2.39%) announced that CFO Alan Black will resign in 2016. The company also intends to initiate a search for a replacement.
Siliconware Precision (SPIL 7.15, +0.18 +2.58%) and Tsinghua Unigroup entered into a strategic alliance agreement and share subscription agreement.
CDK Global (CDK 46.14, +0.05 +0.11%) announced that Brian MacDonald will be appointed CEO, to succeed Steven Anenen by June 30, 2016.
In reaction to quarterly earnings:
Adobe Systems (ADBE) reported Q4 EPS which beat expectations at $0.62 per share and revenues which rose 21.7% year-over-year to $1.31 billion. The company also guided Q1 EPS in the range of $-0.56-0.62 with revenues expected in the range of $1.30-1.35 billion.
Fuel Systems Solutions (FSYS 4.16, -0.06 -1.42%) reported a miss on the top and bottom lines of expectations with Q3 EPS at a loss per share of ($0.48) on revenues which fell 23% year-over-year to $65.6 million. The company also expects 2015 revenues of $255-265, a reduction from previous forecasts.
Companies expected to report quarterly results next week: PAY, FDS, QIHU, JBL , ORCL, ACN, DSKY, MRVL, RHT, BBRY
Analyst actions:
TSM was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse,
RCI was upgraded to Buy from Hold at TD Securities,
AMX was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley
FLEX was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup;
GPRO was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup,
HPY was downgraded to Underperform from Buy at Credit Agricole
Weekly Recap - Week ending 11-Dec-15The stock market ended a defensive week on a woeful note with the S&P 500 (-1.9%) diving below its 100-day moving average (2,031). The benchmark index lost 3.8% since last Friday, while the Nasdaq (-2.2%) underperformed, falling 4.1% for the week.
The bulk of today's weakness unfolded during the first half of the day while afternoon action saw the key indices slip to fresh lows. The early weakness followed an overnight session, which featured news from China, indicating the People's Bank of China nudged the yuan to a four-year low against the dollar (6.4553). This stoked up concerns about China's deflation being exported to other economies while continued weakness in commodities compounded those worries.
Furthermore, reports of trouble in the junk bond arena weighed on sentiment after it came to light that Third Avenue Management is liquidating its high-yield Focused Credit Fund and barring investor withdrawals while it is doing so. This invited fears about other bond funds with similar exposure while junk bonds faced daylong pressure that sent the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate ETF (HYG 79.52, -1.62) to its lowest close since July 2009.
All ten sectors ended the day in negative territory and the market saw no dip-buying during the afternoon. To be fair, the lack of an afternoon rebound was not a shock considering the Federal Reserve is likely to introduce another wrinkle into the fold next week when the central bank is widely expected to announce the first fed funds rate hike since June 2006.
The continued weakness in commodity prices took its toll on cyclical energy (-3.4%) and materials (-2.7%) sectors. The energy space widened this week's loss to 6.5% while crude oil also struggled, falling 3.2% to $35.62/bbl, to end the week lower by 10.9%.
Meanwhile, the remaining cyclical sectors fared a bit better, but that was a small victory considering the "best" performing growth-sensitive sector still lost 1.6%. The industrial sector settled just a step ahead of the broader market thanks to strength in select railroad names after it was reported Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B 130.31, -1.40) is considering a bid for Norfolk Southern (NSC 89.53, +1.85). On a related note, the Dow Jones Transportation Average ended in line with the S&P 500.
The 1.9% gain in the shares of NSC represented one of few bright spots in the market as declining issues at the NYSE outpaced advancers by a 7:1 margin.
Treasuries rallied throughout the day, ending on their highs with the 10-yr yield sliding ten basis points to 2.13%.
The Friday retreat invited above-average volume as nearly a billion shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Economic data included PPI, Retail Sales, Michigan Sentiment, and Business Inventories:
The Producer Price Index report for November produced some better than expected readings, with both total PPI and core PPI, which excludes food and energy, increasing 0.3%
The median estimate of economists polled by Briefing.com called for a 0.1% decline in total PPI and a 0.1% increase in core PPI
On a year-over-year basis, the index for final demand is down 1.1%, which is the tenth consecutive 12-month decline. Core PPI is up 0.5%
The November Retail Sales report showed a below-consensus increase of 0.2% (Briefing.com consensus +0.3%), yet sales excluding autos (+0.4%) were stronger than expected (Briefing.com consensus +0.3%) while core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline station, and building materials sales, were up a healthy 0.6%
Core retail sales factor into the goods component of personal consumption expenditures in the GDP report, so this November data can be thought of as a positive input
The preliminary reading for the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment for December was 91.8, which was up slightly from the final November reading of 91.3 and nearly matched the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 91.6
The improvement stemmed from a better feeling about current conditions, evidenced by a jump in the Current Economic Conditions Index to 107.0 from 104.3
Total business inventories were unchanged in October following a downwardly revised 0.1% increase (from 0.3%) in September
The Briefing.com consensus expected business inventories to be up 0.1%
Manufacturer inventories (-0.1%) and merchant wholesaler inventories (-0.1%) were already known. Retailer inventories were the only unknown and they increased 0.1% in October on top of a 0.8% increase in September
Index Started Week Ended Week Change % Change YTD %
DJIA 17847.63 17265.00 -582.63 -3.3 -3.1
Nasdaq 5142.27 4933.00 -209.27 -4.1 4.2
S&P 500 2091.69 2012.00 -79.69 -3.8 -2.3
Russell 2000 1183.40 1123.76 -59.64 -5.0 -6.7
12:45 pm Color on weakness in high-yield bond market (HYG) :
High yield bonds are getting hit very hard today, as can be seen in the junk bond ETFs HYG (-3.0%) and JNK (-2.8%). They have bounced off their lows but remain volatile.The move follows yesterday's announcement from Third Avenue Management that it barred investors in a high-yield bond fund from redeeming their shares on Thursday. The company will liquidate the fund, but found that it couldn't meet redemption requests except at fire-sale prices. The high-yield debt market and, in fact, the entire corporate bond market has seen weakness today as a result. HYG and JNK, the two largest high-yield bond ETF's, hit post-crisis lows today. High yield bonds tend to be the most volatile, given their lower liquidity and riskier nature, and today's move is very large relative to the typical fluctuations in this market. Energy companies account for about 1/6 of the high-yield bond market, and lower oil prices have been causing many issuers in the United States great hardship.Moody's, the credit ratings agency, is calling for the corporate default rate to rise to 3.8% in 2016 from 2.8% in 2015.
6:01 am Trina Solar announces its withdrawal from the European Union Price Undertaking; will continue to service EU customers through its overseas manufacturing facilities (TSL) :
Co stated: "On December 5, 2013, the European Council imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on solar cells and solar panels imported from China. Subsequently, the European Commission accepted a UT whereby Chinese companies would sell solar cells and solar panels in the EU at a price above a fixed Minimum Import Price . Chinese manufacturers that did not accept the terms of the agreement faced high AD and AS duties, which for Trina Solar were 47.7% and 3.5%, respectively, to be applied for a period of two years beginning on December 6, 2013. At the time, Trina Solar chose to join the UT as a participating company and has duly complied with its terms and conditions.
However, the current interpretations of the UT agreement by EU Commission unfairly limit the Company's growth potential in the European region, and are disruptive to the Company's ongoing global expansion strategy. Furthermore, the EU Commission announced recently to initiate review investigation during which the AD&AS and the UT measures will remain in force. Trina Solar believes this is contrary to the principles of free and fair trade and it is in its best interest to exit the UT."
4:39 am Chipmos Technology to sell 25% of ChipMOS Taiwan to Tsinghua Unigroup through private placement at a price of NT$40.00 per common share (IMOS) :
ChipMOS announced that the Board of Directors of its 58.0% owned subsidiary ChipMOS has authorized and signed a share purchase agreement to sell 299,252,000 common shares of ChipMOS Taiwan to Tsinghua Unigroup through private placement at a price of NT$40.0 per common share.
ChipMOS Taiwan today also executed a Strategic Alliance Agreement with Tsinghua Unigroup designed to strengthen the long-term cooperation relationship between the two companies. The proposed Private Placement is also subject to ChipMOS Taiwan shareholder approval and routine regulatory approvals in Taiwan. The proposed transaction would be valued at ~NT$12.0 billion (~$368.3 million).
After the issuance of the Private Placement Shares, Tsinghua Unigroup would own approximately 25.0% of ChipMOS Taiwan.
Parent company ChipMOS's ownership in its subsidiary ChipMOS Taiwan would be 43.7% post-placement compared to the current 58.0%.
4:09 am Siliconware Precision and Tsinghua Unigroup enter into a strategic alliance agreement and share subscription agreement (SPIL) :
Siliconware Precision Industries and Tsinghua Unigroup entered into a Strategic Alliance Agreement and Share Subscription Agreement
SPIL will continue to increase the scale of global operation, invest in advanced processing R&D, and expand high-end packaging and testing capacity. The majority of funds raised from this cooperation are expected to be used for investments in Taiwan, including hardware development and cultivation of local talent to sustain long-term development in Taiwan. In addition, SPIL will cooperate with leading foundry players to capture more market share in the advanced packaging and testing industry. SPIL plans to invite Unigroup to subscribe, through its affiliate company, to newly issued SPIL shares by means of a private placement as a strategic investor. Unigroup will subscribe 1,033 million newly issued SPIL shares priced at NT$55 per share and own 24.9% of the total shareholding of SPIL after the capital injection.
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
