From Briefing.com: The broader market kicked off 2016 on a somber note as the three major US indices all closed with losses worse than -1.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost the most, shedding 104.32 points (-2.08%) today to close 4903.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 276.09 points (-1.58%) to 17148.94, and the S&P 500 lost 31.28 points (-1.53%) to 2012.66 today. Economic data today came in the form of the December ISM Index which declined to 48.2 from 48.6 and Construction Spending which decreased to -0.4% month-over-month growth in November.
Trading began the session on a down note as the Asian markets posted volatility akin to what we saw for the better part of the Spring-to-Fall seasons. For instance, in 2015, the Shanghai Composite Index advanced nearly 50% from the beginning of March to the middle of June reaching highs near the 5166-level. The late-summer collapse took the Composite from those levels to a low in late-August near 2930, a nearly 43% decline. The volatility in the overnight session showed many of the same colors - mainly red - as trading was halted on the Shanghai Composite, ending an early day as a 6.9% one-day decline triggered market circuit breakers.
In the Technology (XLK 42.27, -0.56 -1.31%) space action rebounded off daily lows to close at the highs of the day, albeit at a loss. A few news items trickled in regarding some of the bellwether names in the sector, including Intel (INTC 33.99, -0.46 -1.34%) which acquired drone company Ascending Technologies for terms which were undisclosed. Other sectors closed the session IYZ -2.26%, XLF -1.93%, XLV -1.80%, XLY -1.72%, XLB -1.57%, XLI -1.34%, XLP -1.27%, XLU -0.21%, XLE -0.03% led by weakness in Telecoms.
To no surprise, Chinese Tech names (QQQC 21.76, -0.86 -3.80%) were expressly weak as the aforementioned broader market weakness took its toll on the Chinese Tech sector. Names like ATHM -8.45%, SOHU -6.35%, NTES -5.03%, WB -3.28%, NQ -2.76% were down today, underperforming the broader US indices.
For its part, the S&P 500 Information Technology sector (710.26, -11.22 -1.56%) performed much like the broader index. Component FLIR Systems (FLIR 28.75, +0.68 +2.42%) managed to withstand the broader market action to the downside today, as the name was upgraded premarket to Buy at Goldman. Other names in the sector which did not fare as well included YHOO -5.59%, PYPL -4.01%, EBAY -3.82%, EA -3.81%, CSC -3.18%, CTSH -3.17%, XRX -3.10%, MA -2.62%.
Other notable news items among sector components:
According to a company blog post, Intel (INTC) acquired drone company Ascending Technologies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed
EMC (EMC 25.59, -0.09 -0.35%) disclosed a restructuring plan consisting of a reduction in the workforce. In relation, a total charge resulting from this plan is expected to be about $250 million.
Facebook's (FB 102.22, -2.44 -2.33%) Oculus confirmed pre-orders for Rift will open on January 6.
Accenture (ACN 101.83, -2.67 -2.56%) acquired Netherland-based supplier of cloud advisory and tech services CRMWaypoint. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Micron's (MU 14.33, +0.17 +1.20%) President Mark Adams will resign for personal health reasons on February 1.
Fidelity Investments, Visa (V 75.70, -1.85 -2.39%), and U.S. Bank (USB 41.48, -1.19 -2.79%) announced a new long-term card-issuing program that will offer Visa branded credit-card products to U.S. consumers. Under the new card program, U.S. Bank will issue the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Card and the Fidelity Investments 529 College Rewards Visa SignatureCard4. U.S. Bank has also agreed to acquire Fidelity's existing co-brand credit card portfolio with about $1.6 billion in associated balances.
According to reports, Activision Blizzard (ATVI 37.62, -1.09 -2.82%) has acquired Major League Gaming for $46 million.
Elsewhere in the technology space:
Sequans Communications' (SQNS 2.18, +0.08 +3.91%) Colibri LTE chipset platform has passed AT&T's (T 34.35, -0.06 -0.17%) ADAPT chipset verification program and is approved to operate on AT&T's 4G LTE network.
RADCOM's (RDCM 14.22, -0.69 -4.63%) CEO David Ripstien announced his retirement. Yaron Ravkaie has been named the new CEO. RDCM also guided Q4 revenues lower than expected at about $2.7-3.0 million and announced an $18 million order for its MaveriQ solution.
Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (MLAB 100.10, +0.60 +0.60%) acquired certain assets and liabilities of two of its European distributors by the company's subsidiary, Mesa France. The deal is expected to add about $300,000 to the company's revenues and be accretive to EPS.
Heartland Payment Systems (HPY 93.58, -1.24 -1.31%) sold its SmartLink Division to EchoSat. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Wipro (WIT 11.20, -0.34 -2.90%) appointed TK Kurien as the EVP and Abidali Neemuchwala as the CEO and Member of the Board of the company. Both these appointments are effective February 1, 2016.
Infoblox (BLOX 18.28, -0.11 -0.60%) appointed Janesh Moorjani as CFO effective immediately.
Anadigics (ANAD 0.68, +0.04 +6.67%) announced that a competing bidder has made a further amended offer to acquire the company at $0.68 per share; the previous offer was $0.58 per share.
Nokia (NOK 7.17, +0.15 +2.14%) gained 80% control of Alcatel-Lucent (ALU 3.92, +0.09 +2.35%) through exchange offer. The French stock market authority, Autorit des Marchs Financiers, published the interim results of the initial offer period of NOK's public exchange offer for ALU securities in France and in the United States, and has declared the offer successful.
Frontier Communications' (FTR 4.65, -0.02 -0.43%) Executive Chairman Maggie Wilderotter to be succeeded by Lead Director Pamela Reeve effective April 1.
Orange (ORAN 16.62, -0.01 -0.06%) and Groupama entered into exclusive negotiations for the creation of Orange Bank. These negotiations could result in the acquisition by Orange of a 65% stake in Groupama Banque, enabling it to benefit from an existing operational infrastructure for the launch of Orange Bank.
Analyst actions:
DCM was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Nomura, ANET was upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer, QSII was upgraded to Outperform from Mkt Perform at Raymond James, FLIR was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman, KN was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Craig Hallum, EQIX was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo; PYPL was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Monness Crespi & Hardt, CHKP was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo, USM and TDS were downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan
4:15 pm : The stock market ended its first session of 2016 broadly lower, following opening selling pressure that wouldn't ease until the last half hour of trading. The S&P 500 (-1.5%) finished ahead of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-1.6%) and the Nasdaq (-2.1%), but the benchmark index fell below its 100-day moving average (2024). The major averages stumbled into the open after overseas concerns in China and the Middle East weighed down futures.
The selloff in futures began with weak economic data concerning manufacturing growth in China. Overnight, December's Caixin Manufacturing PMI was reported in at 48.2 versus an expected 48.9. This miss lead to heavy selling in the Shanghai Composite that eventually pushed the index lower by 6.9% before triggering a halt to trading under its circuit breaker provisions.
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia suspended diplomatic relations with Iran following a protester-started fire at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran. This unrest followed the execution of a Shiite cleric by the Saudi Arabian government over the weekend. The initial news caused an increase interest in oil, but the commodity was unable to maintain today's advance and WTI crude ended its pit session down 0.8% at $36.76/bbl.
Today's selling was paced by financials (-2.1%), health care (-1.9%), consumer discretionary (-1.8%), materials (-1.7%), and technology (-1.6%) while energy (-0.2%), utilities (-0.3%), and telecom services (-0.5%) outperformed
The financial sector showed relative weakness from the start of the trading session with large cap-components JPMorgan Chase (JPM 63.62, -1.97) and Wells Fargo (WFC 52.91, -1.45) each outpacing the losses in the broader sector with declines of 3.0% and 2.7% respectively.
Elsewhere, the top-weighted technology sector ended in line with the S&P 500 even though Apple (AAPL 105.35, +0.09) was able to rebound off its session low (102.00), ending higher by 0.1%. In other tech names, Alphabet (GOOGL 759.44, -18.57) was also able to pull off of its low, trimming its loss to 2.4%, while high-beta chipmakers outperformed the broader sector for most of the day. The PHLX Semiconductor Index ended the session lower by 1.1%.
In the consumer discretionary space, Amazon (AMZN 636.98, -38.91) ended its day near its low following a downgrade at Monness Crespi & Hardt from Buy to Netural. The downgraded cited continued strength in the company but a possibly better entry point to enter or expand a position in the company.
Today's selloff invited above average participation with more than a billion shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Meanwhile in Treasuries, the benchmark note spent the bulk of its day on its high before retreating. The yield on the 10-yr fell three basis points to 2.24%.
It was a relatively quiet day on the economic front with data being limited to the December ISM Index and Construction Spending:
The ISM Index for December declined to 48.2 from 48.6 (Briefing.com consensus 49.0)
Construction spending decreased to -0.4% month-over-month growth in November (Briefing.com consensus 0.8%).
This release was lower than expected and included a revision from 1.0% to 0.3% month-over-month growth in October.
Investors will not receive any economic data of note tomorrow.
Russell 2000 -2.3% YTD
Nasdaq -2.1% YTD
Dow Jones -1.6% YTD
S&P 500 -1.5% YTD
DJ30 -276.09 NASDAQ -104.32 SP500 -31.28 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 653/1.998 bln/2380 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 981/1.08 bln/2113
3:40 pm :
Commodities displayed some decent volatility today following China's negative economic data
Also, the dollar index climbed higher during today's session, off overnight lows, which also helped weigh on commodities
Oil rallied this morning on news of Middle East tension, but this was short-lived and Feb crude never recovered back above $37
Feb crude oil ended today's session -0.9% at $36.81/barrel
In other energy, Feb nat gas slid 0.4% lower to $2.33/MMBtu
Copper fell today on China's econ data. Mar copper closed -2.8% at $2.08/lb
Feb gold closed today's session +15.80 at $1075.40/oz, while Mar silver gained +0.3% at $13.85/oz
10:19 am SunEdison displays a solid recovery effort as it reverses initial opening weakness from below the $5-mark (SUNE) :
10:06 am BlackBerry announces that Ford Motor (F) has ported its open source SmartDeviceLink technology to the QNX CAR Platform for Infotainment (BBRY) :
9:02 am FuelCell Energy announces 5.6 megawatt fuel cell project with Pfizer (PFE) (FCEL) : Co announces plans for the installation of a 5.6 megawatt fuel cell power generation system for Pfizer (PFE) to provide reliable and low carbon electricity and steam for its 160 acre R&D facility in Groton, CT. Pfizer will purchase the power and steam under a 20 year power purchase agreement. The fuel cell installation is expected to be fully operational by summer 2016.
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