From Briefing.com: 4:32 pm Ultratech receives follow-on order from major foundry for laser spike anneal system (UTEK) : Co announces a follow-on order from a major foundry for its LSA101 laser spike anneal system. Ultratech's LSA101 system will be used for 28-nm production and is expected to ship in 2Q16. The industry is experiencing a second wave of growth in the advanced planar node technologies, including 28-nm logic.
4:10 pm : The stock market ended the Wednesday affair on a higher note as better than feared earnings results from JPMorgan Chase (JPM 61.79, +2.51) and CSX (CSX 26.03, +1.04) boosted their respective sectors and the broader market. Additionally, today's trade saw a downturn in crude oil, below-consensus readings of economic data, and the outperformance of the heavily-weighted financial (+2.3%), industrial (+1.4%) consumer discretionary (+1.4%), and technology (+1.4%) spaces. The Nasdaq Composite (+1.6%) ended its day ahead of both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.1%) and the S&P 500 (+1.0%).
Today's session started on a higher note as equity futures and international bourses responded to an above-consensus reading of exports out of China (+11.5% year-over-year; consensus +2.5%). Meanwhile, positive earnings reports at home outweighed some negative economic data and a downturn in crude oil. On that note, March PPI, Retail Sales for March, and Business Inventories for February all either came in below-consensus or contained negative revisions to prior reports.
The major averages slipped from their highs after the release of the Department of Energy's weekly stockpile data. Weekly inventories showed that crude oil stockpiles rose by 6.63 million barrels (consensus 1.85 million barrels). As a result, WTI crude ended its day lower by 1.0% at $41.70/bbl. To be fair though, the energy component has gained 8.9% in April, and the potential production cut meeting will be held on Sunday.
The downturn in crude oil did not cause the broader market to rollover as heavily-weighted sectors maintained momentum throughout the day. On that note, the beleaguered financial sector (+2.3%) ended its day in the front of the pack while industrials (+1.4%), consumer discretionary (+1.4%), and technology (+1.4%) followed.
The economically-sensitive financial sector (+2.3%) moved higher in sympathy with JPMorgan Chase. The company reported a top and bottom-line beat in the first quarter. However, the company's report didn't paint a rosy picture, as revenue declined 3.7% year-over-year and the company increased its loan loss provisions from $959 million to $1.80 billion. Elsewhere in the group, Citigroup (C 44.25, +2.35) outperformed after its "living will" was approved by regulators. The company has until July 1, 2017 to revise shortcomings in its plan.
In the industrial space (+1.4%), rail names and airlines displayed relative strength today. Among the rail names, CSX outperformed after reporting bottom-line results that fell in-line with analysts' expectations. Elsewhere, Delta Airlines (DAL 48.04, +1.41) gained 3.0% ahead of its earnings release tomorrow morning.
Media names and electronics retailers outperformed in the consumer discretionary space (+1.4%) as large cap Disney (DIS 99.48, +2.13) gained 2.2%. Meanwhile, Best Buy (BBY 32.16, +1.34) and GameStop (GME 31.47, +1.38) jumped a respective 4.4% and 4.6%.
Countercyclical telecom services (-1.0%), consumer staples (-0.8%), and utilities (-0.7%) finished beneath their flat lines while energy (+0.4%) and health care (+0.9%) finished with the slimmest gains.
On the central bank front, the Federal Reserve released its April Beige Book, which described overall economic activity across the twelve Fed Districts as expanding within a "modest" or a "moderate" range. Most districts reported job gains, which in turn looks to be leading to an uptick in wage growth. Elsewhere, manufacturing activity increased in most districts, although, expectations for continued expansion remained mixed. As for inflation, the Beige Book described continued optimism for slow and steady growth in 2016.
The U.S. Dollar Index (94.79, +0.83) ended beneath its session high as the dollar trimmed its gain against the euro and the yen. The euro/dollar pair slipped 0.9% against the dollar and finished at 1.1277. The dollar/yen pair ended its day at 109.29 (+0.6%).
The Treasury complex concluded its day on its highs as the yield on the 10-yr note sank two basis points to 1.76%.
Today's participation was above the recent average as more than 983 million shares changed hands on the NYSE floor.
Today's economic data included the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, March Core PPI, Retail Sales for March, February Business Inventories, and the Fed's Beige Book for April:
The weekly MBA Mortgage Index showed a seasonally adjusted increase of 10.0%
The Producer Price Index for final demand declined 0.1% (Briefing.com consensus +0.3%).Excluding food and energy, producer prices were also down 0.1% (Briefing.com consensus +0.2%) after being unchanged in February.
The March data underscore that inflation continued to run cool at the producer level, which should presumably help keep consumer prices in check.
A 0.2% decline in prices for final demand services acted as a drag on the final demand index, but was offset in part by a 0.2% increase in prices for final demand goods.
On an unadjusted basis, prices for final demand are down 0.1% year-over-year. Final demand prices less food and energy are up 1.0% year-over-year on an unadjusted basis.
The Retail Sales report for March was pretty lackluster, offering further evidence that consumer spending and economic activity overall was pretty weak in the first quarter.
Plagued by a 2.1% decline in auto sales, total retail sales declined 0.3% in March (Briefing.com consensus +0.1) after being unchanged in February.
Excluding autos, retail sales were up a weaker than expected 0.2% (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%) after also being unchanged in February. A 1.4% gain in building material sales and a 0.9% jump in gasoline station sales helped offset a 0.9% drop in apparel sales and a 0.8% decline in sales at food services and drinking places.
Core retail sales, which exclude auto, gasoline station, and building material sales, were flat following a 0.4% increase in February. Core retail sales factor into the computation for the goods component of personal consumption expenditures in the GDP report. So, it's not very good news here.
Total business inventories declined 0.1% in February (Briefing.com consensus -0.1%). The negative surprise with this report was the downward revision to January business inventories, which were revised to show a decline of 0.1% versus a previously reported reading of being unchanged.
The decline in business inventories in February combined with the decline in January will factor negatively in the computation for first quarter GDP, which stood most recently at just 0.1% according to the Atlanta Fed's GDP Now model forecast.
Manufacturers' inventories (-0.4%) and merchant wholesaler inventories (-0.5%) were already known. Retailer inventories were the only unknown and they increased 0.6% on top of a 0.4% increase in January.
The breakdown of retailer inventories showed increases in all major areas, with the exception of furniture, home furnishings, electronic and appliance stores (-0.1%). The biggest uptick in inventories was seen for motor vehicle and parts dealers (+1.3%).
The total business inventory-to-sales ratio stood at 1.41 in March, which was unchanged from the upwardly revised reading for February (from 1.40) and up from 1.37 in the same period a year ago.
Tomorrow's economic data will include Core CPI for March (Briefing.com consensus +0.2%) and weekly initial claims (Briefing.com consensus 268k), which will both cross the wires at 8:30 ET. DJ30 +187.03 NASDAQ +75.33 SP500 +20.70 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2258/1.776 bln/620 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2366/983.7 mln/689
3:30 pm :
The dollar index sees an intra-day rally, consolidating above 94.70 in afternoon pit trading
Commodities, as measured by the Bloomberg Commodity Index, are up +0.4% at 81.24
Crude oil exhibited notable volatility, staging an early afternoon rally after the release of EIA storage data, briefly hitting a level above yesterday's closing price before plummeting to close near the midpoint of the earlier rally, lower on the day
May Crude Oil futures fell $0.42 (-1.0%) to $41.70/barrel
API data released yesterday evening showed a larger-than-expected inventory build of +6.2 mln barrels, compared to estimates for a build of +1.0 mln barrels
EIA crude oil inventory data released at 10:30 am ET showed a build of +6.634 mln (consensus called for a build of +1.4 mln)
The April 17 Doha meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC members is approaching, regarded as a near-term catalyst to move oil prices
Natural gas gains in afternoon trade before dropping to lows of the day
May Natural Gas closed $0.02 higher (1.0%) at $2.03/MMBtu
EIA natural gas storage data is scheduled to be released tomorrow at 10:30 am ET
In precious metals, gold consolidates into a modest uptrend before dropping sharply near the close of pit trading, closing near its low of the day
June gold ended today's session down $12.80 (-1.0%) to $1248.10/oz
Silver sees a modest downtrend with consolidation most of the day, closing slightly above yesterday's closing price
May silver closed today's session $0.10 higher (+0.6%) at $16.32/oz
Base metal copper closes near its high of the day
May copper closed $0.02 higher (+0.9%) at $2.17/lb
The broader market pushed into the green on back-to-back days with gains of +1% across all three major US indices. Leading the way higher, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite again was the top dog, adding 75.33 points (+1.55%) to close 4947.42. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 187.03 points (+1.06%) to 17908.28. Rounding out the trio, the S&P 500 was up 20.70 points (+1.00%) to 2082.42.
Action was led by the heavily-weighted Financial (XLF 22.93, +0.51 +2.27%) sector, which displayed strength on the back of bellwether JPMorgan Chase's (JPM 61.79, +2.46 +4.15%) better than expected quarterly results. In other news, market data today came in the form of the weekly MBA Mortgage Index which showed a seasonally adjusted increase of 10.0%. The Producer Price Index for final demand declined 0.1%, while excluding food and energy, producer prices were down 0.1%. The Retail Sales report for March showed core retail sales were flat following a 0.4% increase in February. Also, total business inventories were down 0.1% in February.
Trading in the Technology (XLK 44.54, +0.48 +1.09%) sector was no different as stocks in the space finished near session highs. Component Verizon (VZ 51.29, -0.66 -1.27%) was under pressure today as the company disclosed the strike of about 36,000 workers. The majority of the workers were employed in the wireline segment. Other sectors as measured by the S&P finished Wednesday XLF +2.27%, XLI +1.49%, XLY +1.41%, XLB +0.99%, XLV +0.94%, XLE +0.47%, IYZ +0.33%, XLU -0.61%, XLP -0.77% led by Financials and Industrials, with Utilities and Consumer Staples finishing below flat lines.
In the S&P 500 Information Technology (742.01, +10.05 +1.37%) sector, action was higher at the open, and it never looked back. Component Apple (AAPL 112.04, +1.60 +1.45%) broke out above its 200 day simple moving average following news that a former design team member was hired at GoPro (GPRO 13.90, +2.22 +19.01%) as Vice President of Design. Other names in the space which finished on modest gains included MU +6.98%, ADS +5.25%, QRVO +4.95%, HPQ +3.44%, JNPR +3.30%, SWKS +3.26%, TDC +3.23%, ADSK +3.20%, EA +2.87%, EBAY +2.70%, PYPL +2.62%.
Other notable news items among sector components:
Facebook (FB 110.51, -0.10 -0.09%) was pressured in today's trade as cautious comments from Credit Agricole, which was on a call with FB's ad partner AdParlor, indicated a larger than seasonal drop in Q1 advertising spending on FB. The report was then disputed in late trading, with headlines crossing that AdParlor said the metrics were unauthorized, taken out of context and inaccurate.
GoPro (GPRO) named former Apple (AAPL) design team member Danny Coster as Vice President of Design.
Nexenta and SanDisk (SNDK 76.75, +0.07 +0.09%) announced their joint All Flash Software-Defined Storage solution has been deployed at GleSYS Internet Services AB (GleSYS), a next-generation cloud platform provider.
Teradata (TDC 25.28, +0.79 +3.23%) announced that Think Big, a global Teradata consulting practice with leadership expertise in deploying Apache Spark and other big data technologies, is expanding its data lake and managed service offerings using Apache Spark.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE 17.50, +0.26 +1.51%) introduced a new compute platform for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), educational institutions and branch offices that is managed and updated through the cloud -- the HPE ProLiant Easy Connect Managed Hybrid solution.
PAREXEL (PRXL 66.47, +1.58 +2.43%) and EMC (EMC 25.74, +0.09 +0.35%) entered into an alliance to offer an end-to-end Regulatory Information Management (RIM) and Regulatory Content Management solution.
Elsewhere in the tech space:
Verizon (VZ) confirmed certain CWA and IBEW union employees went on strike as of 6 a.m. ET today.
Demand Media (DMD 5.86, +0.62 +11.83%) completed the sale of its Cracked business to Scripps (SSP 15.58, +0.32 +2.10%) for $39 million in cash.
Behrman Capital announced that its portfolio company Data Device Corporation entered into an agreement to acquire the Microelectronics Business of Maxwell Tech (MXWL 6.32, +0.17 +2.76%) for a total consideration of $21 million.
Shopify (SHOP 29.80, +0.03 +0.10%) to acquire privately held Kit CRM Inc. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Avid Technology's (AVID 6.14, +0.15 +2.50%) CFO, EVP and Chief Administrative Officer informed the company that he intends to resign from his position, effective immediately following the company's announcement of its financial results for the first quarter of 2016 and its earnings call. Until the company finds a replacement, it intends to name Ilan Sidi as CFO on an interim basis, effective upon Mr. Frederick's resignation.
Logitech Intl SA (LOGI 16.39, +0.30 +1.86%) agreed to acquire Jaybird LLC of Salt Lake City, Utah, for about $50 million in cash, with an additional earn-out of up to $45 million based on achievement of growth targets over the next two years.
Gogo (GOGO 11.16, +0.35 +3.24%) filed for mixed securities shelf offering for itself and selling shareholders.
CoreLogic (CLGX 34.25, +0.65 +1.93%) named James Balas as the company's CFO.
Analyst actions:
S was downgraded to Underweight from Sector Weight at Pacific Crest,
CSC was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo,
WDC was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Longbow,
GIB was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Desjardins,
ADTN was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Northland Capital
8:01 am EMCORE Corporation announces favorable ruling from Sumitomo arbitration (EMKR) :
Co announces the receipt of a favorable ruling from the International Court of Arbitration tribunal relating to its ongoing dispute with Sumitomo Electric Industries.
On April 12, 2016, a three member arbitration panel rejected SEI's claims. The panel ruled that EMCORE owes SEI none of the amounts SEI sought in the arbitration and that the Company is entitled to collect the $1.9 mln it is holding in escrow.
The Company is also entitled to recover over $2.5 mln in fees and costs. At December 31, 2015, EMCORE had accrued for $3.4 mln of liabilities relating to potential claims, in addition to the $1.9 mln it held in escrow for these claims.
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