From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks spent virtually the entire session trading with losses as participants moved to take profits following the prior session's surge. A midsession rebound by financials attempted to help the broader market move into positive territory, but a rekindled selling effort ultimately caused stocks to close at session lows with a sizable loss.
Despite gains in Asia and some mixed action in Europe, the major indices were unable to follow through from Monday's near 7% surge. Instead, stocks opened the session with broad-based losses as a lack of news or data left the direction of stocks up to the whims of traders.
Financials initially came under the most pressure, but rallied from a loss of more than 4% to briefly sport a gain. That helped the S&P 500 and the Dow move into positive territory as well. However, sellers redoubled their effort and the financial sector finished at session lows with a 6.5% loss. The broader market also finished at lows.
With financials under pressure, the broader market was left without a clear leader. In turn, all 10 sectors finished lower.
Energy closed with a 2.2% loss. Stocks in the sector were unable to benefit from a rebound in crude oil futures prices. Crude contract prices spent the majority of the session in negative territory, but mustered enough strength to close pit trading 0.5% higher at $54.05 per barrel.
Tech finished 1.6% lower, but steeper drops in large-cap names like Microsoft (MSFT 17.93, -0.40) and Intel (INTC 15.01, -0.51) hampered the Nasdaq, which underperformed its counterparts for the entire session.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury Note closed 13 ticks lower. It had been showing greater weakness, but trimmed losses when news reports indicated the New York Fed will begin purchasing Treasuries Wednesday.
In other news, reports indicate the SEC is considering modifying its uptick rules. Separate reports suggest major exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq are urging such changes.
Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner were put at the mercy of a House Financial Services Committee hearing regarding the rescue of AIG (AIG 1.41, -0.07). The table pounding by committee members appeared to be little more than grandstanding as Bernanke and Geithner expressed their own frustrations and opinions regarding executive compensation, efforts to protect the economy, risk-taking constraints. DJ30 -115.65 NASDAQ -37.18 SP500 -16.57 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 793/2.02 bln/1872 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 917/1.65 bln/2144
4:05PM Jabil Circuit beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (JBL) 4.45 +0.14 : Reports Q2 (Feb) earnings of $0.13 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of $0.12; revenues fell 5.6% year/year to $2.89 bln vs the $2.81 bln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of ($0.08)-$0.08 vs. $0.11 consensus; sees Q3 revs of $2.5-2.7 bln vs. $2.75 bln consensus. The company has commenced performing a goodwill impairment analysis using the two-step approach as required under Statement on Financial Accounting Standards, No. 142 "Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets". The Company currently anticipates having such analysis completed in early April. In the event that the Company determines that its goodwill is impaired in whole or part, a non-cash charge, which is likely to be significant and would further increase reported GAAP net loss and loss per share for the fiscal second quarter of 2009.
1:08AM Teradyne lowers Q109 revenue and EPS guidance; sees Q209 sales flat with Q1 and announces cost reductions (TER) 4.48 : Co issues downside guidance for Q1 (Mar), sees EPS of ($0.42)-($0.40), excluding non-recurring items, vs. ($0.34) First Call consensus; sees Q1 (Mar) revs of $115.0-120.0 mln vs. $135.03 mln consensus. Co projects that its sales in Q209 will be about flat with Q109. "Global economic conditions and consumer demand further weakened this quarter, causing our customers to reduce their test needs to unprecedented levels," said Mike Bradley, CEO. "While there are some indicators suggesting that we have reached the bottom of this cycle, we cannot currently predict when we will see meaningful improvement in demand. In response to these very difficult market conditions, we are taking steps to further lower our annualized costs by approximately $50 million, with a majority of those savings estimated to be in place by the end of the second quarter. These new reductions will bring our total planned 2009 cost reductions to approximately $190 million. We will continue to adjust our costs as necessary, while pressing ahead with new products and supporting our customers in this challenging market."
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