From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The stock market's upward momentum continued today as each of the major averages finished with solid gains of more than 1%. The higher close put the Dow Jones in positive territory for the year (+0.82%), as the S&P 500 closed at its best levels of the year, and the Nasdaq has now put together nine straight winning sessions and is up a remarkable 21% for the year.
A favorable bias was set before the open when the Wall Street Journal reported that CIT Group (CIT 1.25 +0.55) has reached an agreement with its bondholders to secure $3 billion in last minute, rescue financing. While there hasn't been a formal announcement from the company regarding the details of this deal, it is believed that the financing will charge a high interest rate and is not a long term fix to the company's financial needs. However, the deal should keep the lender out of bankruptcy court and buy the company time to restructure.
The CIT news may have been the most widely reported and covered story today, but there were other catalysts that supported today's strength. Corporate earnings continue to surprise to the upside, with Halliburton (HAL 22.33 +0.95) Hasbro (HAS 26.45 +1.07), Johnson Controls (JCI 23.08 +1.56), and Eaton (ETN 48.94 +3.99) all reporting better-than-expected second quarter results before the open. Additionally, a majority of the overseas markets posted strong gains, and Goldman Sachs raised their 2009 target for the S&P 500 to 1060.
The economic calendar was light today, but did include the June leading indicator data, which was better than expected at +0.7% vs. the +0.5% consensus. This marked the third straight monthly increase, although it was a slower pace of increase than the 1.3% and 1.0% increases posted for May and April, respectively. The main drivers of the June increase were the interest rate spread (0.35%), building permits (0.22%), stock prices (0.10%), jobless claims (0.08%), the average workweek (0.06%), the pace of deliveries (0.05%), and consumer goods orders (0.02%). This economic data was viewed positively by the market as the major averages steadily moved higher following the release.
In commodities, August crude oil closed higher by $0.56 to $64.12 and August natural gas ended up 1.3 cents to $3.683. Gold was strong for the entire session and finished higher by $11.70 to close at $949.20 on weakness in the U.S. dollar (-0.79%). After moving in a fairly wide range today, the 10-Year Treasury Note finished the session higher by 9/32 with a yield of 3.608%.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, the pace of earnings releases will pick up considerably and includes closely followed names such as Caterpillar (CAT 36.65 +2.66), Coca-Cola (KO 51.03 +0.71), Apple (AAPL 152.91 +1.16), Yahoo (YHOO 17.01 +1.01), and UnitedHealth (UNH 24.84 -0.25). There are no major economic releases scheduled for tomorrow. DJ30 +104.21 NASDAQ +22.7 SP500 +10.8 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1808/2071/858 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2314/1126/706
4:37PM Texas Instruments beats by $0.02, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS and revs above consensus (TXN) 23.61 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.20 per share, $0.02 better than the First Call consensus of $0.18; revenues fell 26.7% year/year to $2.46 bln vs the $2.41 bln consensus. EPS includes $0.05 in restructuring charges (consensus appears to include this charge as well). Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of 0.29-0.39 vs. $0.27 consensus; sees Q3 revs of 2.5-2.8 vs. $2.52 bln consensus. For the full year of 2009, TI expects approximately the following: R&D expense: $1.5 bln; Capital expenditures: $300 mln; Depreciation: $900 mln. Compared with the prior quarter, operating profit increased in the Analog, Embedded Processing and Other segments primarily due to higher revenue. "After sharp inventory corrections in our markets during the prior two quarters, our revenue levels are beginning to more closely reflect end demand... As it will likely take some time before the economy strengthens, we have aligned our operations and expenses to be consistent with the weak environment. As a result, we are seeing healthy trends in our profitability... Analog was the biggest driver of sequential growth this quarter with all three major businesses contributing. Of particular note, our High-Volume Analog & Logic business is now showing early signs of progress from our efforts over the past couple of years to reinvigorate growth... Operationally, TI performed well. Despite low visibility at the start of the quarter, our factories were able to respond to a surge in demand resulting in 18 percent sequential growth in revenue. At the same time, TI inventory again declined, and by working with our distributors we were able to further reduce channel inventory by about 10 percent... Looking ahead, we expect solid sequential growth in the third quarter. As end demand trends remain uncertain, we will keep our operations flexible so we can quickly respond to our customers' needs."
4:15PM Intel to offer $1.5 billion of junior subordinated convertible debentures (INTC) 18.90 +0.11 : Co intends to use a majority of the proceeds to purchase shares of its common stock concurrently with, and shortly after, pricing of the debentures. Transactions effected as part of such repurchases could affect or maintain the market price of Intel's common stock. Intel intends to use the remainder of the proceeds for general corporate purposes.
8:47AM Data Domain: EMC acquires majority ownership of Data Domain (DDUP) 33.49 : EMC Corporation (EMC) announced that it has acquired majority ownership of DDUP. Data Domain stockholders have tendered approximately 78.2 percent of the outstanding Data Domain shares (not including shares tendered by notice of guaranteed delivery). Together with the 3.9 percent of outstanding Data Domain shares previously held by EMC, EMC now controls approximately 82.1 percent of Data Domain shares outstanding.
8:01AM Conexant announces it has filed for a $20 mln mixed shelf offering (CNXT) 1.32 :
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