From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The Nasdaq logged a modest gain as biotech stocks advanced in the face of broader market selling pressure, which kept the Dow and S&P 500 in the red for the entire session.
Coming off of a gain of more than 2% last week, participants moved against stocks in broad fashion. Of the 10 major sectors in the S&P 500, health care was the only one to sport a steady gain for the vast majority of the session. It finished 0.7% higher as biotechs climbed 2.4%.
Biotechs were also primary leaders in the Nasdaq Composite and the Nasdaq 100, where large-cap technology typically determines the direction of trade. Tech stocks finished fractionally higher, but Dell (DELL 16.01, -0.68) was dropped for a sizable loss. It announced that it will acquire Perot Systems (PER 29.56, +11.65) for $3.9 billion, or $30 per share in cash, which represents a near 70% premium to the closing price of PER last Friday.
This session's losses were steepest among financials, energy stocks, and materials stocks. All three shed 0.9%. Financials fell as consumer finance stocks (-2.5%) and life and health insurers (-2.1%) faltered, but energy and materials stocks were pressured by falling natural resource prices.
Oil futures prices dropped 3.2% to $69.71 per barrel, while natural gas fell 5.4% to $3.57 per contract. Gold prices finished 0.5% lower at $1004.90 per ounce, while silver prices settled 1.1% lower at $16.88 per ounce. Their collective weakness took the CRB Commodity Index down 2.2%, which is its worst single-session percentage loss in more than one month.
A rebounding U.S. dollar, which lifted the Dollar Index to a 0.5% gain, only emboldened the desire of participants to dump commodities.
For the fifth consecutive month, the Leading Indicators Index posted positive growth. However, the 0.6% increase for August was slightly less than the 0.7% increase that was widely expected and was also down from the upwardly revised 0.9% increase that was registered in July. There wasn't much importance placed on the report since it has done a poor job in past recessionary cycles of predicting the shape of economic recovery.DJ30 -41.34 NASDAQ +5.18 NQ100 +0.4% R2K -0.3% SP400 -0.3% SP500 -3.64 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1243/2.41 bln/1430 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1010/1.20 bln/2003
10:07AM LTX-Credence announces that Unisem selected the X-Series for volume production testing (LTXC) 1.65 -0.02 :
STEC(STEC) releases a whitepaper based upon the growing interest in Solid State Drive technologies for the Enterprise-Storage and -Server markets. Company highlights that most SSDs are not enterprise SSDs.
9:01AM Molex raises guidance for Q1 above consensus (MOLX) 20.36 : Co issues upside guidance for Q1 (Sep), sees EPS of $0.12-0.16 vs. $0.07 First Call consensus, prior guidance $0.04-0.10; sees Q1 (Sep) revs of $650-665 mln vs. $615.98 mln consensus, prior guidance $590-630 mln. Co said, "Customer orders in all key markets have continued to trend higher in the September quarter, leading to the higher outlook for revenue".
8:31AM Axcelis Tech announces that "Major Asian Foundry" selects it for high energy implant multiple tool order (ACLS) 0.82 : Co announces that that it has received a multiple system order for its industry leading high energy ion implanter from a major foundry in Asia. The tools will be used for high volume manufacturing of logic and memory products, as well as for the development of next generation devices.
8:18AM Tutor Perini subsidiary Rudolph and Sletten awarded a contract to build phase one of the new $733 mln thin-film solar panel manufacturing facility for Solyndra (TPC) 20.25 : Rudolph and Sletten, a wholly owned subsidiary of TPC, announced that the company has been awarded a contract to build phase one of the new $733 million thin-film solar panel manufacturing facility for Solyndra, Inc. in Fremont, California. The first phase of the Solyndra's Fab 2, will contain 609,000 square feet of manufacturing plant floor area, utility and support space, shipping and receiving, and administrative and professional office areas.
TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) announces it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei to supply driver amplifiers and related products for new optical transport systems.
LDK Solar (LDK) has qualified Applied Materials' (AMAT) HCT MaxEdge wire saws for volume production, certifying that the system has met all performance and quality specifications. The successful completion of this factory acceptance testing (FAT) is part of the installation of more than 50 MaxEdge systems at LDK Solar that is due to be finished next month... In relation to the case to use of trademarks and buying keywords for search engines
7:25AM Applied Materials announced a reorganization of certain members of its executive staff (AMAT) 13.03 : Co announced a reorganization of certain members of its executive staff. Tom St. Dennis has announced his intention to resign as senior vice president, general manager Silicon Systems effective October 2. Randhir Thakur will assume leadership of the Silicon Systems Group. In order to take advantage of increasing overlap in the crystalline silicon and thin film solar markets and align more deeply on strategy, investments and business development, Applied Materials' solar organizations will be combined under the leadership of Mark Pinto as senior vice president and general manager of Energy and Environmental Solutions. Manfred Kerschbaum will assume the role of chief of staff, helping to drive the company's business strategy around the world. Kerschbaum had previously been senior vice president and general manager of Applied Global Services.
7:07AM Novatel Wireless announces it has filed a universal shelf registration statement for up to $125 million of equity, debt or other types of securities (NVTL) 11.94 :
7:00AM Dell to acquire Perot Systems for $3.9 bln or $30 per share in cash (PER) 17.91 : Dell (DELL) and Perot Systems announce that they have entered into definitive agreement for Dell to acquire Perot Systems in a transaction valued at approximately $3.9 bln. Terms of the agreement were approved yesterday by the boards of directors of both companies. Under the terms of the agreement, Dell will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding Class A common stock of Perot Systems for $30 per share in cash. The transaction is not subject to a financing condition. The transaction, which is subject to customary government approvals and the satisfaction of other customary conditions, is expected to close in Dell's November-January fiscal quarter. Once the acquisition is complete, Perot Systems will become Dell's services unit and be led from Plano by Peter Altabef, the current Perot Systems chief executive officer. At the same time, Dell directors are expected to consider Ross Perot Jr., Perot Systems' chairman of the board, for appointment to the Dell board. Based on current estimates, the transaction is expected to be accretive to Dell's GAAP earnings in its fiscal 2012.
09:41 am SanDisk: Near-term data flow positive, but cash flow is still a problem - Auriga: . Auriga maintains their negative bias on SanDisk (SNDK) stock, as despite recent checks that suggest significant upside potential to 2H09 ests, they still do not see evidence of sustainable cash generation. Near-term unit and pricing upside leaves us with less conviction in shorting the stock for now, but with ROE, ROIC, and cash flow all likely to remain low or negative through CY10, they cannot justify the current valuation. They maintain Sell, but have raised their tgt to $15 from $11.
09:39 am Brooks Automation upgraded to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus; tgt $12: . Stifel Nicolaus upgrades BRKS to Buy from Hold and sets target price at $12. The firm notes that while they still hold to their view that the co was somewhat late to the game in terms of the restructuring efforts needed to reposition itself, they are now more confident that the plans are now in place, on a going forward basis, and believe they should see the benefits of these moves in future cycles. The firm also believes the company has seen a pickup in business, in line with many of its semi cap peers, and they would not be surprised at upside to its 4Q09.
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