From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : News of renewed merger and acquisition activity didn't bring many participants to the market, but stocks were still able to sport broad-based gains for the entire session and log their best gain in one month.
Stocks were given support in the early going by news that Xerox (XRX 7.68, -1.29) will pay $6.4 billion in cash and stock for Affiliated Computer Systems (ACS 53.86, +6.61), while Abbott Labs (ABT 48.58, +1.12) will pay $6.6 billion in cash for Solvay's drug business.
Though it was overshadowed by the larger deals, American Securities announced it will acquire GenTek (GETI 37.77, +10.77) for $38.00 per share, which represents a near 40% premium over GETI's closing price last Friday.
The supportive role played by Monday morning's M&A news helped stocks to recover from their worst weekly loss since July.
Several sectors had their moments of leadership, but by the end of the session financials logged the best gains. The sector settled with a gain of little more than 3.4%, which marks the sector's best single-session percentage advance in two months. Multiline insurers (+6.0%) underpinned the financial sector's impressive move.
Consumer staples stocks lagged on a relative basis as Dow component Kraft (KFT 26.17, -0.07) showed moderate weakness. Still, the sector netted a gain of 0.5%.
Though stocks traded with broad-based gains, there wasn't much behind them. Trading volume on the NYSE fell to its lowest level in one month, coming in below 1 billion shares.
Despite broad-based buying among equities, Treasuries were still able to advance. As such, the benchmark 10-year Note gained 11 ticks, which sent its yield down to multimonth lows of 3.28%.
The U.S. dollar also showed strength, which drove the Dollar Index to a 0.2% gain. Despite that move, commodities were still able to garner support and send the CRB Commodity Index up 0.6%.
Advancing Sectors: Financials +3.4%, Materials +2.0%, Consumer Discretionary +2.0%, Technology +1.7%, Energy +1.7%, Industrials +1.6%, Telecom +1.5%, Health Care +1.4%, Utilities +0.9%, Consumer Staples +0.5%
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +124.17 NASDAQ +39.82 NQ100 +1.8% R2K +2.4% SP400 +2.1% SP500 +18.60 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1987/1.91 bln/662 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2419/979 mln/607
4:30PM Palm announces closing of public offering (PALM) 16.92 : Co announcesthe closing of the previously announced public offering of common stock. In total, 23 million shares were sold in the offering for a public offering price of $16.25 per share, including shares subject to the over-allotment option and approximately 2.15 million common shares acquired by Elevation Partners.
4:28PM Silicon Image announces departure of CEO; Harold Covert appointed as President and COO (SIMG) 2.90 -0.05 : The co announces the resignation of its president and chief executive officer, Steve Tirado. Hal Covert, chief financial officer, will be taking over as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately. Covert joined Silicon Image from Openwave Systems Inc. in 2007, and has more than 30-years of management experience at technology and telecommunications companies. "Moving forward, Silicon Image has strong talent, leading-edge technology, and a solid balance sheet with no debt and approximately $160M in cash. The management team is focused on our customers, executing on our product strategy, and enhancing shareholder value." Silicon Image has retained the services of an executive search firm to find a new CEO.
4:08PM Silicon Image lowers Q3 revs guidance below consensus (SIMG) 2.89 -0.06 : Co lowers Q3 revs guidance to $37-39 mln vs $44.8 mln First Call consensus, down from $44-46 mln prior guidance. Co says, "During Q3 of 2009 we continued to experience the impact of the product transition the co has been undergoing since 2008, in particular its effect on legacy products' declining average selling prices. This factor, combined with our customers' shift in production from high-end products to mid-range and low-end products, has put more pressure than anticipated on Silicon Image's goal of improving revenue generation. We are looking forward to entering 2010 with our new product line-up that features HDMI 1.4, Mobile High-Definition Link, and SteelVine Series 3 technologies... In other news, a separate press release was issued announcing the formation of the Mobile High-Definition Interface Working Group with Nokia Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, Silicon Image, Inc., Sony Corporation, and Toshiba Corporation. This is an important step in the process of Silicon Image moving forward with its strategy around Mobile High-Definition Link technology."
9:01AM NVIDIA collaborates with Microsoft on high performance GPU computing (NVDA) 14.50 : Co announces work with Microsoft to promote NVIDIA Tesla graphics processing units for high performance parallel computing using the Windows HPC Server 2008 operating system. NVIDIA Research developed several GPU-enabled applications on the Windows HPC Server 2008 platform, such as a ray tracing application that can be used for advanced photo-realistic modeling of automobiles. Related to this, NVIDIA worked with Microsoft Research to install a large Tesla GPU computing cluster and is studying applications that are optimized for the GPU.
STEC (STEC) announces that STEC's enterprise-class ZeusIOPS Solid State Drives are now available for the LSI Engenio 7900 Storage System.
7:30AM Applied Materials awarded service contract by Fujitsu Microelectronics (AMAT) 13.10 : Co announces that it has been awarded an integrated service contract by Fujitsu Microelectronics to support its advanced 300mm semiconductor factory in Mie, Japan. Under the program, Applied will service over 100 Applied chipmaking systems utilizing its Applied Performance Service solution that scales service levels to match factory loading. In addition, Applied will implement its Applied E3 advanced equipment and process control technology on Fujitsu Microelectronics Mie plant's entire toolset.
7:19AM On The Wires : ARM (ARMH) and Broadcom Corporation (BRCM) announced that they have signed a major licensing agreement for the ARM Cortex -A9 MPCore multicore processor. Broadcom intends to target the technology towards next-generation mobile, wireless and other consumer electronics applications...
6:33AM Amtech Systems has received a follow-on multi-system order for its diffusion processing equipment (ASYS) 5.34 : Co announces its solar subsidiary, Tempress Systems, Inc., has received a follow-on multi-system order for its diffusion processing equipment from an existing customer in Asia. The order for multiple systems is expected to ship within the next six to nine months.
09:46 am Micron: Wedbush expects FQ4 to come in ahead of the Street; good news likely priced in: .
Wedbush notes MU reports FQ4 (Aug) after the close on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Firm expects FQ4 results to come in ahead of the Street (($0.19)/$1.27 bln) and its ests largely due to better than expected NAND pricing, gross margin, and the continued transition to DDR3. Firm looks for positive FQ1:10E (Nov) outlook from mgmt driven by (1) strong NAND pricing, (2) modest improvement in server demand, (3) constrained supply of DDR3 and DDR2 pushing DRAM ASPs higher and (4) CQ4 seasonality. Although firm expects on the conf call nothing but very positive comments from mgmt on the near-term outlook for the overall memory mkt, firm believes with the 400+% move in the stock off its 52-wk low of $1.59, that much of the good news is likely already priced in.
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