From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The stock market spent most of the session trading without clear direction as participants took a bit of a breather following the previous session's heady advance. That left the major indices to settle in mixed fashion.
Stocks oscillated throughout the session as the U.S. dollar fluctuated against other major currencies after it dropped sharply in the previous session. The greenback initially found support as the British pound weakened in the wake of news that credit analysts at Fitch said Britain is the most likely of the major economies to lose its AAA credit rating. Representatives from the United Kingdom maintain that the credit rating remains safe. That helped the pound trim its losses and undercut the dollar; the Dollar Index finished flat after being up as much as 0.3%.
The dollar's failure to sustain its gain helped materials stocks reverse a loss of more than 1% to settle with a modest gain of 0.2%. Monsanto (MON 73.66, +3.66) provided late leadership to the sector after it had lagged into midafternoon trade. Investors had been unimpressed with the company's reaffirmed 2010 outlook, but comments during its investor conference helped improve their mood.
Financials had also lagged for most of the session, but failed to make their way into positive ground. In turn, they finished with a 0.5% loss. AIG (AIG 37.59, +1.41) helped provide support to the sector, though. According to Bloomberg.com, Moody's said the insurer will be able to repay its Federal Reserve credit line and much or all of the Treasury's investment if financial markets stabilize.
Though stocks finished in mixed fashion, the Dow was able to set a fractionally better 2009 closing high. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 continues to encounter resistance as it approaches its own 2009 highs; it settled flat.
Treasuries saw some mixed interest this session, too. The benchmark 10-year Note was up modestly in early trade, but surrendered its gains following the results from a $25 billion auction of 10-year Notes. The auction attracted a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.8, which is above the recent average of 2.6, but below the last auction's bid-to-cover of 3.0. The auction also produced a yield of 3.47%. The 10-year Note was able to reclaim gains and settle fractionally higher, however.
Advancing Sectors: Health Care (+0.5%), Utilities (+0.3%), Materials (+0.2%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.1%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.5%), Industrials (-0.3%)
Unchanged: Energy, Tech, TelecomDJ30 +20.03 NASDAQ -2.98 NQ100 +0.3% R2K -0.9% SP400 -0.2% SP500 -0.07 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 873/2.01 bln/1798 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1269/1.07 bln/1749
6:36AM On The Wires : Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) announces that it will collaborate with Beyond Semiconductor in the development of compiler tools for Lattice's soft processors. The collaboration will include updates and performance improvements for Lattice's embedded processor IP compilers and development tools...
6:22AM Semi Manufacturing settles all pending lawsuits with TSMC: anticipates no disruption to customers (SMI) 2.42 : Co announcesthat it entered into a settlement agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to resolve all pending lawsuits between the parties, including the legal action filed by TSMC in California for which a verdict was returned by the jury against SMIC on 4 November 2009 and the legal action filed by SMIC in Beijing. SMIC and TSMC have entered into a settlement agreement on 9 November 2009 to settle and dismiss the California Case, including all claims and defenses of SMIC yet to be decided in that case and SMIC's appeal in the Beijing Case, thus concluding all pending court litigation between the parties. Key provisions of this settlement include: (a) mutual release of all claims that were or could have been brought in the pending lawsuits; (b) termination of SMIC's obligation to make remaining payments under the prior settlement agreement between the parties (approx $40 mln); (c) payment to TSMC of an aggregate of US$200 mln (with $15 mln paid upon execution, funded from SMIC's existing cash balances, and the remainder to be paid in installments over a period of four years - $15 mln payable by 31 December, 2009, US$80 mln payable by 31 December, 2010, $30 mln payable by 31 December, 2011, $30 mln payable by 31 December, 2012 and $30 mln payable by 31 December, 2013); (d) grant to TSMC of 1,789,493,218 shares of SMIC (representing approx 8% of SMIC's issued share capital as of October 31, 2009) and a warrant (exercisable within three years of issuance) to subscribe for 695,914,030 shares of SMIC, subject to adjustment, at a purchase price of HK$1.30 per share (which would allow TSMC to obtain total ownership of approx 10% of SMIC's issued share capital after giving effect to the share issuances), subject to receipt of required government and regulatory approvals; and (e) certain remedies in the event of breach of this settlement.
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