From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Frequent swings by the U.S. dollar caused stocks to spend most of the session chopping along in a relatively narrow range, but some late support helped the major equity averages make modest gains. Still, the action hasn't provided any clarity to the market's near-term direction.
Stocks slipped in early trade as the greenback trimmed its losses against competing currencies. The dollar's move came as word surfaced that Standard & Poor's revised its outlook for Spain to negative from stable. The news release came a day after Greece's credit rating was cut by Fitch and Moody's made cautionary comments regarding the potential consequences of the ballooning deficits of the U.S. and U.K.
Reports indicated that the U.S. government is not yet ready to leave the financial system completely to itself when word surfaced that the $700 billion financial bailout plan, TARP, will likely be extended until October 2010.
In other political news, Senate Democrats reached a tentative agreement to remove the government-run insurance portion of their health care reform plan. The announcement gave an early lift to shares of managed care providers, but the group rolled over to settle with a 0.2% loss.
Though the Dollar Index looked like it got a lift from an early flight to safety, it was unable to trade with any clear direction. Each of its attempts to pare losses was met with resistance at the neutral line. It finished with a 0.3% loss.
The greenback was unable to make a gain this session, but commodities still fell under a stiff bout of selling pressure. That caused the CRB Commodity Index to drop 1.5%, its worst showing this month.
Oil prices were a primary drag on the CRB. Contracts for crude closed pit trade with oil priced 2.6% lower at $70.70 per barrel, near fresh two-month lows. The move came even though weekly inventory data showed a surprise draw of 3.82 million barrels.
Gold prices slid for a fourth straight session. In the latest round of pit trade, prices for the yellow metal fell 2.0% to settle at $1120.90 per ounce.
Despite such weakness, gold stocks garnered particular support. The group gained 2.8%. That helped the materials sector put together a 1.3% gain, which was the best of any major sector.
Semiconductor stocks had a relatively solid session. They advanced 0.6%, according to the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, even though Texas Instruments (TXN 25.99, -0.34) fell sharply after it issued an increased earnings forecast.
While Texas Instruments traded with weakness, many large-cap tech issues showed strength for the second straight session. That helped the Nasdaq 100 gain 1.0%, more than double the gain seen by the headline indices.
A weak session for Treasuries concluded with the benchmark 10-year Note down roughly 11 ticks, which put its yield back above 3.4%. Its weakness was worsened by softer-than-expected demand in an auction of 10-year Notes. The auction produced a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.6, which was right at the average for the year, but down from the previous auction's ratio of 2.8.
Consistent with recent trade, action in the broader market this session was largely mixed and lacked clear direction. Though stocks have struggled to hold fresh highs for 2009 in recent weeks, dips have been short and shallow as many market participants continue to step in and provide support as they try to chase the easy gains that have been made since March.
Advancing Sectors: Materials (+1.3%), Tech (+0.9%), Health Care (+0.6%), Financials (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.4%), Energy (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (-0.2%)
Unchanged: Consumer Staples, Industrials, TelecomDJ30 +51.08 NASDAQ +10.74 NQ100 +1.0% R2K +0.1% SP400 +0.1% SP500 +4.01 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1355/1.92 bln/1326 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1644/1.08 bln/1344
4:30PM Kulicke & Soffa CEO Scott Kulicke plans to retire in 2011 (KLIC) 5.16 +0.00 : Co announces that Scott Kulicke plans to retire as Chairman and CEO of the Company in June of 2011. The company's Board of Directors will promptly begin a search for a new CEO, and expects to include both internal and external candidates.
9:01AM Suntech Power signs long-term supply agreements for up to 490MW in Europe (STP) 16.93 : Co announces it has signed three long-term supply agreements for up to 490MW of high performance solar modules to be delivered over the next three years. Three of Suntech's strategic long-term partners in Europe including a value-added reseller, an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) company, and a project developer, signed the agreements to secure access to Suntech's market leading solar modules and to develop closer collaboration on market information, shipment planning, and new product roll-outs.
8:34AM Diodes raises Q4 rev guidance due to continued strength in Asian markets (DIOD) 20.11 : Co raises revenue guidance for Q4 (Dec), sees Q4 (Dec) revs of $128-131 mln vs. $128.31 mln First Call consensus, up from $126-130 previously. The co is maintaining its fourth quarter 2009 gross margin guidance of 31-33% vs the 32.1% consensus and continues to expect operating expenses to be comparable to those of the third quarter 2009 on a percent of revenue basis. In addition, the Company now expects a tax benefit of approximately $2.5-3.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. For 2010, the Company estimates its tax rate to range between 13-23% versus its previous guidance of between 15-25%.
8:00AM Corning sees continued strength in LCD mkt (GLW) 17.89 : Co will announce that continued strength in worldwide LCD television sales has led to an increase in the company's fourth-quarter glass substrate volume expectations, and an improved outlook on 2010 glass market growth. These improved estimates will be provided in remarks to be delivered at the Barclays Capital Global Technology Conference in San Francisco. Corning now anticipates the worldwide glass market will be closer to 2.4 billion square feet this year, an improvement from earlier estimates of 2.3 billion square feet. The co also believes global LCD TV sales will exceed 132 million, up from the previous expectation of 129 million sets.
The Irvine Unified School District Board of Education approved a plan to enter into an agreement with SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic materials (WFR), and SPG Solar to establish energy-generating solar photovoltaic power systems at twenty-one sites throughout the district. It will be the largest solar deployment for a public school system in the state of California...
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