Sector Investing

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From Briefing.com: 4:35 pm : Despite an early slip, both stocks and commodities were able to rebound from their losses in the prior session.

Coming off of its worst single-session percentage drop in more than two weeks, the stock market bounced back in a strong move that finished with stocks near their session highs. The gains didn't come easy, though; stocks were pressured in the early going by disappointing new home sales for January and a negative knee-jerk response to prepared remarks from Fed Chairman Bernanke.

New home sales for January fell 11.2% month-over-month in their worst monthly downturn since January 2009. The drop took new home sales to an annualized rate of 309,000 units, which is below the pace of 354,000 units that had been expected.

In a prepared statement for his semiannual testimony on monetary policy, Fed Chairman Bernanke indicated that the FOMC continues to anticipate a moderate pace of economic recovery and that inflation is expected to remain subdued, but at some point the Fed will need to begin to tighten monetary conditions to prevent inflationary pressures.

With the outlook for economic growth and inflation unchanged, the dollar came under pressure and fell to a loss of 0.7% against competing currencies. That pullback spurred a broad-based bid in the stock market, but financials provided the most support. The sector netted a 1.7% gain, more than any other major sector.

Retailers also had a strong session. The sector outperformed for the second straight session with a 2.0% gain.

Stocks started to drift lower from their session highs as the greenback rallied in afternoon action to close with a loss of just 0.1%. However, the S&P 500 found technical support at the 1100 line. It worked its way back toward session highs to close in its resistance zone.

Though the broader market was able to shrug off the dollar's rally, materials stocks still came under pressure. The sector's 0.1% loss made it the only sector that failed to log a gain.

While materials stocks struggled, commodities managed to move higher in the face of the dollar's upturn. That gave the CRB Commodity Index a 0.9% gain.

Oil was especially strong. It finished 1.3% higher at $79.93 per barrel, despite a larger-than-expected build in weekly crude oil inventories.

Treasuries had a lackluster session as a $42 billion auction of 5-year Notes drew a yield of 2.395% and attracted a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.75 and an indirect bidder participation of 40.3%.

Advancing Sector(s): Financials (+1.7%), Consumer Discretionary (+1.3%), Tech (+1.1%), Industrials (+0.9%), Energy (+0.8%), Health Care (+0.8%), Consumer Staples (+0.7%), Telecom (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.1%)
Declining Sector(s): Materials (-0.1%)DJ30 +91.75 NASDAQ +22.46 NQ100 +1.0% R2K +0.9% SP400 +0.9% SP500 +10.64 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1649/2.13 bln/991 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2223/1.01 bln/817

6:29PM ASM Intl NV reports Q4 loss of EUR 0.23 vs loss of EUR 0.31 in the prior year's quarter, revs grew 12% to EUR 201.9 mln (ASMI) 22.14 +0.10 :

4:08PM TriQuint Semi beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus; guides FY10 revs above consensus (TQNT) 6.75 +0.20 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.14 per share, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of $0.13; revenues rose 11.7% year/year to $193.3 mln vs the $188.3 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.08-$0.10 vs. $0.07 consensus; sees Q1 revs of $170-$175 vs. $168.56 mln consensus. For the full year co sees revs growth of about 20%, which calculates to roughly $785.2 mln (vs $746.1 mln).