From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks finished in weak fashion as solid, broad-based gains faded into the close and the major indices settled near session lows. However, the stock market still managed to eke out a slight gain, which puts it in positive territory for the year.
The mood among participants this session had generally been upbeat since the opening bell. The positive tone helped stocks extend the prior session's advance, such that the major indices hit new one-month highs.
Natural resource plays were leaders in the market's move. As such, energy stocks and materials stocks booked the best gains. Both sectors settled with a 0.8% gain, as measured by their Exchange Traded Funds (XLE 57.13, +0.47) and (XLB 32.25, +0.27).
Strong gains among commodities underpinned the strength in the energy and materials sectors. Specifically, oil prices advanced 1.2% to close at $79.68 per barrel after they had been as high as $80.95 per barrel, which marked a one-month high. A 3.6% spike to $17.06 per ounce gave silver one of its best single-session percentage moves in months. Meanwhile, gold prices settled pit trade with a 1.7% gain at $1137.40 per ounce after easing back from one-month highs around $1138 per ounce.
Financials had been a primary source of support for the broader market, but they lost their momentum as the session progressed. The sector's primary ETF, (XLF 14.77, +0.05), had been up roughly 1% at its session high, but it finished with a modest 0.3% gain.
Tech stocks also tumbled. That left the tech select SPDR (XLK 21.94, -0.03) to finish in negative territory.
A trip by tech stocks and financial stocks left the broader market without two of its primary leadership sources. That made it difficult for the broader market to sustain gains when it had already been without any legitimate catalysts.
Despite the absence of positive drivers, the S&P 500 managed to hold on to a modest gain, which put it back in positive territory for the year. Though its year-to-date gain is fractional, the benchmark index had struggled to accomplish that feat during the prior session.
Participation remains on the light side, however; barely 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE this session.
Advancing Sectors: Materials (+1.0%), Energy (+0.8%), Utilities (+0.5%), Health Care (+0.4%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Financials (+0.3%), Industrials (+0.3%)
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-0.1%), Tech (-0.2%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.3%)DJ30 +2.19 NASDAQ +7.22 NQ100 +0.3% R2K +0.9% SP400 +0.8% SP500 +2.60 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1769/2.78 bln/892 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2127/1.07 bln/895
3:41PM EMC Corp authorized a stock purchase program to purchase VMware Class A common stock (EMC) 17. -0.05 : Co announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock purchase program to allow the company to make open market purchases of VMware (VMW) Class A common stock in order to maintain EMC's ~80% majority ownership at its current level over the long term.
9:33AM Fairchild Semi files patent lawsuit against Power Integrations in China (FCS) 10.74 +0.01 : Co filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Power Integrations in the People's Republic of China. Fairchild is seeking a permanent injunction preventing the sale, manufacture or use in China, or the importation into China, of Power Integrations products alleged to infringe four Chinese patents, including products in the TinySwitch II, TinySwitch III, LinkSwitch II, LinkSwitch XT and TOPSwitch GX product families. The company is also seeking monetary damages. The lawsuit was filed in Suzhou Intermediate Court. Fairchild Semiconductor and its subsidiaries hold more than 2,200 patents on the company's inventions worldwide.
9:27AM Apple sues HTC for patent infringement (AAPL) 208.99 : Co filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
Trina Solar Limited (TSL) announces the establishment of its European regional headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, which commenced initial operations as of January 2010...
STEC (STEC) announces at Embedded World 2010 that it is currently sampling SlimSATA and SATA-CF SSDs, STEC's newest line of solid-state drives for the embedded markets...
TowerJazz (TSEM) announces an agreement with Korea's IC Design Education Center to accelerate the country's specialty IC design expertise. Under the terms of the agreement, IDEC will provide Korean universities with access to a broad range of specialty process technologies from TowerJazz's MH fab through discounted multi-project wafer shuttles.
6:30AM Amtech Systems announces $8.5 mln in new solar orders (ASYS) 8.68 : Co announces that its solar subsidiary, Tempress Systems, has received approx $8.5 mln in solar orders for its diffusion processing systems from two new customers in Asia and one new customer in Europe. Including these most recent orders, Amtech's solar orders in the current quarter that ends March 31, 2010 total $27 mln and total solar orders to-date in fiscal 2010 have surpassed $80 mln. Amtech's fiscal 2010 began October 1, 2009.
6:04AM Ascent Solar and FTL Solar sign multi-million dollar strategic alliance supply agreement (ASTI) 4.02 : Co announces that it has signed a strategic supply agreement with FTL Solar, LLC, a provider of lightweight solar structures and products headquartered in Austin, TX. The agreement includes a minimum purchase commitment of $6.5 mln over a three year period.
09:35 am Qualcomm Announces Dividend Hike & Repurchase Plan
Following a 24% drop in its stock since late January due to weak second quarter (March) guidance, Qualcomm (QCOM 35.56) has announced that its Board of Directors approved a 12% increase in its quarterly dividend and a new $3 billion stock repurchase program to replace a $2 billion stock repurchase program, which was recently completed with $1.7 billion of repurchase activity.
The quarterly dividend will increase from $0.17 to $0.19 per share, which computes to a 2.1% annual yield. The new stock repurchase program has no expiration date.
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