Sector Investing

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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Moderate weakness mired stocks for most of the session, but a failed attempt to push into positive prompted sellers to intensify their efforts and hand the stock market its worst loss in more than one month.

A lack of positive catalysts in the early going left market participants without reason to chase stocks to new highs, which have become increasingly difficult register in recent sessions.

A stronger dollar also stymied buying. In the early going the Dollar Index climbed to a gain of 0.4% before it pulled back to settle with a gain of 0.2%. Most of the dollar's strength was owed to the euro, which weakened in the wake of news that eurozone economic activity stagnated in the fourth quarter.

Precious metals were unfazed by the dollar, though. Gold prices climbed 1.5% to $1137 per ounce, while silver prices settled 1.5% higher at $18.20 per ounce. Such strength won favor for Barrick Gold (ABX 40.70, +1.28), Goldcorp (GG 39.87, +1.59), and IAMGOLD (IAG 15.60, +0.71).

Strength among precious metals plays helped offset the weakness of Monsanto (MON 68.09, -1.45) within the materials sector, which fell 0.7%. Monsanto posted an earnings miss and confirmed a tepid forecast.

All 10 major sectors fell, but losses were worst among telecom stocks. The sector tumbled 2.3%.

Financials fell 0.5% despite early attempts to provide leadership to the broader market. The sector was sacked by a late flurry of selling that came about after stocks failed to find their way into higher ground. The S&P 500 actually flirted with a gain after a $21 billion auction of 10-year Treasuries drew a lower-than-expected yield of 3.90% and a record bid-to-cover ratio of 3.7, but the stock market's failure to overcome resistance at the neutral line set the stage for a more concerted selling effort.

Sellers intensified their efforts after it was learned that consumer credit in February fell by $11.5 billion. It was expected to contract by just $0.7 billion. Consumer credit for the prior month was revised upward to a $10.6 billion increase from a $5.0 billion increase.

While a bounce up from session lows in the final hour of trade helped moderate the extent of this session's slide, it still wasn't enough to prevent the stock market's worst loss since February.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-2.3%), Energy (-1.0%), Utilities (-0.9%), Materials (-0.7%), Industrials (-0.6%), Financials (-0.5%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.5%), Consumer Staples (-0.5%), Health Care (-0.4%), Tech (-0.2%) DJ30 -72.47 NASDAQ -5.65 NQ100 -0.2% R2K -0.3% SP400 -0.7% SP500 -6.99 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1230/2.87 bln/1469 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1109/1.15 bln/1924

4:03PM SMSC beats by $0.06, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (SMSC) 24.15 +0.16 : Reports Q4 (Feb) earnings of $0.18 per share, $0.06 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.12; revenues rose 62.1% year/year to $83 mln vs the $79.9 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.23-0.28 vs. $0.18 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q1 revs of $90-94 mln vs. $83.09 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. "The environment for semiconductor spending is accelerating. We are seeing strong orders across all of the markets we serve, including a resumption in enterprise PC spending. We anticipate growth in each of our product lines and geographies in the first quarter of fiscal 2011, which leads us to believe that revenue will increase by 8 to 13 percent sequentially."

Palm (PALM 4.29 +0.44) shares spiked on renewed takeover chatter. Palm calls are seeing interest following the chatter with 13.2K calls trading vs 3.2K puts. As mentioned before, while many rumors circulate during the day, and the validity of the source of these rumors can be questionable, the speculation may increase volatility in the near term.

8:30AM O2Micro announces battery protection patent granted (OIIM) 7.01 : Co was issued 10 claims under United States patent number 7,646,169 for its Trickle Discharge for Battery Pack Protection invention. This invention employs a controlled trickle discharge to protect the battery pack from a large current fault condition, like a short circuit. Any electronic device with a rechargeable battery, such as notebook computers, PDAs, cell phones, power tools, benefit from this circuitry and method.

8:01AM Cirrus Logic pre-reports MarQ revenue above consensus (CRUS) 9.37 : Co expects to report Q4 (Mar) revenue of $62.6 mln, an increase from the previous guidance of $55-59 mln and vs $56.8 mln consensus. Co will report full results on April 27. Co estimates gross margin to be 56-57%. Co says Q4 results set the stage for what it expects will be another strong year.

4:10AM Advanced Semiconductor Engineering announces monthly net revenues (ASX) 4.75 : Co announces unaudited consolidated net revenues for March increased 188% year/year to NT$ 15,847 mln; sequentlial change was +22.0%. Co announces Q110 net revenues increased 180.3% year/year to NT$ 37,555 mln.