From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The S&P 500 rallied from a loss of more than 3% to an incremental gain on Tuesday. The move began with a technical bounce, gained momentum on the back of an upbeat consumer confidence figure, then extended the push into the final leg of trade amid leadership from financials.
Persistent concerns about the fiscal conditions of Europe and renewed geopolitical tensions between North Korea and South Korea caused global equity markets to fall sharply as investors shunned risk and sought safety. With stocks sharply out of favor roughly 95% of the components in the S&P 500 fell to a loss and the benchmark index dropped to a six-month low.
However, technical support at the 1040 line brought about a bounce from the morning low. The rebound gained upward momentum in the minutes that followed the midmorning release of the May Consumer Confidence Index, which topped expectations by coming in at a two-year high of 63.3.
Other data -- including a 0.1% monthly decline by the March S&P/CaseShiller 20-City Composite and a 0.3% increase in the FHFA's Home Price Index for March -- had no real effect on trade. Stocks looked like they were about to stagnate midsession as the S&P 500 ran into resistance at the 1060 line. That proved to be less of a hurdle once financial stocks started to provide leadership.
Financials found support after CNBC reported that Representative Frank stated that the financial reform bill's language regarding derivatives goes too far. The prospect that the proposed rules on derivatives may be diluted or thrown out helped the financial sector swing to a gain of 0.8%. It had been down more than 3% at its session low.
Materials stocks made one of the most dramatic turnarounds. The sector had been down more than 3% at its session low, but it rallied to finish with a 1.6% gain.
Retailers outperformed for virtually the entire session to finish with a 1.4% gain. Autozone (AZO 194.57, +10.32) was a leader after it posted quarterly earnings that exceeded Wall Street's consensus estimate with ease.
While a few pockets of strength helped the broader market stage a rally, the headline indices struggled at the neutral line in the final minutes of trade. However, a final flurry of buying pushed the broad-based S&P 500 into the green in the waning moments of trade. Though the Dow and Nasdaq couldn't make it into higher ground, they still settled near session highs.
The afternoon sprint knocked Treasuries back a bit. The benchmark 10-year Note saw its yield fall to a near one-year low of almost 3.10% in the early going, but its yield stood closer to 3.15% at the close. Meanwhile, the 2-year Note finished slightly lower amid disappointing auction results, which featured a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.9 and indirect bidder participation of 36.2%. Results from an auction of 5-year Notes will be released Wednesday afternoon.
Advancing Sectors: Materials (+1.6%), Financials (+0.8%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.8%), Telecom (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Staples (-1.0%), Utilities (-0.7%), Health Care (-0.7%), Tech (-0.2%), Energy (-0.1%) DJ30 -22.82 NASDAQ -2.60 NQ100 +0.00% R2K -0.2% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +0.38 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 888/2.89 bln/1767 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1118/1.88 bln/1964
4:33PM Ixys beats by $0.05; guides Q1 revs well above consensus (IXYS) 8.47 : Reports Q4 (Mar) earnings of $0.13 per share, $0.05 better than the First Call consensus of $0.08; revenues rose 31.4% year/year to $76.6 mln vs the $67.2 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance; co sees Q1 revs of $79-81 mln vs. the $71.5 mln consensus.
4:07PM UTStarcom plans to sell IP messaging and US PDSN Assets to NewNet Communication Technologies; transaction expected to close in June 2010 (UTSI) 1.98 -0.04 : Co is selling its IP Messaging and US PDSN Assets to NewNet Communication Technologies who will also become a reseller of the UTStarcom core IP-based product portfolio in the North America and Latin American regions. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in June of 2010.
American Superconductor (AMSC) and Sinovel Wind Group announced that they have expanded their strategic partnership to include additional wind turbine designs for both the onshore and offshore markets...
6:36AM On The Wires : Zoran (ZRAN) announces it has licensed the stereoscopic RealD Format and will incorporate support for 3D content delivery and display technology into its TV, set-top box and Blu-ray products. Zoran's TV reference design with integrated RealD 3D support is available now....
6:17AM Trina Solar beats by $0.05, beats on revs (TSL) 17.66 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.66 per share, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.61; revenues rose 155.0% year/year to $336.8 mln vs the $329.8 mln consensus. Gross margin was 30.9%, above the co's guidance of 26% to 28%, compared to 32.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 17.2% in the first quarter of 2009. Total shipments were 192.6 MW, compared to the co's previous guidance of 180 MW to 190 MW, vs 163.7 MW in 4Q09 and 48.8 MW in 1Q09. For 2Q10, the co expects to ship between 200 MW to 205 MW of PV modules. TSL believes its gross margin for the second quarter will be in the high 20s in percentage terms. For FY10, the co reiterates its guidance for total PV module shipments between 750 MW to 800 MW, representing an increase of 88% to 100% from 2009. Co expects to increase its shipment volumes on a quarter to quarter basis through the end of 2010. Additionally, the co expects to increase its percentage of global shipments to the U.S. in 2H10.
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