From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Last week's near 4% loss made for a bit of a hangover Monday morning as stocks opened with a loss. An early bounce helped the broader market improve its position, but it still finished flat.
Early participants were dealt few trading cues. Among the more notable headlines, there was lower-than-expected annualized second quarter GDP of 0.4% in Japan, renewed selling in Europe, a slightly smaller-than-expected rise in the August Empire Manufacturing Index to 7.1, and an earnings miss from home improvement retailer Lowe's (LOW 19.70, +0.11).
Despite the lackluster headlines, the S&P 500 bounced up from its opening low in the 1070 area to make its way back to its two-day consolidation range highs in the 1080 to 1085 zone. Resistance in that zone confined the broader market to a narrow range that resulted in a finish flat.
The Nasdaq had a better finish. Its relative strength stemmed from tech issues, which outperformed for the entire session. The overall tech sector settled with a 0.4% gain, though it had been up roughly 1% at its session high.
Small-caps in the Russell 2000 outperformed. 3Par (PAR 18.00, +8.35) was a primary leader following news that Dell (DELL 11.96, -0.05) will purchase the company for $18 per share, which is an 87% premium over the stock's closing price last week.
In other merger news, airline plays TAM S.A. (TAM 20.78 +4.09) and LAN Airlines (LFL 27.79, +0.59) will combine their holdings under a single parent entity. That helped drive the Amex Airline Index 2.4% higher.
For-profit education plays were pressured amid reports regarding poor loan repayment rates at Strayer Education (STRA 163.26, -36.75). Adding to the weight was a downgrade of Corinthian Colleges (COCO 5.22, -1.44) by analysts at Deutsche Bank.
Trading volume was pathetic again. Specifically, share volume on the NYSE didn't even break 800 million shares. That makes for one of the most thinly traded session's all year.
Though the dollar dropped to a 0.5% loss, safe havens like Treasuries and gold garnered support.
Broad support for fixed income dropped the yield on the 2-year Note to a new record low of less than 0.49%. The benchmark 10-year Note saw its yield drop to a 15-month low just under 2.57%, while the yield on the 30-year Bond fell to 3.71% for the first time since April 2009.
Gold prices closed 0.9% higher at $1226.20 per ounce, which marks a one-month closing high.
Advancing Sectors: Materials (+0.5%), Tech (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.1%), Energy (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Health Care (-0.4%), Telecom (-0.3%), Financials (-0.2%)
Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, IndustrialsDJ30 -1.14 NASDAQ +8.39 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +0.9% SP400 +0.2% SP500 +0.13 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1624/1.63 bln/1008 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1880/787 mln/1090
5:26PM Emcore sees Q4 revs of $54-56 mln with increases in both the photovoltaics and fiber optics segments (No consensus) (EMKR) 0.93 : In last year's Q4, co reported revs fo $40.5 mln.
4:09PM Agilent beats by $0.06, misses on revs; guides Q4 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (A) 27.16 -0.19 : Reports Q3 (Jul) earnings of $0.54 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.48; revenues rose 30.9% year/year to $1.38 bln vs the $1.4 bln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.58-0.59, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.54 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 revs of $1.52 bln vs. $1.5 bln Thomson Reuters consensus.
4:00PM CalAmp awarded $1.1 mln contract to supply National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with wireless modems (CAMP) 2.48 +0.07 :
9:05AM Texas Instruments: Intel (INTC) to acquire Texas Instruments' cable modem unit; terms not disclosed (TXN) 24.28 :
8:33AM Advanced Energy appoints new CFO (AEIS) 15.39 : Co announces appointment of new CFO Danny C. Herron. His most recent position was CFO for Sundrop Fuels.
8:00AM Veeco Instruments announces sale of Metrology Business to Bruker Corporation (BRKR) (VECO) 31.29 : Co announces that it has agreed to sell its Metrology business to Bruker Corporation (BRKR) for $229 mln in cash. The transaction has been approved by the Board of Directors of both companies and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010, pending regulatory review and subject to customary closing conditions. The sale will transfer Veeco's worldwide Metrology business to Bruker, including Veeco's Atomic Force Microscope business in Santa Barbara, CA and its Optical Industrial Metrology business in Tucson, AZ, as well as Veeco's associated global AFM/OIM field sales and support organization. Bruker intends to combine Veeco Metrology with its global Bruker Nano instruments business, which currently sells a broad range of systems and analytical solutions for materials and nanotechnology research. Veeco currently expects cash proceeds from the transaction to be approximately $160 mln net of estimated applicable taxes and transaction fees. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Veeco will account for the Metrology business segment as a "discontinued operation" effective August 15, 2010. Veeco is therefore updating guidance for third quarter 2010 revenue from continuing operations to be in the range of $255-280 mln, with GAAP earnings per share between $1.45 and $1.72 and non-GAAP EPS between $1.13 and $1.33 (Current Q3 consensus is $1.34). Without Metrology, Veeco's updated guidance is that 2010 revenues from continuing operations will be approx $1 bln, with about 90% from the LED & Solar business segment. (Current 2010 rev consensus is $1.058 bln)
6:18AM LDK Solar to invest RMB 2.5 bln in new solar cell and module facility. (LDK) 7.27 :
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