From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The three major indices ended lower on Tuesday with varied losses as tech stocks and financial shares were cut down by participants, many of whom showed favor for precious metals amid a drop in the dollar.
Stocks attempted a modest move higher in the early going, but fleeting support resulted in a broad wave of selling. Early pressure was most pronounced among large-cap tech plays after Adobe (ADBE 26.67, -6.27) issued mixed guidance that overshadowed better-than-expected earnings from the company. Meanwhile, Microsoft (MSFT 24.61, -0.54) was pressured after it announced that it will hike its dividend by 23%. eBay (EBAY 24.34, -0.40) failed to find support following an improved outlook, which is still on par with what has been projected by analysts. Tech stocks recovered some of their losses to finish 0.6% in the red.
Financials fell the most. Their 1.6% decline came on top of a 1.0% loss in the prior session and marks the sector's fourth slide in five sessions. Insurers were initially the weakest performers in the sector, but bank stocks proved to be the biggest drag as the KBW Bank Index dropped 1.8%.
With two of the more widely followed sectors under pressure, the broader market violated near term support before it stabilized along secondary support lines. Still, stocks spent the afternoon chopping along in negative territory.
A 0.6% gain made utilities the strongest sector of the session. Many investors remain attracted to the sector's 4.3% dividend yield, based on current prices.
Treasuries were strong in the early going, but they finished mixed. For example, the 10-year Note gained just a few ticks so that its yield moved to just below 2.56% after it had been down to a three-week low of about 2.50%.
Among the more widely watched commodities, precious metals outperformed as the continuous gold contract price set a new all-time high of $1296.20 per ounce. Prices settled at $1292.10 per ounce with a 1.4% gain. Meanwhile, silver prices rallied to a new 30-month high of almost $21.14 per ounce. They settled with a 2.4% gain at $21.05 per ounce.
The big bounce by the metals came amid a 0.8% drop by the dollar, which set a fresh five-month low against competing currencies.
Advancing Sectors: Utilities (+0.6%), Materials (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.1%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.6%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.7%), Tech (-0.6%), Industrials (-0.5%), Energy (-0.5%), Telecom (-0.1%)DJ30 -21.72 NASDAQ -14.80 NQ100 -0.3% R2K -1.2% SP400 -0.8% SP500 -5.50 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 859/2.20 bln/1755 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1126/953 mln/1873
4:06PM Sunpower selected to build 10-megawatt Delaware solar park for LS Power (SPWRA) 12.62 +0.02 : Co announces that it has been selected to design, build, operate, and maintain the 10-megawatt Dover SUN Park, in Dover, Del. for White Oak Solar Energy. SPWRA will install SunPower Tracker systems at the 103-acre site, with SunPower E19 solar panels.
Sierra Wireless (SWIR) announces that NURI Telecom has selected Sierra Wireless to provide end-to-end wireless connectivity for its latest generation of smart metering solutions...
STMicroelectronics' (STM) Incard gains approval for payment applications in Italy...Freescale Semi (FSL) and Cirrus (CRUS) announce they are collaborating to develop solutions for growing digital utility meter market..
3:35AM LDK Solar Reaches Agreement with Q-Cells (LDK) 8.25 : Co announces that it has reached an agreement with Q-Cells regarding an existing solar wafer supply contract that the 2 cos entered into in December of 2007. Co has agreed to an early repayment of the prepayment of $244.5 mln Q-Cells made pursuant to the supply agreement. Under the new agreement, LDK Solar will repay the prepayment in its entirety, which currently stands at $224.9 mln, by the end of 2011. Payments totalling $135 mln will be made in 2010.
1:12AM Microsoft increases quarterly dividend by 23%; also authorized up to $6 bln in incremental commercial paper and longer-term debt (MSFT) 25.15 : Co announces that its board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.16/share, reflecting a $0.03 or 23% increase over the previous Q's dividend. The dividend is payable 12/9/10 to shareholders of record on 11/18/10. The ex-dividend date will be 9/16/10. Co also announced that its board authorized up to $6 bln in incremental commercial paper and longer-term debt. Additionally, co states that under the most recent share repurchase plan approved by the Microsoft board in September 2008, the company has ~$23.7 bln in share repurchase authorization remaining as of June 30, 2010.
09:24 am NVIDIA target raised to $14 at Stifel Nicolaus: . Stifel Nicolaus raises their NVDA tgt to $14 from $12 saying while they have been positive on the NVDA shares based on its server and workstation GPUs' growing importance to both its customer base and its income statement, they see the need for leading edge GPUs in mainstream computing is also increasing. Firm says they have increased confidence that Nvidia's top to bottom Fermi product refresh is well positioned as this new generation of software targets the GPU's computing resources.
07:58 am Nokia downgraded to Underperform at Morgan Keegan: . Morgan Keegan downgrades NOK to Underperform from Mkt Perform and lowers their tgt to $7.80 from $9.70 as they lower their FY10 and FY11 EPS ests below consensus. They expect NSN profitability to improve meaningfully in 2011 due to the Motorola (MOT) acquisition, but expect continued pressure on Devices & Services due to strong competition at both the high end and low end of the markets combined with the gross margin impact of the strong Yen in 2010.
10:39 am PMCS Lowers Q3 Guidance (PMCS)
PMC-Sierra (PMCS 7.26 -0.53) expects its net revenues in the third quarter ending September 26, 2010, to be in the range of $161 million to $163 million, well below the consensus of $173.36 million.
The company's previous outlook for third quarter net revenues announced during the July 22, 2010 earnings conference call was a revenue range of $169 million to $177 million.
The company expects its gross margins in the third quarter to be at the lower end of the outlook range provided of 67.5% to 68.5%, in-line with the consensus of 68%.
Operating expenses in the third quarter are expected to be in the range of $64 million to $65 million, down from the prior outlook range of $66 million to $67 million.
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
