From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The Dow and S&P 500 essentially followed up a choppy, lackluster session with a flat finish, but the Nasdaq underperformed as large-cap tech issues acted as a drag.
Broader market trade lacked direction in the early going. Stocks were unable to build on the prior session's big bounce mostly because of disappointment over the September ADP Employment Change. The report indicated that private payrolls fell by 39,000 last month, but economists polled by Briefing.com had expected, on average, an increase of 18,000. On a positive note, data for the prior month was revised upward to reflect an addition of 10,000 payrolls. Still, the downside surprise of September adds to the uncertainty of the official nonfarm payrolls report due Friday.
Selling pressure picked up midsession, but both the Dow and S&P 500 were able to retrace the slide. For a time the Dow fractionally extended its five-month high, but the S&P 500 could not confirm the move. Blue chips were led by integrated energy giants Exxon Mobil (XOM 63.94, +0.68) and Chevron (CVX 83.89, +0.50) while the broader market was led by Massey Energy (MEE 33.82, +1.94) and Constellation Brands (STZ 18.52, +0.76), which posted better-than-expected bottom line and reaffirmed its earnings outlook for fiscal 2011.
Monsanto (MON 48.65, +0.13) was also out with its latest quarterly results. The company came short of earnings expectations and even issued downside guidance, but still advanced as materials stocks attracted broad support. Materials stocks settled with a 0.8% gain, which was matched only by the energy sector.
Tech stocks sagged all session, though. The sector's 0.6% slide came as semiconductor stocks fell 1.6% and the likes of Amazon.com (AMZN 155.40, -5.47) and Citrix Systems (CTXS 60.15, -9.85) fell out of favor. Weakness among large-cap tech issues weighed heavily on the Nasdaq, which lagged its counterparts for the entire afternoon.
Treasuries traded with strength all session. So strong were their gains that yields on Notes with 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, and 7-year maturities set record lows. The benchmark 10-year Note saw its yield settle below 2.40% after it had been as low as 2.36%, its lowest level since January 2009. The yield on the 30-year Bond fell to 3.67% after it was as low as 3.63%. During the session the yield curve hit its flattest level in about five weeks.
The dollar's doldrums continued as it dropped another 0.5% against competing currencies. That put it at a new eight-month low. Most of the move lower is owed to strength in the euro, which gained 0.7% against the greenback even though analysts at Fitch downgraded Ireland's debt.
On deck for tomorrow are the latest weekly jobless claims count and consumer credit figures for August. Earnings season gets its unofficial start after the close when Dow component Alcoa (AA 12.37, +0.23) reports its latest quarterly results.
Advancing Sectors: Materials (+0.8%), Energy (+0.8%), Industrials (+0.6%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-1.6%), Tech (-0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.5%), Utilities (-0.4%), Health Care (-0.4%)
Unchanged: FinancialsDJ30 +22.93 NASDAQ -19.17 NQ100 -0.9% R2K -0.6% SP400 -0.8% SP500 -0.78 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1083/2.13 bln/1535 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1399/979 mln/1574
5:52PM MEMC Elec: JPMorgan to finance an estimated $60 mln for SunEdison solar projects across the U.S. (WFR) 12.33 -0.01 : SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR), announced an agreement with JPMorgan Capital Corp to fund an estimated $60 mln in project financing for SunEdison deployments across key markets in the United States.
4:05PM JA Solar announces supply agreement for 13mw of mono-crystalline solar cells with a leading U.S. solar manufacturer; delivery begins in Q3 and will continue through remainder of 2010 (JASO) 8.95 +0.65 :
2:03PM Apple: Motorola Mobility (MOT) sues Apple for patent infringement (AAPL) 288.97 +0.30 : Motorola announces that it's subsidiary, Motorola Mobility, has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging that Apple's iPhone, iPad, iTouch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola patents. Motorola Mobility also filed patent infringement complaints against Apple in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida. Overall, Motorola Mobility's three complaints include 18 patents, which relate to early-stage innovations developed by Motorola in key technology areas found on many of Apple's core products and associated services, including MobileMe and the App Store. The Motorola patents include wireless communication technologies, such as WCDMA (3G), GPRS, 802.11 and antenna design, and key smartphone technologies including wireless email, proximity sensing, software application management, location-based services and multi-device synchronization.
8:07AM JA Solar announces supply agreements with BP Solar for more than 185 MW (JASO) 8.30 : Co announces it has signed strategic supply agreements with BP Solar to provide a total of more than 185 MWs of mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline solar cells in 2010 and through 2011. Under the terms of the agreements, co will supply BP Solar with more than 100 MW in 2011, beginning in the Q1. In a separate agreement, which began earlier this year, co committed to provide more than 85 MW, a significant portion of which has already been delivered, with the remainder continuing through 4Q10.
6:30AM Mattson wins orders for multiple suprema photoresist strip systems from new Asian customer (MTSN) 2.76 : Co announces that it has received orders for multiple Suprema photoresist strip systems from a new Asian customer. The Supremas will be used in both front-end-of-line and back-end-of-line applications for advanced logic device production. The systems are scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter of 2010.
5:04AM Advanced Semi reports Sep revs increased 97.2% to NT$17.37 bln (ASX) 4.20
Verizon (VZ) and Motorola (MOT) unveiled Motorola CITRUS powered by Android 2.1...Advanced Micro (AMD) extends AMD Fusion Partner Program to distributors. The expanded program will provide distributor partners access to all of the benefits within the AMD Fusion Partner Program to help accelerate sales of AMD-based solutions. AMD is also unveiling the AMD Rewards Program, which creates added sales-based incentives for partners to drive channel sales growth...
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