From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : A stronger dollar restrained buying so that the stock market spent the session chopping along in the red without any clear form of leadership.
Global sales growth of 6.5% in October for McDonald's (MCD 79.31, +0.01) and more delivery delays from Boeing (BA 70.21, -1.06) represented two of the more meaningful announcements ahead of this session, but neither had any impact on broader market action.
Given the slow news flow from the corporate space and the absence of data today, participants took their cues from the dollar. The greenback sported steady gains for most of the session and was up 0.6% at the close of trade. The dollar's advance today marked an extension of the 0.9% gain that it had logged last Friday, when it bounced off of an 11-month low.
Despite the greenback's gain, commodities were able to make varied gains. That helped push the CRB Commodity Index up another 0.5% so that it extended its two-year high.
Strength in the commodities complex helped natural resource stocks of the materials sector and energy sector advance 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
Tech made up the only other major sector to muster a gain as Cisco (CSCO 24.39, +0.13) attracted support ahead of its quarterly announcement on Wednesday. As a group tech stocks settled just 0.1% higher. Still, that was enough for the Nasdaq Composite to eke out a fractional gain. The tech-rich index has now advanced for five straight sessions and for 20 of the past 23 sessions.
Financials fell under renewed selling pressure after the sector had outperformed in each of the three previous sessions. Coming off of a near 7% weekly gain, financials fell to a 0.8% loss today. Insurers weighed most heavily on the sector.
Treasuries had a lackluster session that saw the benchmark 10-year Note slip a few ticks and the 30-year Bond pick up a few ticks. Their yields settled at about 2.55% and 4.11%, respectively. Results from an auction of 3-year Notes featured a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.26, dollar demand of $104.3 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 35.0%.
Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.3%), Materials (+0.2%), Tech (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.8%), Utilities (-0.6%), Consumer Staples (-0.3%), Telecom (-0.3%), Health Care (-0.3%), Industrials (-0.3%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.1%)DJ30 -37.24 NASDAQ +1.07 NQ100 +0.1% R2K +0.0% SP400 -0.1% SP500 -2.60 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1279/1.80 bln/1375 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1354/908 mln/1609
4:31PM JA Solar Announces Additional 600MW of Solar Product Supply Agreements for 2011 Delivery (JASO) 9.41 -0.02 : Co announced that it has signed several additional supply agreements with multiple customers to provide more than 600MW of solar power products for 2011 delivery. To date, total signed supply agreements for delivery in 2011 exceeds 1.2GW. In addition, JA Solar has received prepayments associated with these customer orders. "Business momentum continues to be strong, with robust demand from existing and new customers across multiple geographies," said Dr. Peng Fang, CEO of JA Solar. "Visibility of customer demand remains high and major client indications give us increased confidence in the prospect for 2011... Note: Co reports earnings tomorrow morning before the open.
4:19PM Diodes beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 revs in-line (DIOD) 23.22 -0.08 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.51 per share, $0.02 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.49; revenues rose 33.6% year/year to $163.1 mln vs the $162.8 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $160-168 mln vs. $162.46 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co also sees Q4 gross margin to be comparable to the third quarter level and operating expenses are anticipated to be comparable to third quarter levels on a percent of revenue basis. They expect income tax rate for the fourth quarter to range between 17 and 23 percent. Shares used to calculate GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter are anticipated to be approximately 46.3 million.
4:10PM LDK Solar beats by $0.29, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs above consensus; guides FY11 revs above consensus (LDK) 13.49 +0.31 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.72 per share, $0.29 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.43; revenues rose 19.5% year/year to $675.6 mln vs the $628.1 mln consensus. Gross margins increased to 22% from 18%. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $710-750 mln vs. $593.54 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. wafer shipments between 580 MW and 600 MW, and module shipments between 120 MW and 130 MW, in-house polysilicon production between 1,700 MT and 1,900 MT, in-house cell production between 20 MW and 23 MW and gross margin between 24% and 26%. For fiscal 2011, LDK Solar expects its revenue to be in the range of $2.9 billion to $3.3 billion, Briefing.com consensus $2.16 bln with wafer shipments between 2.5 GW and 2.8 GW and module shipments between 700 MW and 800 MW, in-house polysilicon production between 9,000 MT and 10,000 MT, in-house cell production between 400 MW and 500 MW and gross margin between 22% and 28%.
8:01AM Suntech Power will supply 9.43MW of solar panels and technical support for the second phase of a 44MW solar power plant in Thailand (STP) 9.30 : Co will supply 9.43MW of solar panels and technical support for the second phase of a 44MW solar power plant (38MW AC output) in Thailand. Owned by Bangchak Petroleum Public Co., Ltd., and integrated by Solartron Public Co., Ltd., the landmark solar power plant will be one of the largest in Thailand and Southeast Asia. The 9.43MW contract comes after Suntech was chosen to provide 34.5MW of solar panels and technical support for the project's first phase, announced in August 2010. With groundwork construction underway, the complete 44MW capacity solar power plant remains on schedule to be grid-connected by late-2011.
Marvell (MRVL) announced the co will unveil its quad-core processing, enterprise-class cloud computing platform, Marvell ARMADA XP. The ARMADA XP is the fastest ARM processor available on the market today for enterprise class applications... Acacia Research Corporation (ACTG) announced that a subsidiary has acquired rights to patents for power management technology within integrated circuits....
6:02AM GT Solar to repurchase and retire 26.5 million shares from private equity investors at ~$7.66 per share (SOLR) 8.84 : Co announces that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to repurchase shares of common stock from GT Solar Holdings, LLC whose members include all of the Company's private equity investors. Under the terms of this agreement, co has agreed to purchase 26.5 million shares of its common stock at a price of approximately $7.66 per share for a total purchase price of approximately $203 million. The share repurchase is expected to close on or before November 12, 2010. As a result of the repurchase, the company's shares outstanding are expected to be reduced from approximately 151 million to approximately 124 million. The company will use its available cash to initially fund the transaction. Following the repurchase of these shares, the company expects to have over $110 million in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments. In connection with the repurchase, the company obtained a commitment from Credit Suisse for a senior secured credit facility of up to $200 million.
3:02AM Advanced Semi announces Oct consolidated net revenues +89.7% YoY to NT$16,908 mln (ASX) 4.67 :
2:06AM United Micro net sales for October +15.09% YoY to NT$10,700,048 (UMC) 3.17 :
09:39 am SOLR Raises FY11 Guidance (SOLR)
GT Solar (SOLR 9.46 +0.62) reported second quarter earnings of $0.28 per share, $0.04 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.24.
Revenues rose 120% year-over-year to $244.6 million, well above the $199.2 million consensus.
For its fiscal year 2011, the company raised guidance its earnings guidance to $1.00 to $1.10 per share, above the $0.93 Thomson Reuters consensus, up from $0.90 to $1.00.
On the top line, the company sees revenues falling in the range of $775 million to $850 million, above the $753.02 million Thomson Reuters consensus, up from $700 million to $775 million.
Operating margin for the quarter was 29.9 percent of revenue, compared to 20.0 percent of revenue in the first fiscal quarter and 14.8 percent in the second quarter of fiscal 2010.
In a separate release, the company announced it will repurchase and retire 26.5 million shares from private equity investors at approximately $7.66 per share.
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