From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : News of extended tax cuts helped send the stock market to a new two-year high in the first few minutes of trade, but gains were eventually slashed so that stocks settled flat.
Last evening the White House made preliminary agreements with congressional officials to extend income and dividend tax cuts, as well as payroll taxes and unemployment benefits. Although the legislative process still has to play out, the reaction among market participants this morning was decidedly positive. Improved confidence on the part of investors rekindled the risk trade.
Support for stocks sent both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to new two-year highs, but the Dow stalled just a point below its November peak. Natural resource plays made some of the biggest bounces this morning; both the materials sector and the energy sector were up as much as 1.4%. Buying therein was further bolstered by strength among commodities.
The CRB Commodity Index was up more than 1% to a new two-year high during early trade, but it didn't take long for traders to take profits and send the Index to a 0.5% loss. Gold prices ended the day down 0.5% to $1409.00 per ounce after the continuous gold contract hit a new all time high of $1431.10 per ounce. Silver prices settled with a 0.5% gain at $29.78 per ounce after they had been at a 30-year high of $30.75 per ounce. Oil prices were clipped from a two-year high of $90.76 per barrel to settle pit trade with a 0.8% loss at $88.69 per barrel.
Stocks also fought sellers through the morning, but pressure didn't really intensify until the final hour of trade. A near eight-point drop in the S&P 500 during the course of about 40 minutes coincided with the dollar's push to a session high, or gain of 0.3%, which is right about where it was at the close. The greenback had been down 0.6% at its session low.
The stock market's afternoon slide began just before the release of consumer credit data for October. Total consumer credit climbed $3.4 billion, which is a surprise since the consensus among economists surveyed by Briefing.com had called for a $2.5 billion decline. Consumer credit for September was revised downward to reflect a $1.2 billion increase.
Though support for stocks waned late in the session, Treasuries were spurned for the entire day. So severe was the selling effort that the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note surged more than 25 basis points before it eased back a bit to 3.13%, which makes for its highest closing level since July.
There were no corporate announcements of broad consequence today, although it is worth mention that NICOR (GAS 48.79, +2.03) and AGL Resources (AGL 34.98, -2.15) will merge in an $8.6 billion transaction. Meanwhile, auto parts retailers AutoZone (AZO 260.15, -1.76) and Pep Boys (PBY 13.57, +0.61) posted pleasing quarterly results, though their shares finished mixed.
Share volume was robust this session. In fact, more than 1.6 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE. That's the greatest tally since September and more than 50% greater than the 50-day moving average on the Big Board.
Advancing Sectors: Industrials (+0.5%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.4%), Materials (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Utilities (-0.5%), Energy (-0.3%)
Unchanged: Tech, Health Care, Consumer Discretionary, FinancialDJ30 -3.03 NASDAQ +3.57 NQ100 +0.0% R2K +1.1% SP400 +0.1% SP500 +0.63 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1485/1.91 bln/1162 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1496/1.63 bln/1485
4:34PM Lam Research announced Stephen Newberry, CEO, will take on the responsibility of vice chairman of board of directors; co also promoted Martin Anstice to the position of president, effective immediately (LRCX) 49.72 +0.23 :
4:30PM Texas Instruments narrows guidance (TXN) 33.41 +0.46 : Sees Q4 EPS of $0.61-0.65 vs $0.63 Thomson Reuters consensus, prior guidance of $0.59-0.67; sees revs $3.43-3.57 bln vs $3.50 bln Thomson Reuters consensus, prior guidance of $3.36-3.64 bln. Co will hold a call at 5:00 ET.
9:26AM MoSys prices $20 mln registered direct offering at $4/share (MOSY) 4.38 : Co announces a registered direct equity financing of $20.0 mln by issuing common stock from its existing shelf registration statement. The company has entered into purchase agreements with a small number of investors to buy 4,450,000 shares of common stock at a price of $4.00 per share. In addition, Leonard Perham, the Company's chief executive officer and a director, and Carl Berg, a director, have entered into agreements with the company to purchase 275,000 and 230,000 shares of common stock, respectively, at the closing market price on December 6, 2010 of $4.38 per share. The company conducted the financing without the services of a placement agent or underwriter. Net proceeds of the transaction (after expenses of the offering) to the company are expected to be ~$19.9 mln.
A Seagate Company (STX) announced that The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles has selected EVault for Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager for their online backup needs.
8:26AM Emcore enters into agreement to establish its Suncore joint venture in Huainan, China (EMKR) 1.57 : Co announces that it has entered into an investment and cooperation agreement with San'an Optoelectronics Company and Huainan municipal government. The Agreement calls for EMCORE and San'an to register and operate their previously announced joint venture, Suncore Photovoltaics Co, in Huainan City to develop and manufacture high-concentration photovoltaic components and systems for terrestrial solar power applications. Suncore received land grant of 263 acres and various other incentives, was awarded a $75 million cash grant to fund manufacturing equipment purchases, and will receive a $0.21 rebate for every watt of the first 1,000 MW of CPV products.
07:26 am Suntech Power: Confirmation of wafering effect; tgt raised to $12 at Auriga: . Auriga notes that in-line with their Analyst Day preview, Suntech (STP) introduced 2011 gross margin guidance of 20-22% from cost gains associated with new in-house wafering. They again refine their valuation methodology by making the equity contribution of Global Solar Fund (GSF) zero in the "after tax" line, as they see the potential for volatility masking true underlying results. They increase their FY11 ests to $3.55 bln from $3.05 bln and EPS to $1.48 from $1.42 (cons: $3.02 bln, $0.88); their tgt goes to $12 from $11; Buy.
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