From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Though the Dow never made it out of the red, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite turned modest losses into fractional gains after participants initially reacted negatively to news of a rate hike in China.
During the weekend China's central bank tacked on another 25 basis points to its target lending rate and deposit rate. The decision, which is intended to stave off inflation, rekindled concern about slower growth in China and, in turn, a more sluggish global economic recovery. China's Shanghai Composite tumbled nearly 2% and Germany's DAX and France's CAC closed lower by 1% or more (Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Britain's FTSE were both closed for holiday observance).
Concern about slower growth coupled with losses abroad undermined domestic trade in the early going, but financials were quick to provide support. Consistent with the past couple of weeks, financials jumped out to an early lead and held their gains for the duration of the day. The sector settled with a 1.0% gain.
Though financials were initial leaders, it was only after tech stocks reversed their losses that the S&P 500 was able to find higher ground and settle a couple of points below the two-year high that it had set last week. As for the tech sector, it finished with a 0.2% gain even as large-cap issues like Microsoft (MSFT 28.07, -0.23) and Yahoo! (YHOO 16.48, -0.24) logged losses.
With so many trading desks thinly staffed around the holidays and amid severe winter storms, share volume was extraordinarily light this session -- fewer than a half billion shares traded on the NYSE. Today's tally made for one of the most lightly traded sessions of the year.
Treasuries had a quiet start to the day, but garnered some buying in the wake of a $35 billion auction of 2-year Notes. The auction drew a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.71, dollar demand of $129.9 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 22.6%. For comparison, the prior auction produced a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.70, dollar demand of $129.5 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 38.3%. As of the close, the 2-year Note was unchanged with its yield just below 0.65%, the benchmark 10-year Note closed about 15 ticks higher with its yield at 3.34%, and the 30-year Bond tacked on a full point so that its yield was lowered to just below 4.41%.
The dollar had a lackluster day that was spent in the red with a loss that ranged from about 0.1% to 0.2% relative to a basket of competing currencies.
Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.0%), Telecom (+0.3%), Tech (+0.2%), Industrials (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Energy (-0.4%), Consumer Staples (-0.4%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.3%), Health Care (-0.3%)
Unchanged: Utilities; MaterialsDJ30 -18.46 NASDAQ +1.67 NQ100 +0.00% R2K +0.4% SP400 +0.1% SP500 +0.78 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1536/1.10 bln/1105 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1636/467 mln/1306
5:02PM MEMC Elec subsidiary SunEdison receives final milestone payment of 230 mln Euros for Rovigo solar power plant (WFR) 10.96 -0.02 :
4:48PM Hoku enters into $10 mln credit agreement (HOKU) 2.43 +0.03 : In an 8-K, co announces on December 20, 2010, Hoku entered into a Credit Agreement with China Merchants Bank. The Credit Agreement provides for one or more term loans in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $10 million, which must be borrowed within 30 days of the effective date of the Credit Agreement.
Rambus (RMBS) announced it has renewed its patent license agreement with Renesas Electronics Corporation. This agreement covers the use of Rambus patented innovations in a broad range of logic integrated circuit products offered by Renesas Electronics. Specific terms of the agreement are confidential.
8:01AM Trina Solar announces three-year $800 mln investment in Changzhou Trina PV Park (TSL) 23.60 : The investments in Changzhou Trina PV Park from 2011 to 2013 will be made for the purposes of expanding the co's manufacturing capacity and research and development facilities. Co also announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Changzhou Trina Solar Energy surpassed the revenue milestone of 10 bln Renminbi for the calendar year 2010. This figure does not represent the consolidated revenue of Trina Solar Limited in 2010.
7:03AM Research In Motion CFO adopted automatic securities disposition plan (RIMM) 58.65 : Co announced that Brian Bidulka, RIM's Chief Financial Officer, has adopted a new automatic securities disposition plan in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 10b5-1. The objective of Bidulka's ASDP is to facilitate the donation of 2,500 RIM shares to a registered charitable foundation and the sale of 66,500 RIM shares by Bidulka over the two-year term of the ASDP. The RIM shares to be donated and sold by Mr. Bidulka are issuable upon the exercise and vesting of stock options and restricted share units granted to Mr. Bidulka and include 25,000 shares underlying stock options that are expiring during the term of the ASDP and 20,000 shares underlying RSUs that are vesting during the term of the ASDP.
6:24AM Amkor to redeem all $100 million of its 6.25% convertible subordinated notes due 2013 (AMKR) 7.39 : Co announced that it will call for redemption all of the $100,000,000 aggregate principal amount outstanding of its 6.25% Convertible Subordinated Notes due 2013. The redemption date of the Notes will be January 26, 2011.
07:47 am Google target raised to $690 at Kaufman Bros: . Kaufman Bros raises their GOOG tgt to $690 from $650 saying U.S. holiday online sales were strong, even at the tail end of the season. Firm says continued strength was a surprise, especially as retailers had front-loaded offers, now the upside is certain. Firm says eCommerce spend accelerated to 12% Y/Y growth season-to-date per comScore; MasterCard estimate is 15% Y/Y and Google should benefit from eCommerce strength.
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