Sector Investing

[ReturntoSender]

From Briefing,com: 4:30 pm : The S&P 500 settled lower for only the fourth time this month as a late recovery effort stalled at the neutral line.

Stocks spent the entire session confined to a relatively narrow range. The listless, lackluster action ended with only energy (+0.1%) and telecom (+0.1%) in higher ground, but losses in the other sectors were slight.

Participants, who were limited in number, were generally unmotivated today. As such, no real responses were made to the latest dose of data, which featured some positive surprises.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended December 25 totaled 388,000, which is the lowest sum in more than two years. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected, on average, that initial claims would come in at 416,000.

The Chicago PMI for December was posted shortly after the open. It improved to a 22-year high of 68.6.

Pending home sales for November increased 3.5% month over month. That compares favorably with the Briefing.com consensus call for a 3.0% decline.

The dollar spent the day in the red and finished with a 0.3% loss against a basket of competing currencies as it extended its slide from the prior session. That didn't really do anything to drive buying, however. The breakdown in the dollar-stock market dynamic in recent days is mostly owed to increased apathy as investors take extended vacations around year-end holidays, or opt to take their gains and losses.

Amid the lack of participation, barely a half billion shares were traded today on the NYSE. The 50-day average stands closer to 1 billion.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+0.1%), Energy (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.4%), Health Care (-0.3%), Industrials (-0.2%), Tech (-0.2%), Utilities (-0.2%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.1%), Consumer Staples (-0.1%)
Unchanged: MaterialsDJ30 -15.67 NASDAQ -3.95 NQ100 -0.3% R2K -0.1% SP400 +0.1% SP500 -1.90 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1217/1.09 bln/1394 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1492/507 mln/1447

8:01AM Chipmos Technology receives approval for extension of repayment schedule on its short-term bank loans from Taiwan Bank Creditors (IMOS) 1.49 : Co announces that the its 88.96% subsidiary ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES has reached agreement with and received approval from its bank creditors for an extension of its repayment schedule on its short-term loans. Co states its goal is to continue to pay down debt in 2011 and subsequently on a repayment schedule anticipated to reduce total debt to less than $300 mln by the end of 2011.

1:25AM Emcore announces delay in 10-K filing (EMKR) 1.15 : Co announces that it would be delaying its filing of its Form 10-K filing. In March 2010, the co announced that it had changed auditors from Deloitte & Touche to KPMG. On December 28, 2010, the co was informed by the prior auditor, Deloitte & Touche that they have not completed their procedures to re-issue their opinion with respect to the co's financial statements for 2008 and 2009. Deloitte is specifically reviewing their audit procedures performed on the co's goodwill and intangible assets accounts. As a result, the co is unable to file the 2010 Form 10-K at this time. The co intends to file the 2010 Form 10-K as promptly as practicable once Deloitte is able to re-issue its opinion with respect to the prior fiscal years.