From Briefing.com: 4:19PM Intel beats by $0.06, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 revs above consensus (INTC) 21.29 -0.01 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.59 per share, $0.06 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.53; revenues rose 8.4% year/year to $11.46 bln vs the $11.37 bln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $11.1-11.9 bln vs. $10.73 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. Q4 gross margins of 67.5% vs 66.7% consensus; guides Q1 gross margins to 64%, plus or minus a couple percentage points vs 63.5% consensus; guides FY11 gross margins to 65%, plus or minus a couple percentage points vs 64.2% consensus. PC Client Group revenue flat, Data Center Group revenue up 15 percent, other Intel architecture group flat, and Intel Atom microprocessor and chipset revenue of $391 million flat, all sequentially. The average selling price (ASP) for microprocessors was slightly up sequentially.
4:25 pm : Stocks finished the day with modest losses after a choppy session, with commodities and related sectors pacing the downside. The decline in commodities comes despite weakness in dollar. Market participants also processed the latest dose of economic data, and prepared for the quarterly reports of a couple of bellwethers. While broad-based buying in the prior session sent the major averages to new two-year highs, the tone was less optimistic in today's trade.
Uninspiring initial jobless claims data set this tone before the open. For the week ended January 8, initial jobless claims totaled 445,000, which is more than the 415,000 expectation. Continuing claims dropped sharply to a two-year low of 3.88 million, but that is most likely due to the expiration of unemployment benefits... The Producer Price Index for December climbed a sharper-than-expected 1.1%, but core producer prices increased 0.2%, as had been expected... The November trade deficit received less attention. It totaled $38.3 billion, which is only slightly changed from the prior month.
Italy and Spain held the most recent auctions in a strong of successful sovereign debt offerings from the eurozone. While the results spurred Spain's IBEX sharply higher, the more widely-watched European bourses moved in mixed fashion as the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BOE) both left their target lending rates unchanged, as expected. The BOE and left its asset purchase plan unaltered, also as expected... A combination of successful bond auctions in higher-risk regions, along with comments from ECB President Trichet, helped the euro trade sharply higher vs. the dollar. The euro is actually up 1.6% to $1.335. That has helped drive down the Dollar Index to a ~1% loss.
Fed Chairman Bernanke also made some intraday comments on CNBC intraday, noting that risks are more balanced now, as opposed to the downside a few months ago, and that 3-4% growth in 2011 seems reasonable. His comments didn't seem to impact the market. Corporate news flow has been light today, but earnings season is beginning to pick up with tonight's earnings from Intel (INTC 21.25, -0.06), which just hit the wires. Shares are +0.40 at ~21.70 in after-hours after beating consensus on the top and bottom lines, and issuing upside revenue guidance for Q1. Tomorrow morning, all eyes will be on JPMorgan Chase's (JPM 44.49, -0.22) earnings report before the bell.
Outside of earnings, pharmaceutical giant Merck (MRK 34.65, -2.50) fell more than 6% following the company's statement on changes to the clinical studies for vorapaxar, an investigational cardiovascular medicine.
9:13AM Tegal has received an order from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems for a Tegal 200 SE DRIE system equipped with the Tegal ProNova2 reactor (TGAL) 0.51 :
7:02AM TTM Tech raises Q4 EPS, rev guidance above consensus as a result of greater demand for its high technology products (TTMI) 14.62 : Co raises Q4 non-GAAP EPS guidance to $0.45-0.50 from $0.35-0.42 vs $0.39 Thomson Reuters consensus; revs to $375-378 mln from $351-367 mln vs $361.05 mln Thomson Reuters consensus, as a result of greater demand for its high technology products.
Canadian Solar (CSIQ) announced that the company was one of the module suppliers to Europe's largest capacity PV solar power plant, constructed by SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR).
NVIDIA (NVDA) and TSMC (TSM) announced the shipment of the one-billionth GeForce graphics processor designed by NVIDIA and manufactured by TSMC. The key milestone reflects strong demand for NVIDIA graphics processors.
07:27 am Micron upgraded to Buy at Sterne Agee; tgt $12: . Sterne Agee upgrades MU to Buy from Neutral and sets target price at $12 as they think DRAM pricing will start to moderate and stabilize over the next couple of months. The firm believes the February quarter should mark a trough in DRAM pricing/margins, and position for a rebound.
07:26 am ON Semiconductor upgraded to Buy at Collins Stewart; tgt $14: . Collins Stewart upgrades ONNN to Buy from Hold and sets target price at $14 based on faster than anticipated integration of SANYO Semi in 9 months vs. 18 months; expectations for better than expected Q1 seasonality from the Intel Sandy Bridge launch with increasing content/share gains in new platforms; and improving fundamentals in Automotive.
09:44 am EXFO Guides Q2 Revs Well Above Consensus (EXFO)
EXFO (EXFO $10.12 +2.55) reported first quarter GAAP earnings of $0.23 per share, $0.02 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.21.
Revenues rose 63.0% year-over-year to $65.7 million versus the $64 million consensus.
For the second quarter, the company issued GAAP EPS of $0.03 to $0.07, in-line with the $0.04 Thomson Reuters consensus. On the top line, the company expects to see revenues of $70 million to $75 million, well above the $63.64 million Thomson Reuters consensus.
09:38 am LEDS Reports Q1 Results; Guides Q2 (LEDS)
SemiLEDs (LEDS $19.09 -9.54) reported first quarter non-GAAP EPS of $0.12 vs. $0.00 last yr (GAAP $0.11 vs. $0.00 last year).
Revenues rose 94% year-over-year to $13.0 million (no estimates).
For the second quarter, the company expects to see GAAP EPS of $0.06 to $0.09, with revenue of $10.5 million to $12.5 million. Second quarter GAAP gross margin is expected to be in the range of 44% to 46%.
Second quarter guidance reflects pricing pressure being experienced by the company during the quarter. GAAP gross margin for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 was 51.0%, compared with 27.4% in the first quarter of fiscal 2010. GAAP operating margin for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 was 37.7%, compared with 9.0% in the first quarter of fiscal 2010.
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