From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks overcame some afternoon selling to settle in positive ground with varied gains. That helped secure the sixth straight monthly gain for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, and the third straight monthly gain for the Dow.
Trade started on a strong note with buyers encouraged by solid gains among most major markets abroad, although disappointing earnings from global banking giant HSBC (HBC 55.09, -2.18) hampered Britain's FTSE. The positive tone to early trade was also helped by a pullback in oil prices following word that Saudi Arabia will make up for any supply disruption that stems from the tenuous circumstances in Libya. April crude oil ended lower by 0.9% to $96.97 per barrel.
Amid the action in oil prices, energy stocks faltered after a strong start, but recovered to settle with a 0.6% gain that is on par with what the broader market ultimately scored. Weakness in semiconductor stocks (-1.1%) weighed on the Nasdaq, which lagged its counterparts for virtually the entire session after it had outperformed late last week.
Amazon.com (AMZN 173.29, -3.95) exacerbated the Nasdaq's problems as participants dropped the stock to a three-week low following news that analysts at UBS downgraded shares of AMZN. Apple (AAPL 353.21, +5.05) offered support as it advanced to its fourth straight gain following three consecutive losses.
Although the Nasdaq had a rather underwhelming performance this session, it locked in a 3.5% gain February. The S&P 500 scored a 4.0% monthly gain while the Dow advanced 3.4% for the month.
Fanfare for the latest dose of data was minimal, despite few blemishes.
January personal income increased by 1.0%, which is stronger than the 0.3% increase that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. However, January personal spending increased just 0.2%, which is less than the widely anticipated increase of 0.4%. Core personal consumption expenditures for January increased just 0.1% month over month, but that had been broadly expected.
The Chicago PMI for February climbed to a 20-year high of 71.2. It had only ben expected to come in at 67.5 after a 68.8 reading in January.
Pending home sales for January fell 2.8% month over month, but that is still better than the 3.2% decline that had been expected, on average, among economists surveyed by Briefing.com. The January decline is also softer than the 3.2% slide reported for the prior month.
Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+1.5%), Utilities (+1.0%), Materials (+1.0%), Health Care (+0.9%), Energy (+0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.6%), Industrials (+0.6%), Financials (+0.5%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Tech (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +95.89 NASDAQ +1.22 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +0.2% SP400 +0.3% SP500 +7.34 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1328/2.03 bln/1336 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2040/1.25 bln/966
4:05PM Agilent acquires Lab901 to expand electrophoresis portfolio for molecular biology applications, terms not disclosed (A) 42.08 -0.28 :
4:01PM SMSC announces that NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) has licensed co's patented Inter-Chip Connectivity technology (SMSC) 26.33 +0.63 : ICC enables the USB 2.0 protocol to be delivered over short distances consuming a fraction of the power of a traditional USB 2.0 analog interface while retaining 100 percent software compatibility with an analog USB 2.0 connection.
9:03AM EMC and IBM Corp (IBM) announced the extension of a technology licensing agreement that enables customers to install and utilize EMC and IBM products in heterogeneous IBM zEnterprise mainframe server environments (EMC) 26.91 :
Veeco Instruments (VECO) announced that Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in Korea has selected Veeco's TurboDisc K465i Gallium Nitride Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition System for advanced GaN on Si research for power electronics.
8:02AM Vitesse Semi announces that its common shares have been approved for listing on the NASDAQ Global Market; co to trade under ticker "VTSS" (VTSS) : Co announces that its common shares have been approved for listing on the NASDAQ Global Market. The company expects that its common stock will commence trading on NASDAQ on March 2, 2011 under the symbol "VTSS." Until then, its shares will continue to be quoted on Pink Sheets under the symbol "VTSS.PK.
# Finisar (FNSR) announced that its EPON Stick is available as the first Multi-Source Agreement Small Form-factor Pluggable ONU that interoperates with other EPON equipment based on CableLabs DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON specifications.
# Fujitsu Semiconductor and ARM (ARMH) announced that they have signed a comprehensive license agreement for ARM IP products. Additionally, NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) and ARMH announced that they have expanded their strategic relationship with a long-term subscription licensing agreement around the ARM Cortex-M series processors for microcontrollers.
6:17AM JinkoSolar Holding beats by $0.80, beats on revs; guides Q1 revs above consensus; guides FY11 revs above consensus (JKS) 29.24 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $2.36 per share, $0.80 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.56; revenues rose 148.3% year/year to $267.7 mln vs the $228.3 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $280-290 mln vs. $231.65 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co issues upside guidance for FY11, sees FY11 revs of $1.4-1.5 bln vs. $978.93 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. The co expects to increase its in-house annual silicon wafer, solar cell and solar module production capacities to ~900 MW each by the end of the first quarter of 2011. For the full year 2011, total solar module shipments are expected to be in the range of 950-1,000 MW. The Company expects to increase its in-house annual silicon wafer, solar cell and solar module production capacities to ~1,500 MW each, as compared to its original guidance of 1,000 MW each by the end of 2011.
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