From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Following a barrage of negative headlines the S&P 500 closed below its 50-day moving average for the first time in six months, but its one-month low of 1294 remained intact.
Stocks slumped at the start of trade as the tone turned decidedly negative among participants. The force of the sell-off was the culmination of several key headlines. Among them, China reported a surprise trade deficit of about $7 billion for February. Additionally, Japan revised its fourth quarter GDP downward to reflect a 1.3% drop. Asia's major averages all moved sharply lower and the yen lost ground against the greenback.
Europe also had a hand in stirring selling interest. Analysts at Moody's downgraded Spain's debt and issued a negative outlook. That sent Spain's IBEX to a 1.2% loss. The downgrade also weighed on Europe's other major bourses. Mixed industrial production data out of the continent and a downturn in Germany's trade balance to 10.1 billion euros during January didn't help the tone of trade there.
Selling in Europe extended to the continent's chief currency, the euro, which fell 0.8% to $1.379. The British pound was imbued by the weakness, such that it fell 0.9% to $1.605. The pound was uninspired by news that the Bank of England opted to keep its target interest rate at 0.5% and leave its 200 billion pound asset purchase plan intact.
As for domestic data, initial jobless claims for the week ended March 5 totaled 397,000. They had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com to come in at 382,000. A negative bias among participants framed the tally as being greater than expected, rather than remaining below 400,000.
Trade deficit data didn't do anything to help improve the mood among traders. The deficit for January totaled $46.3 billion, up from $40.3 billion in the prior month. A $41.5 billion deficit had been widely expected.
Despite widespread weakness at the open of trade, stocks tried to gradually trim their losses. However, sellers redoubled their efforts and dropped the broad market to a session low when it was reported that shots were fired at protestors in Saudi Arabia. The reaction was indicative of the headline risk related to the social and political volatility in the Middle East and North Africa.
Prior to the report out of Saudi Arabia, oil prices had been under sharp pressure. The energy component had actually fallen below $101 per barrel, but quickly rallied back in response to the news. It still finished with a 1.6% loss at $102.70 per barrel. Though trade in recent sessions was largely determined by the price of oil, its drop today mattered less to a market that returned its focus toward macro-related headlines.
There weren't many advancing issues this session. In fact, about 95% of the names in the S&P 500 logged losses as the benchmark index settled near session lows, which were just above the key one-month low set about two weeks ago.
Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Energy (-3.6%), Materials (-2.2%), Financial (-2.1%), Tech (-2.0%), Industrials (-2.0%), Health Care (-1.6%), Utilities (-1.2%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.0%), Consumer Staples (-0.7%), Telecom (-0.6%)DJ30 -228.48 NASDAQ -50.70 NQ100 -1.7% R2K -2.6% SP400 -1.9% SP500 -24.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 383/2.37 bln/2257 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 474/1.15 bln/2511
3:30 pm : Commodities finished lower across the board, with softs leading all decliners. May sugar prices fell 5.6% to close at $0.2781 per pound in the broad based sell off. Strength in the dollar also weighed on sugar prices.
April crude oil settled lower by 1.6% to $102.70 per barrel, well above its session lows at $100.62 per barrel. Crude oil spiked sharply in afternoon trade following reports that Saudi police in the eastern city of Qatif fired shots and stun grenades at several hundred protestors. Note that the eastern portion of the country is where the largest population of the minority Shiites is located. The protestors were defying a ban put in place by the Saudi government ahead of the planned "Day of Rage" rallies, one of which is scheduled for tomorrow. April natural gas shed 2.3% to close at $3.83 per MMBtu. This morning's smaller than expected draw down in sent prices to lows, and natural gas was never able to recover from there.
Weakness in the dollar and weakness in crude oil weighed on precious metals today. April gold finished lower by 1.1% to $1412.50 per ounce, while April silver dropped 2.4% to close at $35.27 per ounce. Both metals did spike on the heels of crude oil's rally, but finished largely lower on the day. DJ30 -221.14 NASDAQ -49.94 SP500 -23.85 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 387/1.9 bln/2219 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 450/793.3 mln/2531
9:31AM Ingram Micro signs agreement to sell, market and support Acronis' product suite of data backup and recovery solutions to resellers and managed service providers throughout the America (IM) 19.94 -0.28 :
Flextronics (FLEX) announced that it will expand its range of infrastructure capabilities to include services for data center I/O connectivity products through a new customer relationship with Emulex, the leader in converged networking solutions for the data center. Flextronics will provide Emulex with vertically integrated offerings, such as manufacturing, and configure to order services, primarily from Flextronics' Zhuhai, China location. Flextronics will also provide worldwide logistics support for Emulex.
Apple (AAPL) announced that iPad 2 will be available tomorrow at 5 p.m. local time at all 236 Apple retail stores in the US and through the Apple Store beginning at 1 a.m. iPad 2 with Wi-Fi will be available in the US on March 11 for a suggested retail price of $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model, $699 for the 64GB model. iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 3G will be available for a suggested retail price of $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model. iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 3G compatible with the Verizon network will be available in the US only for a suggested retail price of $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model.
JA Solar Holdings (JASO) announced that it has signed a strategic investment agreement with the city of Hefei, in China's Anhui province, to set up a new state-of-the-art photovoltaic production facility for solar cells and PV products.
8:01AM RF Monolithics appoints Farlin A. Halsey President, CEO and a director of co (RFMI) 1.55 : Co appoints Farlin A. Halsey President, CEO and a director of RFM. Halsey's prior position was Senior Vice President of Marketing and M2M Business. Halsey succeeds David M. Kirk, who will continue his employment until March 31, 2011 to facilitate the transition of his responsibilities to Halsey. Kirk resigned to become the President, CEO and a director of Murata Electronics North America, Inc., a subsidiary of Murata Manufacturing Co.
6:10AM Canadian Solar misses by $0.07, beats on revs; reaffirms FY11 shipment guidance (CSIQ) 13.70 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.58 per dilluted share, $0.07 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.65; revenues rose 57.7% year/year to $452.7 mln vs the $417.6 mln consensus. Co reports Shipments of 237 MW for 4Q10, compared to shipments of 200 MW for 3Q10. Gross margin of 17.0% for 4Q10 compared to gross margin of 17.3% for 3Q10. With regard to 1Q11 Guidance: Co expects shipments will be approximately level with 4Q10, despite seasonality caused by unfavorable weather conditions in both Europe and North America. Co expects gross margin for 1Q11 to be between 14-15%, primarily due to declines in module ASP, higher costs in certain raw materials, and low production volume during the Chinese New Year holiday period. With regard to Full Year Guidance for 2011: Co reiterates previous guidance of shipments of ~1,200-1,300 MW.
Lenovo (LNVGY) and Intel (INTC) announced the Lenovo Classmate+ PC, a purpose-built laptop designed to improve learning for students in grades K-8.
1:29AM NXP Semi files for secondary offering of ~25 mln shares of common stock; no shares are being issued or sold by the co; will not receive any proceeds from this offering (NXPI) 27.78 :
1:27AM Logic Devices transitions to OTCQB marketplace effective March 10; ticker to remain LOGC (LOGC) 0.70 :
09:23 am IBM tgt raised to $189 at Davenport following Analyst Day: . Davenport is raising their tgt to $189 from $175 following the co's Analyst Day on Tuesday. They recommend the purchase of IBM, since the co should continue to benefit from strong corporate and emerging market demand for its hardware, software, and services and from market share gains in all of its business segments. They believe that the co has good potential to meet or exceed its fiscal 2015 operating EPS goal of $20 per share (11% per year growth) as it delivers on its growth objectives and reduces its operating costs by up to $8 bln.
10:43 am ESLR Misses Top-Line Expectations (ESLR)
Evergreen Solar (ESLR 1.87 -0.13) reported a fourth quarter loss of $11.99 per share, which including items, which may not be comparable to the consensus of ($0.85).
Revenues rose 19.9% year-over-year to $89.3 million, below the $97.5 million consensus.
Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2010 was -84% compared to 7.5% in the third quarter of 2010. The decrease in gross margin resulted primarily from the write-down of prepaid inventory resulting from the decision to close the Devens manufacturing facility and the countervailing duties assessed on the co's imported aluminum frames, as previously disclosed.
The company stated "The decision to close the Devens facility was the direct result of rapid and dramatic changes in the underlying market that have taken place since the facility first began operations. We believe we are now better positioned to facilitate a rapid transition to a strategic supplier of low cost multi-crystalline silicon wafers by virtue of our proprietary wafer technology... Our Devens employees exceeded many of management's expectations and for this, they have our deepest appreciation."
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