From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : There wasn't really room for positive spin on today's headlines, but stocks still scored strong gains as market participants showed renewed interest in risk.
The tone of trade today was positive from the start. Participants initially took their cues from Europe's major bourses, which all advanced around 1% or more in the face of a decision by Moody's to downgrade about 30 banks in Spain, the likelihood for a bailout of Portugal following the failure of its Parliament to pass austerity measures, and a mixed batch of economic data.
There wasn't much to boast about at home either. Data featured a 0.9% drop in overall durable goods orders for February and a 0.6% fall in orders less less transportation. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com had called for increases of 1.1% and 1.8%, respectively.
The latest weekly initial jobless claims count came in at 382,000, which is on par with the 384,000 initial claims that had been broadly expected.
Consumer electronics and home office supplies retailer Best Buy (BBY 30.13, -1.72) issued cautious commentary during its quarterly conference call that overshadowed the company's upside earnings surprise. The stock dropped to a two-year low after it had opened in positive territory.
Even amid lackluster headlines stocks still attracted strong buying interest. The effort even took the S&P 500 past the 1300 zone through secondary resistance above that point to a 10-day high.
Tech stocks, which collectively represent the largest sector by market weight, were a primary source of leadership. The sector climbed 1.6%. Large-cap tech issues like Research In Motion (RIMM 64.09, +1.97), which spiked above its 50-day simple moving average ahead of its earnings report, helped the Nasdaq Composite outperform its counterparts.
Financials lagged for the second straight session. Bank of America (BAC 13.48, -0.17) deepened its one-month low in the wake of yesterday's news that the Fed refused the bank's proposal to distribute capital to shareholders in the second half of 2011. Capital One Financial (COF 51.86, +0.45) was dealt the same decision, but its shares actually staged an impressive rebound. As a group, financials advanced just 0.5%.
Energy stocks were today's weakest performers. They gained just 0.3% after oil prices failed to sustain a move above $106 per barrel to settle essentially unchanged at $105.60 per barrel.
Precious metals came under pressure after pushing higher. Gold prices closed with a 3.1% loss at $1434.90 per ounce after the continuous gold contract traded to a new all-time high at $1448.60 per ounce. May silver ended settled with a 0.6% gain at $37.37 per ounce after it hit $38.18 per ounce, which is its highest level in more than 30 years.
For the third straight session share volume was unimpressive. That should pick up in coming sessions as money managers reposition their portfolios for quarter's end.
Advancing Sectors: Tech (+1.6%), Consumer Discretionary (+1.5%), Health Care (+1.2%), Industrials (+1.0%), Telecom (+0.9%), Consumer Staples (+0.8%), Finance (+0.5%), Materials (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.4%), Energy (+0.3%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +84.54 NASDAQ +38.12 NQ100 +1.8% R2K +0.7% SP400 +1.0% SP500 +12.12 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1674/1.99 bln/926 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1947/868 mln/1013
4:28PM Research In Motion beats by $0.02, misses on revs; guides Q1 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus; guides FY12 EPS above consensus (RIMM) 64.09 +1.96 : Reports Q4 (Feb) earnings of $1.78 per share, $0.02 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.76; revenues rose 36.2% year/year to $5.56 bln vs the $5.64 bln consensus. RIMM reports Q4 gross margins of 44.2% vs 43.5% consensus; guidance was for GM to 'be similar to Q3' which was 43.6%. Reports Q4 shipments of 14.9 mln units vs. the 14.5-15.0 mln unit guidance... Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $1.47-1.55 vs. $1.65 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q1 revs of $5.2-5.6 bln vs. $5.64 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. Gross margin percentage for the first quarter is expected to be approximately 41.5%, vs. 42.7% consensus... Co issues upside guidance for FY12, sees EPS of $7.50- vs. $6.81 Thomson Reuters consensus... This guidance range reflects a mix shift in handset towards lower ASP products in the first quarter and an increased level of investment in Research and Development and Sales and Marketing related to our tablet and platform initiatives. The guidance range is slightly wider than normal to reflect the risk of potential disruption in RIMM's supply chain as a result of the recent earthquake in Japan. "As we enter fiscal 2012, RIMM is in an excellent position to benefit from the continuing convergence of the mobile communications and mobile computing markets. We are laying a strong foundation for RIMM's expanding market opportunity through focused investments and we are extremely excited about our smartphone, tablet and platform roadmaps."
4:05PM Oracle beats by $0.04, beats on revs; raises quarterly dividend 20% to $0.06 (ORCL) 32.14 +0.73 : Reports Q3 (Feb) earnings of $0.54 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.04 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.50; revenues rose 36.9% year/year to $8.76 bln vs the $8.67 bln consensus. Both GAAP and non-GAAP new software license revenues were up 29% to $2.2 billion. Non-GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 13% to $3.8 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues were $1.0 billion. Non-GAAP operating income was up 35% to $3.9 billion, and non-GAAP operating margin was 44%. "Our hardware product gross margins increased to 55% in the quarter so we are now completely confident that we will exceed the $1.5 billion profit goal we set for the overall Sun business for the current fiscal year. Q3 performance was broad based with all geographies reporting revenue growth of 30% or higher... The sequential rev growth for Exadata and Exalogic was up over 50%. And we expect to see an even higher growth rate for these two game changing technologies in Q4... In Q3 we signed several large hardware and software deals with some of the biggest names in cloud computing... For example, Salesforce.com's new multi-year contract enables them to continue building virtually all of their cloud services on top of the Oracle database and Oracle middleware." In addition, Oracle also announced that its raised its quarterly cash dividend to $0.06 per share from $0.05 per share.
Trident Microsystems (TRID)announced that its HiDTV Pro-SA1 system-on-a-chip has been designed into Hisense's newest line of affordable and feature rich Connected TVs for the Japanese market.
8:10AM Best Buy beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides FY12 EPS below consensus, revs in-line (BBY) 31.85 : Reports Q4 (Feb) earnings of $1.86 per share, excluding $0.36 in restructuring charges and a $0.12 benfit from lower taxes, $0.01 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.85; revenues fell 1.8% year/year to $16.26 bln vs the $16.3 bln consensus. The decrease reflected a 4.6 percent decline in comparable store sales, partially offset by the impact of net new stores in the past 12 months. The co's gross profit rate for the fiscal fourth quarter was 24.3 percent of revenue (24.4 percent on an adjusted basis), an increase of 40 basis points on an adjusted basis when compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, the company repurchased ~$70 million, or 2 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $35.66 per share. During fiscal 2011, the co repurchased ~$1.2 billion, or 33 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $36.62 per share. The co also noted that it has ~$1.3 billion remaining capacity under its existing share repurchase authorization as of the end of the fiscal fourth quarter. Co issues guidance for FY12, sees EPS of $3.30-3.55, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $3.56 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees FY12 revs of $51.0-52.5 bln (+1-4%) vs. $52.13 bln Thomson Reuters consensus, with comps flat to down 3%.
NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) announced new additions to its Ultra High Frequency and FM broadcast product portfolio, including the BLF888B transistor. Configured as a Doherty power amplifier, the BLF888B achieves breakthrough 50% DVB-T efficiency, offering significant reductions in the power consumption of UHF broadcast systems.
08:41 am Cree target lowered to $65 at Morgan Joseph: . Morgan Joseph lowers their CREE tgt to $65 from $75 following lowered guidance. The firm says gross margins of approx 43%, compared to initial estimate of 46%, were also guided lower for the March quarter due largely to pricing pressure in the LED chip product line. They also note that margin pressure is anticipated given that sales were expected to be back-end loaded in F3Q11, and are now likely to occur in F4Q11, leading to an increase in inventories in the March quarter, and negatively impacting utilization rates. Longer term, their expectation for gross margins in the mid-to-high 40s is unchanged.
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