Sector Investing

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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Renewed buying interest has the stock market on pace for its best first quarter performance since 1998.

Robust gains abroad provided a spark that helped stocks extend their prior session advance. No real reaction was made to the latest ADP Employment Change, which indicated that private payrolls increased by 201,000 in March. The Briefing.com consensus had called for an increase of 210,000.

Support continues to be broad based, but telecom has consistently been a top performer during the course of the past few sessions. In fact, the sector is up about 5% week to date. Integrated plays AT&T (T 30.71, +0.66) and Verizon (VZ 38.46, +0.17) have hit new 52-week highs in the process.

Strength in both shares of T and VZ helped the Dow climb to within about 20 points of the two-year high that it set little more than a month ago. Meanwhile, strength among small-cap stocks took the Russell 2000 to its highest level since 2008. The broad-based S&P 500 is back near its one-month high, which has it on pace for a quarterly gain of more than 5%. It encountered some resistance in the 1330 zone, though.

Energy stocks experienced some volatility with President Obama's outline of the U.S. energy policy. Energy stocks had been up about 1%, but gave up all of that gain in the minutes leading up to the speech. A lack of surprises enabled the sector to rebound to a 0.8% gain.

Tech stocks traded with relative weakness all session. Although the sector settled in positive territory, its 0.2% gain paled in comparison with what the broad market scored. Despite that, the tech-rich Nasdaq actually edged out its counterparts. Biotech play Cephalon (CEPH 75.44, +16.69) was a top performer after Valeant Pharma (VRX 50.08, +5.69) announced an all cash takeover offer of $73 per share for the company. Both stocks set 52-week highs.

Even though the end of the first quarter is close at hand, participation remains unimpressive in that share volume failed to break 1 billion on the NYSE again. Part of the reluctance among portfolio managers to rearrange their holdings is owed to caution ahead of the official nonfarm payrolls report, which is due this Friday.

Treasuries settled the day with solid gains. Their advance came in the face of a stronger stock market and lackluster results from an auction of 7-year Notes. The auction drew a bid-to-cover of 2.79, dollar demand of $80.9 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 49.4%.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+1.4%), Materials (+1.2%), Consumer Discretionary (+1.1%), Materials (+1.0%), Energy (+0.8%), Financials (+0.7%), Health Care (+0.7%), Consumer Staples (+0.6%), Industrials (+0.4%), Tech (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +71.60 NASDAQ +19.90 NQ100 +0.5% R2K +1.3% SP400 +1.0% SP500 +8.82 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1826/1.81 bln/779 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2191/918 mln/811

4:30PM Photronics acquires $30.4 mln aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 5.5% convertible notes (PLAB) 8.91 +0.32 : Co announced that it acquired $30.4 mln aggregate principal amount of its 5.5% convertible senior notes due in October 2014. The convertible notes were acquired in individually negotiated transactions, by delivering ~$19.7 mln in cash and approximately 4.5 mln shares of its common stock with an approx. value of $39.2 mln. As a result, the Company expects to record an after-tax charge in the range of $30 mln to $31 mln, of which ~67% is expected to be noncash. As a result of the after-tax charge and the issuance of common stock, the Company's equity will increase by ~$9 mln.

4:01PM Analog Devices priced an offering of $375 million aggregate principal amount of 3.00% senior unsecured notes due April 15, 2016 (ADI) 39.51 +0.01 :

10:01AM ATMI announces a global distribution agreement with Finesse Solutions (ATMI) 18.43 -0.03 : Co announces a global distribution agreement with Finesse Solutions, LLC, of San Jose, CA, a manufacturer of measurement and control solutions for bioprocess applications. The deal gives co the right to sell Finesse T700 control systems with the ATMI single-use Integrity PadReactor system. The combined turnkey system will provide the single-use market with a best-in-class, ready-to-use bioreactor platform.

9:04AM Interdigital Comm announces pricing of private offering of $200 million of 2.50% senior convertible notes (IDCC) 43.51 : Co announces the pricing of its private offering of $200 million aggregate principal amount of 2.50% Senior Convertible Notes due 2016, which was upsized from the previously announced $150 million offering, to be sold to qualified institutional buyers. The notes will be convertible at an initial conversion rate of 17.3458 shares of InterDigital common stock per $1,000 principal amount of the notes, which is equivalent to an initial conversion price of ~$57.65, which represents a 32.5% conversion premium to the closing sale price of $43.51 per share of InterDigital common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on March 29, 2011.

O2Micro International Limited (OIIM) was issued 21 claims under United States patent number 7,898,218 for its Power Supply Topology

Sierra Wireless (SWIR) announced that Fujitsu has selected Sierra Wireless to provide 3G mobile broadband for several new models in its LIFEBOOK series of notebooks and tablets.