From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Trade was sloppy this session, but the major equity averages still settled near the neutral line. The action came in the wake of the first rate hike by a major central bank and news of another earthquake in Japan. Reports from retailers had little impact on the overall market.
Stocks started the session flat as participants assessed an in-line initial jobless claims tally of 382,000, news that late yesterday Portugal requested foreign financial aid, and the first rate hike by the European Central Bank since mid-2008. The ECB's key lending rate now stands at 1.25%. According to comments from ECB President Trichet, the vote for the increase was unanimous.
The Bank of England and the Bank of Japan both concluded meetings of their own today. England's central bank kept target rates unchanged at 0.5% and held in place its 200 billion pound asset purchase program. Japan's central bank announced that a special lending program will be made available to companies adversely affected by the massive earthquake that hit the country last month.
News of another earthquake in Japan today was met with some knee-jerk selling that took the Dow down to a loss of almost 100 points. Some buyers were brought back into the fold by follow-up reports that the quake wasn't as severe as it had been feared and that nuclear facilities weren't damaged. Still, stocks struggled to put together a sustainable rebound. In turn, they spent the rest of the session chopping along without much direction. The action made for another flat finish.
Even though the overall market continued its sideways crawl, shares of several retailers put together impressive gains with help from stronger-than-expected same-store sales results for March. Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY 29.99, +0.24) was a top performer, but its strength came on the back of better-than-expected earnings and an upside forecast. In contrast, Gap (GPS 22.72, -0.34) issued downside guidance, which combined with disappointing same-store sales to take the stock to a loss.
Muddled action in the overall market mired energy stocks, which only mustered modest gains as oil prices climbed to new two-year highs above $110 per barrel. The energy component settled pit trade at $110.30 per barrel. It is now up more than 20% year to date.
Financials fell to a 0.4% loss after the sector outperformed in the prior session with a gain of more than 1%. Although weakness was widespread, most of the pushback was made against insurance issues.
Telecom finished the day flat, but it had one of the strongest finishes. At its session low the sector was off by more than 1%.
Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.2%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%), Tech (+0.1%)
Unchanged: Telecom
Declining Sectors: Materials (-0.2%), Health Care (-0.2%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.3%), Financials (-0.4%), Utilities (-0.5%), Industrials (-0.5%)DJ30 -17.26 NASDAQ -3.68 NQ100 +0.00% R2K -0.6% SP400 -0.6% SP500 -2.03 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 935/1.81 bln/1658 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1116/910 mln/1872
4:35PM Seagate Tech guides Q3 revs above consensus (STX) 14.69 -0.07 : Co issues upside Q3 revs guidance; co sees Q3 revs at ~$2.7 bln vs. $2.62 bln Thomson Reuters consensus, unit shipments of 49 million and gross margin as a percent of revenue near or slightly above the high-end of the original outlook range of 18-19%. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at the end of the fiscal third quarter totaled ~$2.5 billion. Inventory in the distribution channel of Seagate 3.5" SATA hard disk drives is below the targeted range of 4-6 weeks on hand.
4:16PM Advanced Analogic Tech announces resolution of litigation with Linear Technology (LLTC); terms not disclosed (AATI) 3.72 -0.08 :
1:54PM Motorola Mobility confirms launch of its SocialTV Companion Service (MMI) 24.68 +0.23 : Motorola's SocialTV Companion Service includes interactive games and social experiences enabling viewers to express themselves and interact real-time with their virtual community of friends also watching the TV show.
12:58PM Semiconductor ETFs back near highs (SMH) : The SMH has rebounded off morning lows and it is back flirting with last week/this week highs at 35.09/35.14. The SOXX is testing last week's high and its 50 sma at 60.17/60.24 (session high 60.17) while the XSD is near a similar level (last wk high/50 day sma) at 59.23/59.38 (session high 59.22).
10:01AM Dell invests $1 billion in technology solutions and services (DELL) 14.85 +0.07 : Co announces it is increasing its investments in new technology solutions and services. Co plans to build multiple next generation cloud data centers that operate and deliver hyperscale efficiency. Dell will open 12 Global Solution Centers this year and is planning 10 more over the next 18 months, to better bring open, capable and affordable solutions to organizations around the world.
4:03AM Advanced Semi reports consolidated net revs of NT$16.527 mln; +4.3% YoY; +19.1% sequentially (ASX) 5.70 :
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