From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Broad buying in the early going gave stocks an opening gain, but the market's failure to extend the move beyond near-term resistance brought sellers back into the fold. Stocks eventually battled back for a mixed finish, though.
Strong gains among the major foreign market averages established a positive tone to early trade. Banking bellwether JPMorgan Chase (JPM 46.25, -0.39) further bolstered the positive bias by announcing better-than-expected quarterly results for both its top and bottom line.
Early enthusiasm began to fade as the S&P 500 struggled in the face of resistance in the 1321 to 1322 area. The struggle tempted sellers, whose efforts threatened to give the stock market its fifth straight loss.
The Nasdaq managed to remain out of the red for the entire session. Its relative strength stemmed from an enviable performance by tech stocks. Tech stocks, which represent the largest sector by market weight, settled the session with a 0.7% gain. The sector's relative size and strength inevitably helped lift the broader market to the neutral line for a flat finish.
Energy stocks suffered a 3% drop yesterday, but the sector managed to muster a 0.3% gain today. Part of that is owed to a 0.8% gain by crude oil prices to $107.11 per barrel in the face of a greater-than-expected weekly inventory build of 1.63 million barrels.
Financials were the worst performers overall. Their 0.8% drop made for a discouraging follow-up to a failed rally attempt in the prior session. The sector now sits at a three-week low.
Treasuries started the session in the red, but staged a rebound that helped extend recent gains. The effort was sustained in the wake of the latest 10-year auction, which drew a bid-to-cover of 3.13, dollar demand of $65.7 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 42.4%.
Moderate support for the greenback helped the Dollar Index inch its way up from the 52-week low that it set yesterday. The move was mostly owed to weakness in the euro.
Participants didn't show much of a reaction to President Obama's plan to slash the federal deficit by $4 trillion in 12 years or less. Economic data also had little impact on trade.
Retail sales for March increased by 0.4% while sales less autos increased by 0.8%. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com had called for respective increases of 0.5% and 0.7%. Both total sales and sales less autos for the prior month were revised upward to reflect increases of 1.1%.
The Fed's latest Beige Book didn't contain any kind of surprise. Generally, it indicated that economic activity continued to improve since the last report.
Advancing Sectors: Tech (+0.7%), Energy (+0.3%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.3%), Utilities (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Health Care (-0.1%), Industrials (-0.2%), Telecom (-0.3%), Materials (-0.6%), Financials (-0.8%)DJ30 +7.41 NASDAQ +16.73 NQ100 +0.8% R2K +0.2% SP400 +0.3% SP500 +0.25 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1317/1.75 bln/1251 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1535/900 mln/1374
5:00PM Intel changes financial reporting structure to reflect recent acquisitions (INTC) 19.78 +0.02 : Co reportes that beginning with the publication of Intel's first-quarter earnings report on Tuesday, April 19, the co will revise the presentation of its financial results to reflect the recently closed acquisitions of Infineon Wireless Solutions and McAfee, Inc. Infineon Wireless Solutions will now operate as Intel Mobile Communications. The co is providing this detail now in order to give visibility into the new reporting model.
4:14PM Lam Research announced that Christine Heckart has joined its board of directors (LRCX) 51.23 -0.71 : Heckart is currently serving as chief marketing officer at NetApp (NTAP). Her previous executive leadership positions were at Microsoft (MSFT) and Juniper Networks (JNPR).
6:31AM Amtech Systems issues preliminary Q2 rev above consensus (ASYS) 22.31 : Co sees Q2 revs of ~$60 mln ($52 mln in solar) vs $58.61 mln Thomson Reuters consensus (+12% QoQ, +273% YoY); bookings ~$70 mln ($60 mln solar). The co's total order backlog at March 31, 2011 was a record $193 mln, compared to $173 mln at December 31, 2010. The co expects to report final fiscal 2011 second quarter results on or about May 9, 2011. "Our strong preliminary revenue for the second quarter further demonstrates our technology leadership in high efficiency solar diffusion and our operational capability to manage and service this high-end growth market. With our continued success in expanding our solar market share with an increasing number of upper tier solar customers, our marketing pipeline continues to be healthy, and we continue to ramp up operations to support our record-breaking backlog and profitably manage our rapid growth."
09:42 am RVBD Guides Q1 Above Consensus (RVBD)
Riverbed Technology (RVBD $34.94 +4.02) expects sees first revs of $163 million to $164 million versus the $160.1 million Thomson Reuters consensus. On the bottom line RVBD expects to see Non-GAAP earnings of $0.19 to $0.20 per share, better than the $0.18 consensus.
The company said, "With a strong start to 2011, Riverbed exceeded revenue and earnings expectations in the first quarter. We executed well, achieving 45% year-over-year revenue growth, and non-GAAP operating profits doubled compared to the first quarter last year. Sales increased on an annual basis across all major geographies as spending on WAN optimization remains a priority."
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