From Briefing.com: 4:35 pm : For the second straight session the stock market overcame selling pressure to finish flat. In both sessions stocks were able to do it without help from the financial sector.
Stocks dropped markedly in the first few minutes. Sellers were motivated by renewed weakness among several major foreign equity averages and a disappointing initial jobless claims count for the week ended April 9. Initial claims climbed 27,000 week-over-week to 412,000, which is greater than the 385,000 initial claims that had been widely expected. The surprisingly high tally marked the first time in more than a month that initial claims exceeded 400,000.
Separately, the Producer Price Index for March increased by 0.7%, which is less than the 1.1% increase that had been broadly expected. Excluding food and energy, producer prices for March increased by a much more tepid 0.3%, which is slightly greater than the 0.2% increase that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com.
Early pressure was primarily focused on tech stocks and financials. Although buying interest gradually emerged to help tech stocks pare losses, financials remained hampered by weakness among diversified bank stocks ahead of the latest report from Bank of America (BAC 13.13, -0.14) tomorrow morning. Investment bank stocks were also weak amid news that Goldman Sachs (GS 155.79, -4.38) has been accused by a Senate subcommittee for lying in a testimony during 2010. Additionally, Deutsche Bank (DB 60.57, -0.81) and Credit Suisse (CS 44.24, -0.42) were both downgraded by analysts at Societe Generale. Overall, the financial sector fell 0.9%, which comes on top of its 0.8% decline in the prior session.
Strong buying interest in consumer staples stocks and energy stocks helped lift the two sectors to gains of 0.6% gain, but the pair failed to provide much broad market leadership. Although their inability to provide a lift to the broader market left the major averages to settle near the neutral line, the flat finish actually represented considerable improvement over the tone of trade seen in the early going.
Waning negativity caused Treasuries to slip a bit. Results from the auction of 30-year Bonds didn't exactly bolster buying interest in the space. The auction drew a bid-to-cover of 2.83, dollar demand of $36.8 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 47.2%.
Ongoing pressure against the greenback led the Dollar Index down to a new 52-week low. Amid the decline in the dollar, oil prices climbed back above $108 per barrel, while gold gained more than 1% to eclipse $1472 per ounce and silver surged 3.5% to $41.69 per ounce.
Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples (+0.6%), Energy (+0.6%), Health Care (+0.5%), Utilities (+0.5%), Materials (+0.3%), Telecom (+0.2%)
Unchanged: Industrials
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (-0.3%), Tech (-0.3%), Financials (-0.9%)DJ30 +14.16 NASDAQ -1.30 NQ100 -0.2% R2K +0.4% SP400 +0.0% SP500 +0.11 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1455/1.72 bln/1121 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1600/925 mln/1358
5:50PM Cirrus Logic drops ~7.5% to $16.75 after reducing Q4 gross margin expectations due to a charge (See 17:46 comment) (CRUS) 18.10 +0.10 :
5:46PM Cirrus Logic lowers Q4 gross margins due to ~$4.2 mln charge; co sees Q4 revs of ~$91.4 mln vs. $91.3 mln consensus (CRUS) 18.10 +0.10 : Co reported that, for FY11 it see revs of ~$369.6 mln vs. $369.4 mln consensus. Co lowers gross margin to ~50% , below previously issued guidance of 54-56%. The co's lower-than-expected gross margin for the quarter is the result of a charge of ~$4.2 mln, or $0.06 per share, based on 72.3 mln diluted shares outstanding, due to a production issue with a new audio device that entered high volume production in March 2011. The co expects a smaller residual impact to gross margins in the first two quarters of FY2012 as the company works through in line inventory related to this product.
4:05PM Google misses by $0.02, beats on revs (GOOG) 578.51 +2.23 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $8.08 per share, $0.02 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $8.10; revenues rose 29.1% year/year to $6.54 bln, ex-TAC, vs the $6.32 bln consensus. Google reports Q1 Paid Clicks +18% YoY vs. the +15% consensus; CPC +8% YoY vs. the +6% consensus. Google reports Q1 non-GAAP operating margin of 38% vs. the 38.4% consensus... Net cash provided by operating activities in the first quarter of 2011 totaled $3.17 billion, compared to $2.58 billion in the first quarter of 2010. In the first quarter of 2011, capital expenditures were $890 million, the majority of which was related to IT infrastructure investments, including data centers, servers, and networking equipment. In the first quarter of 2011, free cash flow was $2.28 billion. "We expect to continue to make significant capital expenditures."
2:02PM Fairchild Semi announces acquisition of TranSiC, a Silicon Carbide power transistor company (FCS) 17.79 -1.39 : Fairchild also acquired a team of highly experienced SiC engineers and scientists and multiple patents in SiC technology.
Mozy, the online backup service from EMC Corporation (EMC), announced it successfully completed a SAS 70 Type II audit and received 27001 certification by the International Organization for Standardization.
Zilog, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IXYS Corporation (IXYS) and a trusted supplier of application-specific, embedded microcontroller system-on-chip solutions for industrial, power management and consumer applications, announced that its Z8F082A MCU has been selected as the core microcontroller by SenseAir for their newest Fast Response CO2 Sensor Module.
8:01AM Cymer's display equipment product division received volume order for TCZ-1500B from flat panel display manufacturer (CYMI) 50.08:
7:32AM Fairchild Semi beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 revs above consensus (FCS) 19.18 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.39 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.36; revenues rose 9.3% year/year to $413 mln vs the $413.3 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $425-435 mln vs. $423.62 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. "Our current scheduled backlog is sufficient to achieve this range. We expect to increase adjusted gross margin to 37.0-37.5% due primarily to the impact of better mix and higher factory utilization in Q1. We anticipate R&D and SG&A spending of $96 to $98 million in the second quarter as we increase our investment in new product development and sales and incur greater equity compensation expenses driven by our higher stock price. Net interest expense is expected to be roughly $2 million per quarter going forward. The adjusted tax rate is forecast at 15 percent plus or minus 3 percent for the quarter. As with last quarter, we are not assuming any obligation to update this information, although we may choose to do so before we announce second quarter results."
09:55 am Cree ests lowered at Gabelli ahead of earnings: . Gabelli is lowering its gross margin projection estimates as it's reiterating its view of pricing pressure, inventory correction, and potentially gross margin deterioration due to weak market. Firm also thinks it may see a longer delay in the completion of the new China street lighting technical specification requirement. Furthermore, it believes that Chinese government will shift its LED lighting subsidy from MOCVD equipments to downstream LED lighting products, i.e. LED components and LED lighting products. Firm's 3Q11 ests to rev of $215 mln, gross margin 41.5%, non-GAAP EPS $0.25 from $218/43.0%/$0.29 ($217/$0.29/43.3% consensus). Co reports 4/19.
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