From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks were mixed for most of the morning, but an upturn by the dollar and weakness among tech stocks encouraged selling. Pressure was most pronounced against the Nasdaq, which dropped to its lowest level in almost one month.
The tone of early trade was lackluster. Losses abroad and news that IMF managing director Strauss-Kahn was arrested ahead of an important meeting undermined sentiment. A downturn in the dollar stirred up some buying interest, but the greenback eventually bounced back so that it ended the day with a tepid loss of 0.2%.
The dollar started to pare losses at about the same time that the Nasdaq failed to push into positive territory. The broader market endured a more gradual decline, but the Nasdaq suffered a sharper slide that left it with a loss that was more than double that of the S&P 500 and about four times that of the Dow.
Large-cap tech stocks weighed most heavily on the Nasdaq, which closed just above its 50-day moving average.
Consumer discretionary stocks also came under sharp pressure. The sector's 1.4% decline came as Lowe's Companies (LOW 24.84, -0.92) dropped to a three-month low following a disappointing quarterly report, which featured an earnings miss and disappointing forecast. Retailer JC Penney (JCP 37.21, -1.23) gapped up to a two-year high following an upside earnings surprise and strong outlook, but the stock quickly rolled over.
Financials had lagged last week, but traded with relative strength for most of this session. The sector's slide was limited to a fractional loss amid support from consumer finance stocks following the release of several monthly card metric reports.
Advancing Sectors: Health Care (+0.1%)
Unchanged: Utilities, Consumer Staples
Declining Sectors: Tech (-1.5%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.4%), Telecom (-0.8%), Energy (-0.8%), Industrials (-0.4%), Materials (-0.4%), Financials (-0.1%)DJ30 -47.38 NASDAQ -46.16 NQ100 -1.7% R2K -1.5% SP400 -0.9% SP500 -8.30 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 528/2.08 bln/2085 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 957/904 mln/2033
7:40PM Hewlett-Packard announces that it will now report Q2 earnings results tomorrow morning (May 17) at 7:30am EST instead of May 18 after the close (HPQ) 39.80 -0.61 :
6:22PM Texas Instruments prices $3.5 bln of investment grade notes (TXN) 34.91 -0.27 : Co announced the pricing of four series of senior unsecured notes for an aggregate principal amount of $3.5 bln. The notes consist of the following: $500 mln of 0.875% notes due May 15, 2013, $1.0 bln of floating rate notes due May 15, 2013, $1.0 bln of 1.375% notes due May 15, 2014, $1.0 bln of 2.375% notes due May 16, 2016 TI intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the notes primarily to fund the merger with National Semiconductor Corp and to use the excess, if any, for general corporate purposes. The offering is expected to close May 23, 2011. Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC; Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated; and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are serving as joint book-running managers for the offering.
4:31PM TranSwitch announced a common stock offering for an indeterminate amount (TXCC) 3.30 -0.14 : Needham & Co is acting as sole book running manager, and Northland Capital Markets and Signal Hill are acting as co-managers for the offering. TranSwitch intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital.
9:01AM SanDisk agrees to acquire Pliant Tech for ~$327 mln; expects the transaction to be dilutive to its non-GAAP earnings by 2-3% in fiscal year 2011;accretive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2012 (SNDK) 46.49 : Co announces a definitive agreement to acquire Pliant Technology. Co will pay ~$327 mln in cash and provide certain equity-based incentives. Co expects the transaction to be dilutive to its non-GAAP earnings by 2-3% in fiscal year 2011 and accretive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2012. Co states: "The Enterprise SSD market is poised for considerable growth, with revenue projected to reach $4.2 bln in 2015, up from $994 mln in 2010."
Marvell (MRVL) announced the world's first dual-string smart LED controller chip, the 88EM8801, which uses the co's unique power technology to enable superior lighting performance.
8:04AM GT Solar announces multiple new orders totaling $84.3 million for DSS crystallization growth furnaces (SOLR) 11.36 : Co announced that it has signed new contracts for its DSS multicrystalline growth furnaces from both new and existing customers totaling $84.3 million. The new customers include Nantong Zongyi New Material Co., Ltd. and Inner Mongolia Zhong Huan Solar Material Co., Ltd. The orders will be included in GT's backlog for the quarter ending June 2, 2011.
Microsemi (MSCC) announced a line of intelligent half bridge Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor standard power modules, including five products that simplify system design and are each available in the co's proprietary low-profile LP8 package.
6:29AM Canadian Solar announces 81 MW sales agreement with Saferay (CSIQ) 9.68 : Co announces it has signed an agreement to sell 81 MW of solar modules to Saferay GmbH at a fixed price for projects in Germany. Canadian Solar is expected to deliver the full 81 MW before the end of the third quarter 2011. Delivery has already commenced. Berlin-based Saferay was founded in early 2010, as a spin-off from one of Germany's leading solar cell manufacturers, and is a developer, owner and operator of large scale PV power plants.
NextOp Software announced it is partnering with Altera (ALTR) signing a multi-year, multi-license agreement to expand its deployment of NextOp's BugScope Assertion Synthesis product.
Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) and System General announced that both automated and manual programming systems now fully support the first member of the MachXO2 PLD family, the 1200 LUT LCMXO2-1200.
07:46 am STEC Inc upgraded to Buy at The Benchmark Company; tgt $21: . The Benchmark Company upgrades STEC to Buy from Hold and sets target price at $21 saying STEC should benefit from the rapidly growing enterprise-class SSD market. They also believe investors should not underestimate STEC's key points of differentiation within the SSD market: a heavy software focus, proprietary ASIC-based controller capability, a high level of vertical integration, and a strong patent portfolio. Given the recent 25%-plus sell-off in STEC's share price, they believe the risk-reward profile justifies a long position in STEC shares.
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