From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Traders were guided by Greece today. Concern that the country could default on its debt initially stirred aggressive selling, but headlines that the country is close to securing funding helped the major equity averages slash their losses.
The stock market rallied more than 5% last week, but participants wasted little time paring their positions amid reports that a meeting between officials from Greece failed to produce an austerity plan that would ensure the placement of financial support, which would help the country avoid a default. To little surprise, worries over what could come of the country's moribund finances sent most overseas markets lower.
Global banking plays, especially those with a strong presence in Europe, were hit especially hard by sellers. The bleeding wasn't quite as bad among American banks, but the KBW Bank Index still suffered a loss of almost 3%.
Tech stocks, which collectively represent the largest sector by market weight, tried to help the market trim its loss in afternoon trade. The sector's attempt to turn higher was more influential in the tech-rich Nasdaq, which was able to reduce its loss to about half of what the broad market had been grappling with.
The broad market didn't really begin to rally until the final hour, when headlines surfaced suggesting that Greece's finance minister said the country is close to a deal with the International Monetary Fund, European Union, and European Central Bank, which are being collectively labeled the troika. The market's move lost momentum into the close, but both the Dow and S&P 500 were able to settle with losses that were less than half of what they had suffered at session lows. The Nasdaq, which already had a leg up on its counterparts, actually pushed into positive territory before slipping back into the red.
The dollar had been up more than 1% against a basket of major foreign currencies in the early going, but it pulled back as some participants made a late rotation out of the reserve currency and back into stocks before the closing bell. Still, the dollar ended the trading day about 0.7% higher than where it began.
Treasuries also traded with strong gains, but settled shy of their highs. For a time, the benchmark 10-year Note was up more than a full point, but it still finished with a gain good enough to keep its yield below 2.0%.
Advancing Sectors: (None)
Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary
Declining Sectors: Tech -0.1%, Utilities -0.5%, Health Care -0.9%, Consumer Staples -0.9%, Industrials -0.9%, Telecom -1.1%, Materials -1.4%, Energy -1.5%, Financials -2.7%DJ30 -108.08 NASDAQ -9.48 NQ100 +0.1% R2K -1.7% SP400 -1.4% SP500 -11.92 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 563/1.89 bln/2040 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 674/908 mln/2321
6:11PM Hewlett-Packard selected to build technology infrastructure for next-generation Digital Hospital in Australias (HPQ) 22.91 -0.62 : Hewlett-Packard Australia Pty ltd. announced it has signed a technology services agreement to design, build and maintain a portion of the information, communication and technology systems for the South Australia Government's next-generation digital hospital in Adelaide, Australia.
09:24 am JinkoSolar Holding downgraded to Sell at Collins Stewart; tgt lowered to $10: . Collins Stewart downgrades JKS to Sell from Neutral and lowers their tgt to $10 from $24. Firm notes China news agencies indicates that JKS has been asked to suspend cell production at its Haining facility in Zhejiang, its primary cell facility, accused by local residence of polluting a local river. They state this issue hits co at a very challenging time in the solar industry. They note excess capacity and tepid demand has put extreme pressure on pricing in recent weeks. These issues lead firm to reduce their earnings forecast for co, unrelated to this environmental issue.
09:24 am Coherent initiated with a Buy at Needham; tgt $55: . Needham initiates COHR with a Buy and price target of $55 saying EPS and bookings through the first nine months of F11 and appears on track for a strong FQ4. Firm says while COHR's growth is likely to slow in F12, they expect continued improvement in revenues and EPS, with potential upside coming from COHR's exposure to the fast-growing OLED display and smart phone/tablet markets and its expanded presence in the materials processing market.
11:04 am S&P Tech Sector Down Over One Percent; MU Upgraded, AMAT Downgraded (MU)
The tech sector is trading lower today, worse than the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness in the tech space with the Philly Semi Index trading 2.5% lower. Among chips in the index, NXPI (-7.9%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the S&P 500 is trading 2.0% lower, while the NASDAQ is trading 1.8% lower. The QQQ, meanwhile, is trading 1.6% lower. Among tech bellwethers, ORCL (-2.9%) is under notable pressure.
In news, SWKS (-3.5%) delivered a notice of breach to AATI (-13.7%).
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, MU (-0.3%) was upgraded to Neutral at Goldman, BRCM (-2.4%) was upgraded to Outperform at William Blair, and UBS upgraded LLTC (-2.4%), ADI (-1.2%), MXIM (-1.0%), and TXN (-1.2%).
In downgrades, AIXG (-2.4%) was downgraded to Neutral at HSBC, EZCH (-4.6%) was downgraded to Hold at Auriga, POWI (-6.2%) was downgraded to Neutral at Piper Jaffray, ASIA (-12.4%) was downgraded to Neutral at Susquehanna, LRCX (-5.3%) was downgraded to Neutral at Goldman, and AMAT (-3.6%) was downgraded to Sell at Goldman.
There are no notable names in tech set to report results today after the close.
10:53 am Skyworks Delivers a Notice of Breach to Advanced Analogic Technologies (AATI)
On September 19, 2011, Skyworks (SWKS $21.28 -0.79) delivered a notice of breach to Advanced Analogic Technologies (AATI $4.03 -0.64), stating, among other things, that AATI has breached its covenant, agreement and obligation under the Merger Agreement to "act and carry on its business in the usual, regular and ordinary course in substantially the same manner as previously conducted, . . . and use commercially reasonable best efforts, consistent with past practices, to maintain and preserve its and each Subsidiary's . . . assets . . . and preserve its advantageous business relationships with customers."
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