From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The risk trade was flipped back on today. That brought about a barrage of buying that drove stocks up from December closing to their best single-session gain of the month.
Stocks settled the prior session in weak fashion by closing at their lowest levels of December, but the tone of trade improved overnight with help from Europe. In contrast to the action on Monday, Europe's bourses were able to sustain strong gains, which were underpinned by strong demand and lower yields at Spain's latest debt auction. A few solid business and consumer sentiment surveys from Europe also helped bolster confidence.
Stronger sentiment across the Atlantic also spurred the euro sharply higher. It finished shy of its session high, but still booked a 0.5% gain.
Domestic stocks were quick to build on opening gains. Their ascent seemed to slow only briefly when the S&P 500 crossed its 50-day moving average and again before it passed last week's closing low. The stock market's climb was likely made easier by a lack of share volume. That said, participation did pick up into the close.
Commodities also scored strong gains, giving the CRB Index a 2.0% gain today. It hasn't made such a strong move since October. Its climb was helped by the dollar's downturn.
The combination of broad market strength and support for commodities made natural resource plays some of the session's best performers. Materials stocks and energy stocks collectively climbed close to 4%.
Financials were also leaders. The sector settled with a near 4% gain of its own, undeterred by steps proposed by the Federal Reserve to strengthen regulation and supervision of large bank holding companies or those designated to be systemically important. Many were unsurprised that the Fed would want risk-based capital and leverage requirements.
Big gains by homebuilders sent the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB 16.79, +0.84) more than 5% higher. The group was helped by news that housing starts and building permits for November hit annualized rates of 685,000 units and 681,000 permits, respectively. Economists polled by Brieifng.com had expected housing starts to hit a pace of 627,000 units and building permits to reach a clip of 633,000 permits.
CVS Caremark (CVS 39.80, +3.24) was one of the better performing individual names. An in-line earnings outlook wasn't a big deal, but the company's decision to hike its dividend by 30% prompted a positive response.
AT&T (T 29.12, +0.38) ended its bid for Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA. That decision led to a downgrade from analysts at JP Morgan, but the stock was still able to score a solid gain.
General Mills (GIS 39.27, -0.32) was one of the few stocks that failed to gain today. The stock was hurt by a disappointing quarterly report that featured an earnings miss. Nike (NKE 93.63, +0.25) managed to muster a modest gain, but the stock had a difficult time sustaining support ahead of its quarterly report.
Advancing Sectors: Energy +4.0%, Materials +3.9%, Financials +3.8%, Industrials +3.4%, Tech +3.1%, Consumer Discretionary +2.8%, Health Care +2.1%, Utilities +2.1%, Telecom +1.9%, Consumer Staples +1.9%
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +337.32 NASDAQ +80.59 NQ100 +3.0% R2K +4.2% SP400 +3.5% SP500 +35.95 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2198/1.83 bln/465 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2687/933 mln/375
6:11PM Motorola Mobility reports that Initial Determination from ITC Finds That Motorola Mobility Did Not Violate Six of the Seven Patents (MMI) 38.70 +0.01 : Motorola Mobility Holding (MMI) announced that it has received notice that the Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") in the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC") action brought by Microsoft (MSFT) against Motorola Mobility has issued an initial determination. The ALJ determined that Motorola Mobility does not violate six of the seven Microsoft patents listed in Microsoft's suit. The Company noted that Microsoft had previously dropped two patents from its original case which included nine patents.
4:03PM Jabil Circuit reports EPS in-line, misses on revs; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs below consensus (JBL) 19.95 +0.99 : Reports Q1 (Nov) earnings of $0.65 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.65; revenues rose 6.0% year/year to $4.33 bln vs the $4.41 bln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.52-0.62, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.59 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $4.0-4.2 bln vs. $4.22 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
4:03PM FSI Intl misses by $0.02, misses on revs; guides Q2 revs above consensus (FSII) 3.00 -0.10 : Reports Q1 (Nov) loss of $0.08 per share, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.06); revenues rose 22.0% year/year to $13.3 mln vs the $17.76 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $30-35 mln vs. $25.73 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co said, "A portion of the expected revenue is subject to the receipt of purchase orders and the shipment and recognition of revenue occurring in the quarter. Based upon the anticipated gross profit margin and operating expense level, the co expects to report between $2.0-3.0 million of net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2012.
KVH Industries (KVHI) announced that it has received a $7.6 mln order for its single-axis fiber optic gyros from an international defense contractor to support weapon and optical stabilization in remote weapon stations for the U.S. military. Delivery of this order will begin immediately and continue into 2013.
Credorax announced that it has selected AMD (AMD) Opteron processors for its proprietary NextGen ePower Payment Processing and Acquiring Platform.
10:33 am F5 Networks upgraded to Outperform at Oppenheimer; tgt $125: . Oppenheimer upgrades FFIV to Outperform from Perform and sets target price at $125. The firm's call is not based on specific near-term business performance (which could very well still be challenging), but rather is aimed at positioning investors into 2012. They believe FFIV has opportunities to gain share in the ADC market in 2012 and expand its footprint in the carrier market as more network applications are adopted.
11:30 am Jefferies Up 17% On This Morning's Earnings (JEF)
Jefferies (JEF $13.74 +1.94) is trading sharply higher today, which is driven by the company's earnings results that were released this morning.
Earlier, the company reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.17 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.17.
Net revenues, less mandatorily redeemable preferred interest fell 16.4% year/year to $556 million versus the $567.84 million consensus. Net revenues in Investment Banking were $261 million compared to $292 million in prior year.
"We are proud of our 3,851 employee-partners who successfully navigated an extremely challenging fourth quarter that included continuing global volatility compounded by a November filled with a barrage of misinformation about Jefferies. Our firm responded by reducing our total balance sheet by nearly one quarter, decreasing our leverage to 9.9x from 12.9x, maintaining the already high quality of our inventory, and delivering solid profitability," commented Richard B. Handler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jefferies.
Average firmwide VaR $9.47 million compared to $10.48 million in Q3... Adjusted tangible book value per share is $13.74 compared to $13.18 in Q3... Fixed Income revenues $140 million compared to $33 million in Q3... Equity revenue $27 million compared to $58 million in Q3... Debt revenue $62 million compared to $128 million in Q3... Capital markets revenue $89 million compared to $186 million in Q3... Advisory fees $172 million compared to $107 million in Q3.
11:25 am S&P Tech Sector Up Sharply, In-line With Broader Market
The tech sector is trading higher today along with gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative strength in the tech space, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading 3.8% higher. RBCN (+8.3%) is a standout in the chip index. Among other major indices, the S&P 500 is trading 2.4% higher, while the NASDAQ is trading 2.5% higher and the QQQ is 2.4% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, CSCO (+3.8%) and INTC (+3.1%) are showing strength.
In earnings last night, RHT (-8.0%) reported a slight Q3 beat, but posted disappointing billings.
In news, T (+0.9%) ended its bid to acquire T-Mobile (DTEGY +0.8%). T will recognize a pretax accounting charge of $4 bln in Q4 2011. S (+3.2%) is trading slightly higher on the news. Elsewhere, AAPL (+2.3%) won its patent infringement against HTC. Also, CHTR (+5.0%) named former CVC (+0.9%) Thomas Rutledge as CEO.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, Oppenheimer upgraded FFIV (+6.6%) to Outperform and KLAC (+5.2%) was upgraded to Overweight at JP Morgan. Also, MCRS (+5.5%) was upgraded to Top Pick at RBC Capital.
Among downgrades, T (+0.9%) and NVLS (+3.6%) were downgraded at JP Morgan and RHT (-8.0%) was downgraded at BofA/Merrill.
ORCL (+1.1%) and JBL (+6.0%) are notable names in tech scheduled to report results today after the close.
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