From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks staged a late rally that left the Dow and Nasdaq to finish at the neutral line and the S&P 500 to settle with only a fractional loss after all three had spent the session wrestling with selling pressure.
Market participants applied pressure to stocks in the wake of news that analysts at Moody's downgraded the debt ratings of several countries in the eurozone periphery. They also issued negative outlooks on France, Austria, and the United Kingdom. The headline acted as a reminder of the precarious conditions that persist in the eurozone even as efforts to restore conditions in flagging Greece continue.
Monthly retail sales were mixed. Overall retail sales for January were up 0.4%, but that's only half of the 0.8% increase that had been broadly expected to follow the flat rate posted for the prior month. Excluding autos, retail sales climbed by 0.7% to exceed the 0.5% increase that had been forecasted to follow a downwardly revised 0.5% decline in the prior month.
Export and import price data showed too little movement for traders to consider worthy of their attention. Business inventory data for December also failed to inspire; overall inventories increased by 0.4%, which is slightly less than the 0.5% increase that had been broadly anticipated.
Early losses were broad, but the stock market's slide was hardly steep. However, sellers were enticed to redouble their efforts with every failed rebound effort by the broad market. That trend took stocks to session lows late in the day, but without the command of any headline or catalyst buyers stepped in with some strong bidding once stocks stabilized narrowly beneath the depths set in the prior session.
The late squeeze higher helped every sector cut its loss. Still, both financials and materials stocks suffered collective losses slightly greater than 1%. The two groups lagged all session.
A lack of share volume likely made the stock market's upward move a little easier, given that individual bids carry greater relative weight on lightly traded sessions. In fact, during the final 30 minutes of trade share volume on the NYSE surged from less than a half billion shares to almost 750 million shares. Although that final tally is still quite paltry, it reflects a near 50% surge in share volume during the final leg of trade.
The greenback staged a strong advance today, resulting in a 0.6% gain for the Dollar Index. Most of that move is owed to a weaker yen, which tumbled so that its exchange rate climbed more than 1% to 78.40 yen per dollar following the decision of Japan's central bank to increase the size of its asset purchase program by about 18% to 65 trillion yen from 55 trillion yen.
Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples +0.4%, Health Care +0.3%, Utilities +0.2%, Energy +0.2%, Tech +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Telecom -0.1%, Consumer Discretionary -0.1%, Industrials -0.3%, Financials -1.1%, Materials -1.3%DJ30 +4.24 NASDAQ +0.44 NQ100 +0.2% R2K -0.5% SP400 -0.1% SP500 -1.27 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 967/2.10 bln/1570 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1088/744 mln/1904
7:27AM Tegal announces continuing discussions for balance of nanolayer deposition patent portfolio (TGAL) 3.99 : Co announced renewed efforts to make available the balance of its semiconductor process-related intellectual property portfolio. The remaining portfolio consists of thin film structures and process technology pertaining to copper barrier and low-k dielectric technology. On December 30, 2011, Tegal announced that it had sold over thirty patents from Lots 1-3 of its Nano Layer Deposition Patent Portfolio to multiple bidders for an aggregate consideration of approximately $4 million.
Microsemi (MSCC) announced its participation in a multi-disciplinary consortium funded by the European Union (Seventh Framework Programme, FP7) tasked with developing standardized Electro Mechanical Actuators for aerospace applications to eliminate hydraulic circuits, pumps and reservoirs.
Mattson Technology (MTSN) announced that a leading semiconductor manufacturer has accepted its paradigmE etch system for the production of advanced logic chips.
NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) announced its LPC1100LV series, the world's first ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller with dual supply voltage of 1.65V to 1.95V VDD and 1.65V to 3.6V VIO.
Rackspace (RAX $54.66 +5.43) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.18 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.16, while revenues rose 32.0% year/year to $283.3 million versus the $280.89 million consensus.
Ultra Clean Holdings (UCTT $8.92 +1.12) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.06 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.03, while revenues fell 27.8% year/year to $86.9 million versus the $85.3 mln consensus. The company issued upside guidance for the first quarter with EPS of $0.15-0.18 versus the $0.10 consensus and revenues of 105-110 million versus the $88.98 million consensus.
11:30 am S&P Tech Sector Down Modestly, In-line With Broader Markets
The tech sector is trading lower today along with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing slight relative strength in the tech space. The Philly Semi Index is trading only 0.2% lower. WFR (-7.2%) is a notable laggard in the chip index, while MU (+4.8%) is showing strength. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.4% lower, while the NASDAQ is 0.5% lower and the QQQ is trading 0.3% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+0.2%) is showing strength, while TXN (-1.1%) is under notable pressure.
In earnings last night, FIS (+7.3%) posted a slight beat and increased its dividend. RAX (+10.0%) also reported a quarterly beat.
In news, the Dept of Justice cleared GOOG's (-0.6%) purchase of MMI (+0.1%) and the acquisitions of Certain Patents by AAPL (+0.2%), MSFT (-1.0%) and RIMM (-1.5%).
Among rumors, there are reports that ALU (+2.5%) may be nearing a deal with S (-1.7%). Elsewhere, there is renewed IDCC (-0.7%) takeover chatter making the rounds.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, The Benchmark Company upgraded RAX (+10.0%) to Buy. Among downgrades, ASIA (-3.3%) was downgraded to Hold at Jefferies following earnings last night, NTCT (-7.0%) was downgraded to Neutral at Sterne Agee and SMT (0.0%) was downgraded to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
ZNGA (+4.7%) is one of the more notable names in tech scheduled to report results today after the close.
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