Sector Investing

[ReturntoSender]

From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Continued support from buyers into the close resulted in strong finishes for the major equity averages. Specifically, the S&P 500 booked its best close since 2008; the Dow settle above the 13,000 for the first time since 2008, and; the Nasdaq notched another closing high that reaches back more than a decade.

Solid gains by the major bourses abroad helped promote buying interest ahead of the US open, but the tone was undermined by news that durable goods orders fell in January by 4.0% when a 1.4% decline had been broadly expected to follow an upwardly revised 3.2% increase in the prior month. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders declined during January by 3.2%, which contrasts sharply with the 0.2% increase that many economists had expected to follow a downwardly revised increase of 2.1% in the prior month.

Buying interest was revived by the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, which spiked in February to 70.8 from 61.5 in the prior month. Many had expected only a modest improvement to 62.5.

Stocks lost their direction for a time, but the support for the broad market at the neutral line brought buyers back into the fold. Some afternoon profit taking forced the S&P 500 and Dow to test the neutral line again, but continued support there gave way to a late rebound that helped stocks reclaim most of their gains.

Tech proved to be a primary source of leadership. The sector, which is the largest by market weight, scored a 0.9% gain with help from semiconductor and equipment stocks. Their advance also helped the Nasdaq outperform its counterparts.

Apple (AAPL 535.41, +9.65) was a primary driver of the Nasdaq's advance today. The stock's move to a new record high has resulted in a market cap of almost a half trillion dollars, which is greater than any other company.

Airline stocks ascended to give the NYSE Arcaa Airline Index a gain greater than 2%. Their climb was helped by a 1.8% drop in oil prices, which settled pit trade at $106.55 per barrel.

Elsewhere in the commodity complex, gold prices gained 0.8% to close pit trade at $1788.30 per ounce. Along the way the yellow metal cleared $1790 per ounce to set a three-month high. Silver prices surged 4.5% to $37.17 per ounce, which makes for a new multi-month closing high.

In the backdrop, the dollar traded with weakness all day. By the closing bell it trailed a collection of competing currencies by about 0.5%.

Advancing Sectors: Tech +0.9%, Consumer Discretionary +0.7%, Health Care +0.5%, Consumer Staples +0.3%, Telecom +0.3%, Materials +0.2%, Financials +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Industrials -0.1%, Energy -0.2%, Utilities -0.4%DJ30 +23.61 NASDAQ +20.60 NQ100 +1.0% R2K -0.4% SP400 -0.2% SP500 +4.59 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1207/1.79 bln/1324 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1544/755 mln/1446

4:34PM First Solar misses by $0.33, misses on revs; reaffirms FY12 EPS guidance, guides FY12 revs in-line (FSLR) 36.39 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $1.26 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.33 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.59; revenues rose 8.2% year/year to $660 mln vs the $784.06 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for FY12, sees EPS of $3.75-4.25, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $4.18 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY12 revs of $3.5-3.8 bln (compared to $3.7-4.0 bln previously forecasted) vs. $3.79 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"First Solar's performance in the quarter was impacted by an aggressive competitive environment, an uncertain regulatory environment, warranty-related charges, and restructuring costs incurred to help position our business for the future," said Mike Ahearn, Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer of First Solar. "Despite these headwinds, we continue to make strides reducing manufacturing costs, increasing module efficiency, and successfully building out our captive project pipeline. These improvements, combined with our recent restructuring and strategic repositioning, enhance our competitive position in a very challenging environment."

4:32PM O2Micro issued 4 claims under US patent for its Power Management System (OIIM) 5.25 +0.05 :

4:24PM Universal Display beats by $0.06, beats on revs (PANL) 45.68 +0.81 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.12 per share, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.06; revenues rose 73.1% year/year to $18.7 mln vs the $17.88 mln consensus. "Results continue to reflect increased penetration of our OLED materials and technology into the commercial display market, as well as growth in research and development efforts from a broad cross-section of manufacturers developing new applications for our OLED materials and technology. As revenues scale, our strong gross margins and operating leverage are driving an improved bottom line and delivering value for our shareholders. In addition, with OLEDs having eclipsed the inflection point, our operations are also now generating positive cash flow, which is adding to our overall financial strength. With manufacturers announcing plans to expand OLED productive capacity, to introduce a host of new products featuring OLED displays, and to develop OLED white lighting products, we believe the company is in a strong position to benefit from a market with significant growth opportunities."

4:22PM Universal Display -- Earnings Mover (PANL) 45.68 : Positive initial reaction to earnings as price jumps up roughly 3-pts in light after hours action up into the $48.50-49.00 area.

4:08PM STEC misses by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS below consensus, revs above consensus (STEC) 9.32 -0.12 : Reports Q4 (Dec) loss of $0.02 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.01); revenues fell 38.1% year/year to $58.1 mln vs the $56.13 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q1, sees EPS of ($0.14)-($0.16) vs. ($0.08) Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of 49-51 vs. $48.55 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "We are encouraged by the signs of the market growth for enterprise SSDs and by the specific feedback we are getting from our early customer engagements around our new products... While we acknowledge that competitive challenges persist, we are confident in the robustness of our solutions and in our abilities to innovate to meet our customers' needs. We are still anticipating that many of our customers will complete their qualification of our products by the end of the second quarter of 2012. However, until qualifications are completed, we cannot accurately project what the sell-through of these products will be."

4:06PM FormFactor provides an update on impact of Elpida Memory reorganization filing, says not currently expected to have a material impact in the near term on co's financial position or results of operations (FORM) 5.20 +0.11 : Co announced that Elpida Memory, Inc.'s filing of corporate reorganization proceedings in Japan is not currently expected to have a material impact in the near term on FormFactor's financial position or results of operations. As disclosed in FormFactor's Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2011, filed earlier this month, sales to companies in the Elpida Memory group represented 18.2% of FormFactor's 2011 revenues, including sales to Rexchip Electronics Corporation and Tera Probe, Inc., which are not directly involved in the corporate reorganization proceedings. FormFactor has a long standing relationship with Elpida Memory and remains committed to supporting Elpida Memory's wafer test requirements as it works through its corporate reorganization.

11:27AM Semiconductor Hldrs ETF notches new session high of 35.17, flirting with its Feb/nine month close high at 35.19 (SMH) 35.15 +0.61 : Note that its July intraday high and nine month intraday peak from Feb are at 35.36/35.49 -- BRCM +3.3%, NVLS +3.4%, MU +5.5%, LLTC +2.3%, KLAC +1.9%, TXN +1.9%, ADI +2%, AMD +1.5%, AMKR +1.8%, ATML +1.8%, SNDK +1.5%, XLNX +1.9%.

9:03AM Micron and Intel (INTC) announced that the companies have entered into agreements to expand their NAND Flash memory joint venture relationship (MU) 8.73 : The agreements, which are designed to improve the flexibility and efficiency of the joint venture, include a NAND Flash supply agreement for Micron to supply NAND products to Intel and agreements for certain joint venture assets to be sold to Micron. Under terms of the agreement, Intel is selling its stake in two wafer factories in exchange for approximately $600 million-the approximate book value of Intel's share. Additionally, Intel will be receiving approximately half of the consideration in cash and the remaining amount will be deposited with Micron, which may be refunded or applied to Intel's future purchases under the NAND Flash supply agreement. The agreements also extend the companies' successful NAND Flash joint development program and expand it to include emerging memory technologies. As part of these agreements, Micron will increase its share of the overall NAND Flash output and optimize its global manufacturing network by purchasing the assets of IM Flash Singapore (IMFS) and the IM Flash Technologies (IMFT) assets in Manassas, Va.

9:02AM Corning will reaffirm growth expectations today at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (GLW) 13.52 : Co's CFO will reiterate the company's previous guidance of significant double-digit price declines over the cumulative two-quarter period, starting in the fourth quarter of last year. Curran and Flaws will also confirm that Corning's other businesses are on track to meet the following previously disclosed growth expectations.

Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) announced the adoption of the MIPI Battery Interface standard within the iCE40 mobileFPGA family of products.

RF Micro Devices (RFMD) announced the expansion of the co's family of PowerSmart power platforms to include multiple new 3G and 4G LTE PowerSmart product variants.

Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) announced that several of its front-end solutions are being leveraged by the industry's baseband providers for their smartphone platforms currently supporting the world's mobile broadband standards.

Powerwave Technologies (PWAV) announced general availability of new low power, wideband Nexus FT dual and 6-band repeaters for commercial frequencies in North America. Co also announced a new digital repeater platform, Nexus RT 5000.

RF Micro Devices (RFMD) announced it has been selected to support multiple devices for a manufacturer of 3G/4G smartphones.

Oppenheimer downgraded Nokia (NOK $5.42 -0.02) to Underperform from Perform reflecting concern about the pace of the Windows transition and growing pressures on the low-end from Android. The firm believes Lumia's yet to strike a chord with consumers, and now expect a prolonged and slow ramp to fill in the Symbian gap.

10:44 am S&P tech Sector Trading Higher; Currently Best Performing S&P Sector
The tech sector is trading higher today, ahead of a roughly flat broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative strength in the tech space with the Philly Semi Index trading 1.3% higher. MU (+5.4%) and STM (+5.5%) are notable leaders in the chip index. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.1% higher, while the NASDAQ and the QQQ are 0.2% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, TXN (+1.7%) is showing notable strength today, while ORCL (-0.6%) is under pressure.

In earnings, SINA (+11.2%) reported a mixed quarter and offered guidance. This morning, TECD (-5.8%) also posted a mixed qtr.

In news, YHOO (+0.3%) issued a warning to Facebook over patent holdings, according to reports. Elsewhere, KITD (-1.1%) announced the formation of strategic transaction committee due to recent inquiries and conversations.

Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, TTEK (+2.9%) was upgraded to Buy at Stifel. Among downgrades, FNSR (-3.3%) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies and NOK (-1.7%) was downgraded to Underperform at Oppenheimer.

VRSK (+0.3%) and TTEC (-0.2%) are some notable names in tech scheduled to report results today after the close.