From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks eased up from session lows late in the day, but the broad market still booked its worst loss of 2012. The sell-off initially came with an increase in participation, but the pace of trade eventually moderated so that total share volume remained in line with recent trends.
Last week stocks scored their eighth weekly gain in nine tries to set new multi-year highs, but they began to show fatigue in the final days of that stretch. The struggle to extend the climb made many market participants both edgy and curious if stocks were on the cusp of a pullback. Against that backdrop news earlier this week that GDP for China is expected to slow to a 7.5% clip from an 8.0% pace was followed by word this morning that fourth quarter eurozone GDP remained at -0.3% revived concerns about global growth, effectively giving many traders an excuse to exit their positions.
Share volume was relatively strong in the early going. Many participants appeared anxious to sell after they had stood pat on their long positions, patiently watching stocks run higher in recent weeks. The rush to sell slowed as time passed, however, leaving overall share volume on the NYSE to total about 875 million shares. That's on the order of what has been averaged in recent months.
Financials were hit the hardest today. The sector suffered a 2.5% loss, but is still up more than 10% year to date. Defensive-oriented sectors like Utilities, Telecom, and Consumer Staples managed to limit their losses to less than 1%. Specifically, they fell 0.5%, 0.8%, and 0.8%, respectively. Altogether, though, the stock market suffered its worst single-session slide in nearly three months.
Widespread weakness spurred the Volatility Index more than 15% higher so that it is back near its monthly high. It had been at a multi-month low only two weeks ago.
Commodities were also clipped as traders took risk off of the table. The action was so aggressive that the CRB Index fell 1.6% in its worst single-session slide in two months. Oil was a particularly weak performer; futures prices fell 1.9% to $104.72 per barrel.
An interest in safety took Treasuries higher, driving down the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note to 1.95%, but that's still comfortably above last week's lows near 1.90%.
The US dollar and Japanese yen also benefited from a flight to safety. Buyers took the Dollar Index up 0.7% to trade at six-week high above its 50-day moving average. The yen was up in excess of 1% against the greenback, but by the closing bell it had eased back so that it traded with at 80.85 yen per dollar for a 0.8% gain.
Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Utilities -0.5%, Telecom -0.8%, Consumer Staples -0.8%, Tech -1.1%, Health Care -1.4%, Consumer Discretionary -1.5%, Energy -1.6%, Materials -2.2%, Industrials -2.3%, Financials -2.5%DJ30 -203.66 NASDAQ -40.16 NQ100 -1.0% R2K -2.1% SP400 -1.9% SP500 -20.97 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 451/1.86 bln/2104 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 262/878 mln/2772
4:31PM Photronics purchases U.S. nanoFab Building from Micron Technology (MU) (PLAB) 6.20 -0.22 : Co announces it paid approx $35 mln to Micron Technology (MU) in connection with the purchase of its U.S. nanoFab building in Boise, ID that it previously leased from the building's owner Micron. In connection therewith, the Company also amended its credit facility adding a 5-year term loan for $25 million and reducing interest rates by 25 basis points on borrowings as defined in the credit facility. As a result of the purchase, Photronics' operating lease with Micron for the nanoFab facility has been cancelled. This reduced the Company's related outstanding operating lease commitments by a total of $15 million for fiscal years 2013 and 2014. Accordingly, as a result of this transaction, beginning in fiscal year 2013, the Company's net cash flow will improve by approximately $5 million annually and its expenses will be reduced by approximately $5 million annually. Co says the acquisition of this state-of-the-art facility is another step forward in their ongoing work to improve cash flow and reduce expenses.
4:23PM Cypress Semi to resume trading at 16:25 ET (CY) 16.01 -0.58:
4:14PM Novellus reported that it is not making any changes to its prior guidance, announced on the Company's earnings call held on February 2, 2012 (NVLS) 44.12 +0.01 :
7:34AM Qualcomm increases dividend to $0.25/share from $0.215/share and announces new $4.0 billion stock repurchase program (QCOM) 62.10 : Co announced that its Board of Directors has approved a 16% increase in the Company's quarterly cash dividend and, effective immediately, a new $4.0 bln stock repurchase program to replace the prior $3.0 billion stock repurchase program, which had $948 million of repurchase authority remaining, net of put options outstanding.
DSP Group (DSPG) announced that its XciteR VoIP chipset solution is powering a compact analog telephone adapter recently released by Grandstream Networks.
AMD (AMD) announced it has invested in Nuvixa, a developer of gesture-based video communication and presentation solutions, through AMD Ventures.
10:45 am S&P Tech Sector In The Red, Slightly Underperforming The S&P 500
The tech sector is trading lower today, slightly below the broader market. Semiconductors are showing inline weakness in the tech space with the Philly Semi Index trading 1.4% lower. CREE (-5.3%) is a notable laggard in the chip index, while RBCN (+2.7%) is showing strength. Among other major indices, the SPY and the QQQ are trading 1.3% lower, while the NASDAQ is 1.5% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, MSFT (+0.1%) is showing lone strength today, while GOOG (-3.2%) is under notable pressure.
In earnings last night, PAY (+5.5%) reported a better-than-expected qtr and offered inline guidance. This morning, TECD (-1.1%) also posted a mixed qtr.
In news last night, MWW (+9.7%) announced that it has retained Stone Key Partners and BofA Merrill Lynch as financial advisors in connection with its review of strategic alternatives, which was previously announced by the Company on March 1, 2012. Elsewhere, QCOM (-0.9%) increased its dividend to $0.25/share from $0.215/share and announced a new $4.0 billion stock repurchase program.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, OVTI (+5.5%) was upgraded to Outperform at Robert W. Blair and RP (-0.3%) was upgraded to Top Pick at RBC Capital. Among downgrades, EPAY (-2.9%) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Craig Hallum.
P (-1.5%) is a notable name in tech scheduled to report results today after the close
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