From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Sellers were stirred to action by disappointing economic data from both Europe and China. Their efforts kept the major equity averages in negative territory all session.
Sentiment soured ahead of the open as market participants responded to news that China's latest PMI fell to a four-month low that suggested further contraction in activity. Things didn't look any better in Europe, where the broad eurozone PMI hit a three-month low that also pointed to a slowdown in activity.
Given the decidedly negative implications of such news, a better-than-expected initial jobless claims tally was shrugged off. Consistent with recent trends, the latest tally fell to a multi-year low of 348,000, which is less than the 355,000 initial jobless claims that had been broadly expected.
Once trade opened, the broad market chopped its way down to a loss of almost 1% before it found support. Its attempt to work its way upward eventually lost momentum and gave way to renewed selling, but all three major equity averages managed to hold the session lows set in the early going. That gave confidence to some traders, who bid stocks higher in a late flurry of buying.
Despite the late lift, Consumer Staples and Utilities were the only two sectors to settle in positive territory. They eked out gains of only 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.
Cyclical plays performed poorly throughout the entire session; some of their losses were tied to weakness among commodities. As such, the Energy sector fell more than 2% so that it is now down more than 4% in only three days as another concerted selling effort took crude oil to $105.37 per barrel for a 1.7% loss. Oil prices actually probed a monthly low near $104.50 per barrel prior to the close of pit trade, while natural gas prices fell nearly 4% to $2.27 per MMBtu for a lifetime closing low on the April futures contract.
FedEx (FDX 92.50, -3.32) shares fell hard to a fresh weekly low, despite an upside earnings response. Discover Financial (DFS 32.49, +0.85) shares rallied to a strong gain after opening the day in the red amid what was initially an underwhelming response to the better-than-expected bottom line results that the firm reported. Nike (NKE 110.99, +0.55) overcame selling pressure to score a solid gain ahead of its latest quarterly report.
The dollar gave up an early gain to trade near the neutral line for most of the session, but the yen rallied sharply. By session's end it was up 1.0% against the greenback, putting the currency at 82.50 yen per dollar.
Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples +0.2%, Utilities +0.1%
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary -0.2%, Tech -0.3%, Health Care -0.3%, Telecom -0.5%, Industrials -1.1%, Financials -1.4%, Materials -1.6%, Energy -2.1%DJ30 -78.48 NASDAQ -12.00 NQ100 -0.2% R2K -1.0% SP400 -1.1% SP500 -10.11 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 777/1.50 bln/1719 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 740/763 mln/2243
4:03PM Micron misses by $0.03, beats on revs (MU) 8.71 -0.03 : Reports Q2 (Feb) loss of $0.23 per share, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.20); revenues fell 8.4% year/year to $2.07 bln vs the $2.01 bln consensus.
Trina Solar (TSL) announced that it will launch a partner program for installers in German-speaking markets on April 2, 2012.
7:46AM Hewlett-Packard announced an $800 mln, six-year services agreement with Sabre Holdings (HPQ) 23.46 : Co announced an $800 million, six-year services agreement with Sabre Holdings to enhance Sabre's technology infrastructure by implementing HP's networking and flexible storage solutions.
Altera (ALTR) and TSMC (TSM) announced the joint development of heterogeneous 3D IC test vehicle using TSMC's Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate integration process.
Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) and Acal BFi, a division of Acall, announced they have signed a distribution agreement. Acal Technology is authorized to sell Lattice's complete portfolio of innovative low power, low cost FPGA, PLD and programmable power management design solutions across France.
Apple (AAPL 599.51 -2.98) target raised to $660 from $575 at Hilliard Lyons. The firm raised its target following dividend initiation and buyback.
Western Digital (WDC $40.40 +0.95) was upgraded to Strong Buy from Buy at Needham and the firm raised their target to $66 from $50. They believe that the acquisition of HGST by WD, despite regulatory hurdles worldwide, will prove to be a pivotal point in HDD history and drive record profitability for both WDC and STX. As they have also argued in our STX thesis, with no need to price aggressively to maintain market share, they expect the group to operate rationally and within profitability metrics consistent with WD historically.
10:19 am Tech sector trading lower today but is ahead of broader market
The tech sector is trading higher today, ahead of larger losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing slight relative weakness in the tech space, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading 0.5% lower. NXPI (-1.6%) is a notable laggard in the chip index. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.5% lower, while the QQQ is 0.2% lower and the NASDAQ is trading 0.3% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, GOOG (+0.6%) is showing notable strength today, while ORCL (-0.8%) is under pressure.
In earnings last night, INTU (-2.9%) reported through March 17, total TurboTax federal units were up 8% compared to the same period last year and reaffirmed FY12 revenue guidance. In news, MSFT (0.0%) and TIVO (+0.9%) reached an agreement whereby MSFT has agreed to dismiss all of its pending litigation against TIVO.
Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, Needham upgraded WDC (+3.6%) to Strong Buy, Robert W. Baird upgraded NSR (+2.6%) to Outperform and OPEN (+3.5%) was upgraded to Outperform at Raymond James. Among downgrades, RAX (-4.4%) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman.
ACN (-0.9%) and MU (-0.7%) are notable names in tech scheduled to report results today after the close.
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