From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : A concerted, broad-based buying effort gave the stock market its best start to a new week of trade in about four months. The bounce comes after stocks booked only their second weekly loss in a dozen weeks of trade.
Stocks displayed strength for the entire session. More than half of the 10 major sectors scored gains in excess of 1%. The best moves were booked by Health Care and Tech, both of which bounded for gains of 1.7%. Financial and Consumer Discretionary sectors were close behind with gains of 1.6%.
The Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq 100 were able to outperform the other headline averages with help from their large-cap constituents. Qualcomm (QCOM 68.59, +1.90), biotech play Biogen Idec (BIIB 125.80, +4.84), and discretionary play Amazon.com (AMZN 202.87, +7.83) were especially strong.
Small-cap stocks stood out for their heady gains, too. Altogether they climbed almost 2%, as measured by the Russell 2000.
Utilities and Telecom stocks lagged all session, but even those two defensive-oriented sectors scored gains of 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively.
The dollar dropped to a modest loss shortly before the open of trade then extended its slide into the session's close. By the end of the day it was down about 0.6% against a basket of major foreign currencies. The dollar's descent made it easier for gold and silver prices to rise in excess of 1% so that they settled pit trade at $1685.70 per ounce and $32.78 per ounce, respectively. Oil had a relatively quiet session that saw it close pit trade with a 0.2% gain at $107.08 per barrel.
Headlines were limited, but those that were released came out this morning. Early traders initially took heart from news that Germany's latest business climate reading improved to a multi-month high. That spurred the German bourse higher, and helped temper concerns related to Spain's ability to implement fiscal reform.
Additionally, Fed Chairman Bernanke's indication that job market conditions remain far from normal was regarded by many as a tacit sign that the Fed recognizes the need for accommodative policies.
Little attention was paid overall to the report, but in some circles it was noted that pending home sales fell in February by 0.5%, which contrasts the Briefing.com consensus call for a 0.5% increase.
Advancing Sectors: Tech +1.7%, Health Care +1.7%, Financials +1.6%, Consumer Discretionary +1.6%, Industrials +1.5%, Materials +1.4%, Energy +0.9%, Utilities +0.8%, Consumer Staples +0.8%, Telecom +0.6%
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +160.90 NASDAQ +54.65 NQ100 +1.8% R2K +1.9% SP400 +1.4% SP500 +19.40 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1952/1.59 bln/607 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2306/742 mln/734
Spanlink Communications, a Cisco (CSCO) partner, announced that it has partnered with Convergys (CVG) to provide a cloud-based contact center solution leveraging the Cisco contact center platform. The offering, anticipated to launch later this year, will initially service North American and European companies with more than 100 worldwide contact center agents.
O2Micro International (OIIM) was issued 28 claims under US patent for its Power Management System with Controllable Adapter Output.
Integrated Device Technology (IDTI) announced that IDT's RapidIO Gen 2 interface intellectual property has been selected by Texas Instruments (TXN) for its TMS320C665x multicore digital signal processors.
AMD (AMD) announced Rockwell Collins (COL) has selected the AMD Radeon E2400 embedded graphics processor for inclusion in its highly-intuitive, integrated flight deck solution, Pro Line Fusion.
Micron (MU $8.23 -0.16) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform until profitability Abecomes visible. The firm says, if MU does not get hijacked into buying some or all of Elpida, they think it's on the right path to profitability and on FCF as most of capex spend is done for the year.
HP (HPQ $23.68 +0.04) Board of Directors authorized a 10% increase in its regular quarterly cash dividend to $0.132/share. The increase will be effective when the HP Board of Directors declares HP's next dividend, which is expected to occur in May 2012. HP's previously announced dividend payable on April 4, 2012 for stockholders of record on March 14, 2012 will not be increased and will remain at $0.12 per share.
09:36 am HP shares rise just under 1% following dividend increase
HP (HPQ $23.86 +0.23) Board of Directors authorized a 10% increase in its regular quarterly cash dividend to $0.132/share.
The increase will be effective when the HP Board of Directors declares HP's next dividend, which is expected to occur in May 2012. HP's previously announced dividend payable on April 4, 2012 for stockholders of record on March 14, 2012 will not be increased and will remain at $0.12 per share.
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