Sector Investing

[ReturntoSender]

From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The advances made by U.S. equities during the first 30 minutes held through most of the day as thin volume and lack of economic data contributed to a lackluster trading day. As the session entered its final minutes, stocks came off highs and finished near the bottom of the day's range. The S&P 500 ended higher by 0.2%.


Asian markets closed considerably higher following Friday's positive U.S. nonfarm payroll report. Japan's Nikkei gained 2.0%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.7%, while shares in Shanghai advanced 1.4%.

In Europe, Spain's IBEX finished 4.4% higher after trading was halted for nearly 5 hours due to a technical issue. Other European indices posted more modest gains with France's CAC and Germany's DAX both rising by 0.8%, while UK's FTSE advanced 0.4%.

The Nasdaq outperformed other indices and ended higher by 0.7%. The above-average gains were driven by multiple companies posting double digit percent gains.

Pluristem Therapeutics (PSTI 3.80, +0.49) was 14.8% higher after reporting that the company's treatment has been able to save the life of a patient exhibiting bone marrow failure.

Online gaming developer Changyou.com (CYOU 23.00, +3.63) gained 18.7% after beating its earnings and revenue forecast.

Knight Capital Group (KCG 3.07, -0.98) has bounced off lows but ended the session down 24.2% after this morning's news indicated the company had raised $400 million through the sale of preferred, convertible stock.

With gains of 1.1%, the Materials sector was the best performer today. United States Steel (X 22.94, +1.22) was the best performer within the group and ended higher by 5.6%. In addition, Newmont Mining (NEM 46.12, +1.45) and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX 34.34, +0.84) were up 3.3% and 2.5% respectively.

Down 0.3%, utilities were the biggest laggard in the S&P 500. Within the space, Exelon (EXC 38.06, -0.41) shed 1.1% while Duke Energy (DUK 68.21, -0.39) was off by 0.6%.

The dollar index ended off by 0.1% as the performance of major currencies against the greenback has been mixed. At 78.22, the Japanese Yen was up 0.3% against the dollar. The euro has come off session highs at 1.2425 and it currently trades near 1.2395. The common currency advanced 0.1% against the U.S. dollar.

The 10-yr yield on U.S. Treasuries has declined 2 basis points, to 1.56%.

Nearly 70 companies are scheduled to release their quarterly results after today's closing bell. Some notable names include Caribou Coffee (CBOU 10.95, -0.50), Chesapeake Energy (CHK 17.68, -0.21), Plantronics (PLT 33.47, +0.27), and Leap Wireless (LEAP 5.52, +0.30).

In addition, almost 80 firms will report before tomorrow's open. Cablevision (CVC 15.83, +0.29), CVS Caremark (CVS 44.90, +0.15), Fossil (FOSL 69.79, +1.36), MGM Resorts (MGM 9.38, +0.12), and Office Depot (ODP 1.74, -0.04) are some stocks which bear watching. Tomorrow's economic data is limited to consumer credit, due out at 3 PM ET.DJ30 +21.34 NASDAQ +22.01 SP500 +3.24 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1522/1.49 bln/927 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1892/647.2 mln/1124

3:35 pm : Crude oil popped into positive territory following rumors suggesting that Syria's Assad was killed or injured in a blast. However, headlines crossed that Russian Interior Minister denied issuing the tweet. It is worth noting that a story from Reuters on Friday discussed how its Twitter feed had been hacked so we would be a cautious of odd tweets in the coming days. The energy component continued to climb higher as it also got a boost from a weaker dollar. It settled floor trade 1.0% higher at $92.30, or just below its session high of $92.38 per barrel.

Natural gas slid to a pit session low of $2.82 per MMBtu in morning action but found buying support soon after. It trended in an upward pattern for the remainder of its floor session and settled 1.0% higher at $2.91 per MMBtu. Precious metals extended Friday's gains as the weaker dollar gave them a boost.

Gold came off its pit session low of $1608.30 per ounce and traded up to a session high of $1618.40 per ounce by late morning. It pulled-back slightly in afternoon action but still managed to close 0.4% higher at $1616.00 per ounce. Silver touched a session low of $27.61 per ounce moments after pit trade opened but climbed out of negative territory in late morning action. It brushed a session high of $27.95 per ounce and settled just below that level at $27.87 per ounce with a gain of 0.3%.DJ30 70.42 NASDAQ 29.45 SP500 7.08 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1634/1189.8 mln/824 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2027/417 mln/956

5:37PM Advanced Micro announces pricing of private offering of $500 mln of senior notes (AMD) 4.01 -0.08 : Co announced that it has agreed to sell $500 million aggregate principal amount of its 7.50% Senior Notes due 2022 in a private offering. AMD intends to close the transaction on or around August 15, 2012. AMD estimates that the net proceeds from the issuance and sale of the senior notes will be approximately $491 million after deducting the initial purchasers' discounts and estimated offering expenses. AMD intends to use the net proceeds for general corporate purposes and working capital, which may include the following: (i) the repayment or repurchase of some or all of its outstanding 5.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2012, (ii) repayment or repurchase of some or all of its outstanding 6.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2015, (iii) cash payments to GLOBALFOUNDRIES related to the 28nm product limited waiver of exclusivity, or (iv) potential strategic transactions.

4:08PM Power Integrations beats by $0.07, misses on revs; guides Q3 revs below consensus (POWI) 37.30 +0.80 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.49 per share, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.42; revenues fell 4.7% year/year to $76.38 mln vs the $81.13 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of 76-82 mln vs. $88.59 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Like many of our peers, we have experienced a slowdown in demand of late, and second-quarter revenues fell short of our expectations. However, our non-GAAP gross margin expanded by more than three percentage points thanks to continued execution on our cost-reduction efforts and a more favorable end-market mix during the quarter. In all, our non-GAAP gross margin is up nearly five points in the past three quarters, and we expect it to remain above the 50-percent benchmark in the second half of the year. The combination of a higher gross margin and our lower tax rate will help support our earnings and cash flow even in the face of a muted demand environment."

4:06PM Intersil announces stock repurchase program of up to $50 mln of common stock (ISIL) 8.96 +0.11 : Co announced that Intersil's Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $50 million of the company's common stock. At the end of the second quarter of 2012, Intersil's cash and short term investments totaled $316.1 million. As of June 29, 2012, there were approximately 127.6 million shares outstanding.

4:03PM Emcore consolidates terrestrial concentrating photovoltaics business into its joint venture, Suncore Photovoltaics (EMKR) 5.07 +0.05 : Co announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement, subject to closing conditions, to consolidate its terrestrial concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) system engineering and development efforts into its joint venture, Suncore Photovoltaics. In order to streamline the development and engineering effort for CPV systems, EMCORE and Suncore have entered into a definitive agreement to consolidate intellectual property and development efforts for both ground mount and rooftop terrestrial CPV products, including key engineering, and sales and marketing personnel, to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suncore in the United States. Suncore's subsidiary will fund all ongoing R&D, marketing, sales and business development related to terrestrial CPV systems. EMCORE will continue to own all of its intellectual property related to solar cell technology and maintain investment activities to advance CPV cell performance to serve a broader customer base within the CPV industry.

10:00AM Cisco Systems early gains to resistance zone (CSCO) 16.63 +0.28 : The early advance has seen the stock test a resistance zone marked by its 50 day ema (capped upside in June) and Mid-July high at 16.64/16.80 (session high 16.70).

O2Micro International (OIIM) announced the introduction of two Direct Current-to-Direct Current converter controllers for notebook markets.

8:03AM Ramtron: Cypress Semiconductor (CY) extends tender offer to acquire RMTR to Aug 17, 2012 (RMTR) 2.60 : Cypress Semiconductor announced that it has extended its tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding stock of Ramtron International for $2.68 per share in cash to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 17, 2012. The offer was previously scheduled to expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 3, 2012. Cypress's offer represents a 48% premium over Ramtron's closing price of $1.81 per share on June 11, 2012, the day before Cypress publicly disclosed its offer for Ramtron. Except for the extension of the expiration date, all other terms and conditions of the offer remain unchanged. The all-cash offer is not conditioned on due diligence or financing. Cypress continues to believe that its offer represents full and fair value and provides Ramtron's stockholders with immediate liquidity at a substantial premium in a very volatile market. Cypress stated " If you are stalling in the hope that we will lose interest in an acquisition, it bears repeating that we are committed to acquiring Ramtron and that commitment will not waiver. We will not allow you an unlimited amount of time to stand in the way of our offer while failing to provide your stockholders with a fair opportunity to consider it or a superior alternative."

7:34AM Qualcomm appoints Chief Marketing Officer (QCOM) 60.24 : Co announced that Anand Chandrasekher has joined the Company as chief marketing officer (CMO). Most recently, he was senior vice president, general manager for the Ultra Mobility Group at Intel Corporation, with responsibility for the Intel (INTC) Atom processor family.

ASML (ASML $57.98 -0.14) announced that TSMC (TSM $14.18 +0.00) has joined its Customer Co-Investment Program for innovation, committing to invest EUR276 mln in research and development of next generation lithography technologies, which include Extreme Ultraviolet lithography technology and 450-millimeter lithography tools, over the next five years as well as EUR838 mln in a 5% ASML equity stake. The objective of the Co-Investment Program is to accelerate ASML's development of EUV technology beyond this current generation and ASML's development of future 450 mm silicon wafer technology, both due in the second half of this decade.