Sector Investing

[ReturntoSender]

From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Stocks settled just off their best levels of the session with the S&P 500 gaining 0.4%.

After opening on a higher note, equities alternated between gains and losses until afternoon action sent the major indices to their highs. As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a new record high while the S&P ended eight points away from its own all-time best.

The materials sector ended as the top performer amid broad strength. Dow component Alcoa (AA 8.39, 0.00) kicked off the first quarter reporting period with a bottom-line beat, but the company's revenue of $5.83 billion represented a 2.9% year-over-year decline, and fell short of the Capital IQ consensus estimate.

Steelmakers rallied across the board as the Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 43.23, +1.41) surged 3.4% to record its second largest one-day advance of the year. Note that today's gains occurred after the steel ETF had surrendered more than 17.0% this year.

Copper futures also saw strong gains after enduring recent weakness. The red metal rose 2.1% to $3.443 per pound.

While materials, energy, and technology ended in the lead, three economically-sensitive groups finished among the laggards.

The consumer discretionary sector lost ground as homebuilders and retailers weighed. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB 29.27, -0.22) slipped 0.8%.

Meanwhile, retailers saw weakness across the board as the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 70.30, -0.43) lost 0.6%. J.C. Penney (JCP 13.93, -1.94) sank 12.2% after the company's Board of Directors announced Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson will be replaced by Mike Ullman, who has previously served as CEO.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average also saw notable underperformance. The bellwether complex shed 0.3% as airlines were unable to take off with the broader market. United Continental (UAL 29.29, -0.76) lost 2.5%. Including today's decline, the Transportation Average is down almost 3.0% so far in April.

Trading volume was a bit below average as 670 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Reviewing the day's sector performance, materials (+1.1%), technology (+0.8%), and energy (+0.8%) outperformed while utilities (-0.3%), consumer discretionary (-0.2%), and consumer staples (-0.1%) weighed.

Today's economic data was limited to wholesale inventories. Inventories declined 0.3% in February after increasing a downwardly revised 0.8% (from 1.2%) in January. The Briefing.com consensus expected wholesale inventories to increase 0.5%.

The drop in inventories was likely the result of better-than-expected sales growth. Wholesale sales jumped 1.7% in February after falling 0.8% in January. Wholesalers may not have been in position to maintain normal inventories levels given the size of the sales gain.

Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00 ET. In addition, March Treasury budget and the minutes from the March 20th meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee will be released at 14:00 ET. On the earnings front, Family Dollar (FDO 59.80, +0.41) is set to report its quarterly results ahead of the opening bell.

The U.S. Treasury will hold a $21 billion reopening of 10-yr notes.DJ30 +59.98 NASDAQ +15.61 SP500 +5.54 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1115/1.45 bln/1353 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1738/669.9 mln/1250
3:30 pm : Commodities largely held up gains today as the dollar index remained in negative territory. Gold and silver rallied earlier this morning and traded in a consolidated manner in afternoon activity.

May crude oil rallied off of its session low just below the $93 level, rising as much as $1.62/barrel to the high for the day of $94.48/barrel. By the end of the session, May crude oil rose 0.9% to $94.18/barrel. Natural gas began to drift lower in the early hours of trade and eventually fell as low as $4.00/MMBtu. May nat gas finished down 1.5% lower at $4.02/MMBtu.

Precious metals held gains today after rallying this morning, closing just under its session highs. June gold gained 0.7% to $1586.80/oz, while May silver rose 2.4% to $27.88/oz. May copper showed solid gains of 2.7%, ending today's session at $3.44/lb.

4:16PM KLA-Tencor has been recognized as one of 17 companies receiving Intel (INTC) Preferred Quality Supplier award (KLAC) 52.64 +0.64 :

2:49PM First Solar at Analuyst Day: Says Q1 revenues and cash will be at the high end of guidance; earnings at the low end due to changes in efficiencies (FSLR) 39.30 +12.34 : In its Q4 earnings release the co provided guidance for the first quarter of 2013 as follows:

Net Sales of $650 to $750 million (Capital IQ consensus $701 mln)
Gross Margin of 25-27%
OPEX of $90 to $100 million
Operating income of $70 to $100 million
Tax rate between 11% and 13%
EPS of $0.70 to $0.90 per fully diluted share (Capital IQ consensus $0.84)
Cash flow from Operations of $0 to $100 million CAPEX of $80 to $100 million

1:42PM First Solar issues upside FY13 EPS and rev guidance; sees FY14 EPS in line; sees FY14 revs above consensus; sees FY15 EPS above consensus; sees FY15 revs above consensus (FSLR) 34.33 +7.29 :

Co issues upside guidance for FY13 (Dec), sees EPS of $4.00-4.50 vs. $3.60 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY13 (Dec) revs of $3.8-4.0 bln vs. $3.21 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Co issues guidance for FY14 (Dec), sees EPS of $2.50-4.00 vs. $3.26 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY14 (Dec) revs of $3.5-4.0 bln vs. $3.42 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Co issues guidance for FY15; sees EPS of $4.00-6.00 versus $3.61 Capital IQ cosnensus; sees revs of $4.2-4.8 bln versus $3.66 bln consensus.
The Company noted that revenue recognition for the Desert Sunlight project is currently expected to begin in the second half of 2013 and conclude by late 2014. This assumption is reflected in the Company's 2013 guidance and 2014 outlook.
Co sees FY14 Module Shipments between 1.8-2.2 GW; Co sees FY15 Module Shipments of 2.3 to 2.7GW
For 2013, First Solar expects total module shipments to be between 1.6GW and 1.8GW and net sales of $3.8 and $4.0 billion, including approximately $3.6 billion in net sales from systems sales. Consolidated gross margin is expected to be between 20 and 22 percent. Excluding up to $10 million in restructuring expense as previously announced, diluted EPS is expected to be between $4.00 and $4.50, and consolidated operating income is expected to be between $430 and $460 million. The Company expects to generate $0.8 to $1.0 billion of operating cash flow and plans for approximately $350 to $400 million in capital expenditures in 2013.

1:38PM Solar names spiking in reaction to FSLR guidance; STP, SPWR, TSL, LDK, JASO, CSIQ (TAN) 16.97 +1.22 :
1:34PM First Solar at Analyst Day- says not going after growth for the sake of growth; sees EPS in the range of $4.00-4.50 per share, Capital IQ consensus $3.57 (FSLR) : CFO speaking now, guidance coming as stock trades near HoD..

1:18PM Semiconductor Hldrs ETF displaying relative strength, pushes back above its 50 ema at 34.72 after last week's breakdown (SMH) 34.76 +0.34 : INTC +2.8, MU +1.8, KLAC +1.1%, TSM +1.1%, SNDK +1%.

9:36AM First Solar sets CdTe module efficiency world record, launches Series 3 Black module (FSLR) 26.76 -0.28 : Co announced it set a new world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) module conversion efficiency, achieving a record 16.1% total area module efficiency in tests confirmed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The new record is a substantial increase over the prior record of 14.4% efficiency, which the co set in Jan 2012. Separately, First Solar also set a record for CdTe open circuit voltage (VOC), reaching 903.2 millivolts (mV) in NREL-certified testing. Co also launched a new evolution of its proven Series 3 thin-film PV module platform, the Series 3 Black.

Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC) announced its X-Gene ARM 64-bit Server on a Chip product as part of the HP Moonshot System and the HP Pathfinder Innovation Ecosystem.

EMC (EMC) announced that MLB Advanced Media has implemented EMC technologies to support live video streaming and e-commerce for baseball fans around the world.

9:16AM Qualcomm declared new quarterly cash dividend of $0.35 per common share (new dividend rate was originally on March 5) (QCOM) 65.86 : Co announced new quarterly cash dividend of $0.35 per common share will be payable on June 26, 2013, to stockholders of record at the close of business on June 5, 2013. The new dividend rate, originally announced at the Company's annual meeting on March 5, represents a 40% increase above the prior quarterly dividend.

Semtech (SMTC) has delivered 6G UHD-SDI components to Utah Scientific and worked with the co on its development of the new UHDTV version of its Utah-100/UDS routing switcher

8:05AM OCZ Technology and Accusys extend partnership with new SSD qualification for ExaSAN 8-Bay DAS systems (OCZ) 1.80 : Co and Accusys, a provider of RAID products, jointly announced an extended strategic partnership that provides the Accusys ExaSAN 8-bay RAID system (Model B08S2-P2) with new Deneva 2 storage capacity options. In addition to the 480GB Deneva 2 SSD initially qualified on the ExaSAN B08S2-P2 DAS platform, a smaller 240GB Deneva 2 capacity option is now qualified for customer selection

8:03AM Suntech Power receives continued listing standards notice from the New York Stock Exchange (STP) 0.48 : STP announced that it has been notified by the New York Stock Exchange that the Company did not meet the NYSE's price criteria for continued listing standard because, as of April 4, 2013, the average closing price of the Company's American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, was less than $1.00 per ADS over a consecutive 30-trading-day period. Under NYSE rules, the Company has six months following receipt of the notification to regain compliance with the minimum share price requirement.

7:35AM Advanced Energy increases growth opportunities with acquisition of three-phase string inverter product line; should be accretive to earnings in the next 12 months (AEIS) 18.15 : Co announced it has acquired REFUsol Holding GmbH, a leading provider of three-phase string solar PV inverters for commercial applications. Three-phase string inverters are ideally suited for rooftop and potentially larger installations and are becoming one of the fastest-growing inverter applications worldwide.

This acquisition is expected to accelerate Advanced Energy's Solar Energy revenue to greater than $400 mln in 2014 and should be accretive to earnings in the next 12 months.

ATMI (ATMI) announced Robert S. Hillas, a member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the audit committee, has decided to retire at the end of his current term in May 2013.

HGST, a Western Digital co, (WDC) announced the industry's fastest and most advanced enterprise-class, multi level cell SAS SSD family -- the Ultrastar SSD800MH, Ultrastar SSD800MM and Ultrastar SSD1000MR.

2:09AM Advanced Semi reports March net revs of NT$17.15 bln; uo 11.8% YoY, +18.8% sequentially (ASX) 3.92 :

1:05AM Ixia files 2012 10-K, including restated financial statements, and is current with SEC filings (XXIA) 18.13 : Co announces that on April 4th it had filed its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 with the SEC. As part of the 2012 Form 10-K, Ixia has completed the restatement of its previously issued consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2010 and 2011, its unaudited quarterly financial information for each of the quarters and year-to-date periods in the year ended December 31, 2011 and in the nine months ended September 30, 2012, and its selected financial data for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2009. With the filing of its 2012 Form 10-K, Ixia is now current in its filings of periodic reports with the Commission.

The restated consolidated financial statements correct certain errors that existed in Ixia's previously issued consolidated financial statements, principally related to the manner in which the co recognized revenues related to its warranty and software maintenance contracts, including a previous implied warranty and software maintenance arrangement with one of the co's customers. The related changes in the co's revenue recognition practices will generally result in a shift of revenues between accounting periods in co's previously issued financial statements. The changes will not have any impact on the total revenues recognized over the life of a warranty and software maintenance contract or arrangement, although the timing of the recognition of such revenues will generally commence earlier and end earlier than was reflected in co's previously issued financial statements for the restated periods.

10:52 am S&P Information Tech sector trading near flat line today
The tech sector is trading just lower today, trailing modest gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness with the SOX trading 0.1% lower. Within the chip index, AMD (-3.3%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.1% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.2% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.1% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, INTC (+1.5%) is showing notable strength, while FB (-0.7%) is under pressure.

There were no notable earnings in tech last night or this morning. In news, FIRE (-2.8%) announced that it has appointed John Becker as Chief Executive Officer effective immediately and Kevin Klausmeyer has joined its Board of Directors as an independent director. Elsewhere, BMC (-0.5%) disclosed a workforce reduction that is expected to result in pre-tax charges of ~$33-38 mln. Among rumors, Hutchison Whampoa may be targeting a 29.9% stake in TI (+4.0%), according to reports. Among notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, Needham upgraded HILL (+6.7%) to Buy and QLIK (+1.4%) was upgraded to Overweight at Evercore. Among downgrades, Oppenheimer downgraded CNQR (-2.7%) to Underperform. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.