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Re: ReturntoSender post# 6755

Tuesday, 06/18/2013 10:57:40 PM

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 10:57:40 PM

Post# of 12809
From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The major averages ended higher across the board as the S&P 500 advanced 0.8%.

Equities climbed steadily since the opening bell as investors prepared for tomorrow's policy decision from the Federal Reserve. Although chatter in recent weeks has included speculation the Fed would look to taper its asset purchases, today's broad gains suggest investors expect mostly reassuring words from Chairman Bernanke at tomorrow's press conference.

All ten sectors ended with solid gains, but today's rally was predicated on the strength of cyclical names.

The industrial space rose 1.3% amid outperformance in transportation and defensive stocks. The Dow Jones Transportation Average advanced 1.0% as 19 of 20 components registered gains. GATX (GMT 48.05, -0.45) was the lone decliner after Stifel Nicolaus downgraded the stock to 'Hold' from 'Buy.'

With regards to defensive stocks, Dow component General Electric (GE 24.33, +0.56) settled higher by 2.4% after forging a strategic partnership with Accenture (ACN 82.93, +0.48). The broader PHLX Defense Index climbed 1.7%.

Discretionary stocks also made a significant contribution to today's rally as the sector displayed broad strength. The lone pocket of weakness was among homebuilders as the group ended in mixed fashion following today's housing data. New home sales for the month of May hit an annualized rate of 914,000, which was short of the 950,000 expected by the Briefing.com consensus.

Notably, single-family starts increased a minuscule 0.3% in May from 597,000 in April to 599,000. This sector tends to be very stable. The lack of solid rebound after 4.2% decline in April could signal a slowdown in overall construction levels.

Interestingly, the financial space was more tentative in its advance, posting a gain of 0.6%. Today's rise helped the sector erase its month-to-date loss.

Meanwhile, this month's top performer, telecom, was able to build on its strength. The sector ended higher by 1.3% to bring it June return to 4.1%.

Treasuries ended the day little changed as investors stood pat ahead of tomorrow's FOMC meeting. The benchmark 10-yr yield ticked up less than one point to 2.182%.

Consumer prices increased 0.1% in May, which was the first increase since February after prices fell 0.2% in March and 0.4% in April. The Briefing.com consensus expected the CPI to increase 0.2%. Surprisingly, the higher-than-expected food and energy prices from the May PPI did not pass through to consumer prices.

Energy prices increased a modest 0.4% in May after falling 4.3% in April. Gasoline prices, which caused the decline in energy prices in April, were unchanged in May. In contrast, energy prices in the PPI rose 1.3% on a 1.5% increase in gasoline costs. Meanwhile, food prices declined 0.1% in May after increasing 0.2% in April. The food at home category, which includes grocery store purchases, fell by 0.3%. That was the largest monthly decline since July 2009. Dairy product prices fell by 0.8%.

Excluding food and energy, core prices rose 0.2% in May, up from a 0.1% gain in both March and April. The consensus expected these prices to increase 0.1%.

Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00 ET while the FOMC decision is set to cross the wires at 14:00 ET.DJ30 +138.38 NASDAQ +30.05 SP500 +12.77 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1729/1.53 bln/749 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2070/646.0 mln/977
3:35 pm : Commodities ended the day mixed with metals ending lower and energy posting gains. Precious metals, however, ended with only modest losses and Aug gold fell $1.62 at $1366.07/oz and July silver ended $0.08 lower at $21.68/oz. July copper lost $0.05 to finish at $3.15.

In the energy patch, July crude oil extended gains, climbing $0.65 in today's pit session to end at $98.46/barrel. July nat gas rose $0.02 to $3.90/MMBtu

4:29PM Adobe Systems sees Q3 revenue in the range of $925 mln-1.025 bln, Capital IQ consensus is $1.01 bln; sees Non-GAAP EPS in the range of $0.29-0.35, Capital IQ consensus $0.35 (ADBE) 43.36 -0.03 : Click here for presentation.

Co reaffirms FY13 revenue of approx $4.1 bln, Capital IQ consensus $4.1 bln; Non-GAAP EPS of approx $1.45, Capital IQ consensus $1.45.

4:12PM Adobe Systems beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line -- ADBE will guide for Q3 and FY13 on its conference call at 17:00. (ADBE) 43.36 -0.03 : Reports Q2 (May) earnings of $0.36 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.34; revenues fell 10.1% year/year to $1.01 bln vs the $1.01 bln consensus (On May 6th, Co reaffirmed Q2 EPS guidance of $0.29-0.35 with revenues of $975 mln - 1.025 bln).

Operating income was $111.3 mln and net income was $76.5 mln on a GAAP basis. Operating income was $247.3 mln and net income was $182.9 mln on a non-GAAP basis. Adobe ended Q2 with 700 thousand paid Creative Cloud subscriptions, an increase of 221K when compared to the number of subscriptions as of the end of Q1 fiscal year 2013. Co also announced that 100 mln downloads all created with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite have been delivered to readers.

3:00PM Intel recommends stockholders reject TRC Capital's 'mini-tender' offer (INTC) 25.59 +0.49 : Co recently learned of an unsolicited "mini-tender offer" made by TRC Capital Corp. to Intel stockholders to purchase up to 4 million shares of Intel common stock at $23.75 per share. TRC Capital's offer price is approximately 4.96 percent below the closing share price of Intel common stock on June 13, 2013 ($24.99), the day before the offer commenced, and the offer is for less than 1 percent of Intel's outstanding shares. Intel does not endorse TRC Capital's mini-tender offer and recommends that Intel stockholders reject the offer and not tender their shares in response to the offer.

8:33AM Mellanox Tech demonstrates 2X growth over a 6 month period for Petascale-Capable Systems on the TOP500 (MLNX) 49.72 : Co announced the number of the TOP500's Petascale-capable systems connected with Mellanox FDR InfiniBand doubled from November 2012 to June 2013. Overall, the number of Mellanox FDR InfiniBand connected systems grew 3.3X from June 2012 to June 2013, and Mellanox FDR InfiniBand accelerates the top four InfiniBand-based systems on the list, showing the increasing demand for higher performance, scalability and efficiency.

8:04AM Veeco Instruments receives stay of suspension pending NASDAQ hearing (VECO) 37.55 : Co received a letter from The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC ("NASDAQ") indicating that the NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel (the "Panel") had granted the co's request to extend the stay of suspension of trading in its common stock pending a final determination regarding the co's listing status following a hearing before the Panel. The hearing has been scheduled for June 27, 2013.

At the hearing, the co will request additional time to satisfy the NASDAQ listing requirement that the co be current in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Panel typically issues decisions within 30 days of the hearing date; however, there is no requirement that the Panel do so within that time frame. The co will provide an update regarding its continued listing status once a decision on this matter has been issued following the hearing.

Freescale Semiconductor's (FSL) flagship QorIQ T4240 communications processor is now available with AltiVec software libraries provided by Mentor Graphics Corporation.

08:44 am Rambus shares rise 4% following narrowed guidance
Rambus (RMBS $8.91 +0.33) updated its revenue guidance for the quarter ending June 30, 2013, narrowing the range to $56-58 million from the initial range of $53-58 million which was within the range expectations. In addition, subsequent to the Hynix settlement announced last week, the Company will be reversing a prior accrual included in operating expenses, related to previously awarded costs of $8 million in litigation expenses

Microsoft (MSFT) was awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract with a total cumulative face value of $412.24 mln. The minimum guarantee is $5,000, for Microsoft Enterprise Technical Support Services (METSS) necessary to obtain highly trained "Microsoft Blue Badge Cardholder-support". The period of performance is a one-year base period and four one-year option periods for a total period of five years. Performance will predominantly be within the continental United States; however, support services may also be required at multiple overseas locations.

Rambus (RMBS) updated its revenue guidance for the quarter ending June 30, 2013, narrowing the range to $56-58 million from the initial range of $53-58 million. In addition, subsequent to the Hynix settlement announced last week, the Company will be reversing a prior accrual included in operating expenses, related to previously awarded costs of $8 million in litigation expenses.

Needham initiated Fusion IO (FIO) with a Buy and tgt of $20. The firm's positive stance on FIO is based on five main arguments: 1) sentiment seems to have reached a trough after sales lumpiness from FIO's top two customers in F2Q and the sudden departure of the co-founders announced on May 8th; 2) extensive industry checks suggest FIO remains in the pole position within the hyperscale world (and increasingly in traditional data centers); 3) acquisition of NexGen expands the TAM beyond the PCIe world; 4) major new product rollouts later in C13 and into C14 should re-establish FIO as a technology innovator; and 5) believe new leadership has an opportunity to rewrite the narrative of the company.

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