From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The S&P 500 settled higher by 0.6% as nine of ten sectors posted gains.
Equities were off to the races at the sound of the opening bell, aided by today's personal income report, which pointed to an increase of 0.5% in May. The Briefing.com consensus expected personal income to rise 0.2%.
Meanwhile, personal spending increased 0.3% in May and nearly reversed the entire 0.3% decline that occurred in April. The consensus expected spending levels to increase 0.4%.
In addition, the core PCE price index increased 0.1% in May. That was up from no growth in April and exactly what the consensus expected.
Stocks received a secondary boost from the pending home sales report as May sales rose 6.7% (1.5% consensus).
The S&P notched its high of 1620 shortly after the market digested the latest housing data point. However, the index was unable to rise above that level as the 20- and 50-day moving averages served as resistance at today's high.
Today's housing data provided homebuilders with a significant boost. Although the report focused on pending home sales, strong demand in that market suggests healthy demand for new homes as well. The iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB 22.75, +0.54) traded on its lows before the housing data sent the ETF to its best levels.
Most other cyclical groups also registered solid gains with financials settling in the lead, sporting a gain of 1.3%.
Financials were closely followed by this month's top performing group, telecom services. The high-yielding sector took a significant hit when Treasury yields began their climb in May. However, recent days have seen the sector rally even with yields not far from their recent highs.
The telecom space ended higher by 0.9% to extend its June advance to 2.6%. Meanwhile, the second-best sector of the month, consumer staples, climbed 0.9%, padding its June return to 0.4%.
On the downside, the materials space shed 0.1%. The sector was pressured by a 2.1% loss in Monsanto (MON 98.75, -2.09). Interestingly, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 22.79, +0.57) gained 2.6% despite continued weakness in gold futures, which slumped 2.6% to $1198.00 per troy ounce. This marked the first time the yellow metal traded south of the 1200 level since August 2010.
Treasuries saw some intraday weakness but ended near their highs after today's strong 7-yr auction. The benchmark 10-yr yield slipped six basis points to 2.511%.
Looking at today's remaining economic data, the initial claims level fell from an upwardly revised 355,000 (from 354,000) for the week ending June 15 to 346,000 for the week ending June 22. The Briefing.com consensus expected the initial claims level to fall to 345,000.
Over the past several weeks, the initial claims level has followed a soft sawtooth path with the four-week moving average remaining nearly flat the entire time. The claims data suggest that labor market conditions have not materially changed during this time.
Tomorrow, June Chicago PMI and the final reading of the June Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey will cross the wires at 9:45 and 9:55 ET, respectively.DJ30 +114.35 NASDAQ +25.64 SP500 +9.94 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1982/1.61 bln/525 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2608/737.8 mln/469
3:30 pm :
Aug crude oil advanced for a fourth consecutive session with prices rising to a pit session high of $97.41 per barrel in morning action. It settled at $97.05 per barrel, booking a 1.6% gain.
Aug natural gas, on the other hand, plunged deeper into negative territory following inventory data that showed a build of 95 bcf when a smaller build of 88 bcf was anticipated. Prices fell from a session high of $3.73 per MMBtu and touched a session low of $3.56 per MMBtu. Unable to erase much of the loss, natural gas settled 4.3% lower at $3.58 per MMBtu. o Precious metals sold off sharply heading into the close.
Aug gold spent most of today's pit trade chopping around near the unchanged line and touched a session high of $1237.20 per ounce. However, it slipped to a session low of $1206.50 per ounce moments before settling with a 1.5% loss at $1211.60 per ounce. Prices briefly dipped below the $1200 per ounce level in electronic trade.
Sep silver rose to a session high of $18.88 by late morning action but gave up its entire gain as it settled at $18.56 per ounce, or 0.3% lower.
4:12PM Adobe Systems to acquire Neolane for ~$600 mln in cash (ADBE) 45.93 +0.25 : Co believes the acquisition of Neolane will not materially affect the co's forecasted revenue and non-GAAP financial results in fiscal year 2013. Due to the absence at this time of certain acquisition-related cost estimates and purchase price accounting, co is currently unable to provide an estimated impact on future GAAP earnings.
4:06PM CalAmp beats by $0.03, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs in-line (CAMP) 14.38 +0.63 : Reports Q1 (May) earnings of $0.16 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.13; revenues rose 22.5% year/year to $53.7 mln vs the $52.4 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q2 (Aug), sees EPS of $0.14-0.18, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.16 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $53-57 mln vs. $53.7 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
"We're off to a strong start in fiscal 2014."
In Q1, Wireless Datacom segment revenue increased 29% YoY driven by continued momentum from Mobile Resource Management (MRM) products and contributions from its Wireless Matrix acquisition that was completed at the beginning of Q1.
Wireless Datacom gross margin improved to 39.1% due mainly to higher margin subscription revenue from the Wireless Matrix acquisition.
For its Satellite segment, co saw improving margins along with some growth resulting in a meaningful impact to bottom line results.
2:02PM Microchip closes $2.0 bln credit agreement (MCHP) 37.24 +0.29 : Co announced that it has executed a new $2.0 billion unsecured credit agreement with a group of lenders with $1.65 billion of such amount being a revolving loan facility and $350 million being a term loan. Borrowings under this facility are expected to be used for general corporate purposes including potential acquisition activity. The agreement has a five year term and an option to increase the amount available to $2.3 billion. The agreement replaces the $750 million unsecured credit agreement that Microchip previously had in place.
Magwel N.V. announced that ON Semiconductor (ONNN) has selected Magwel's PTM-ET Electro-Thermal Simulation tool for use in its design and verification of high current, high power devices.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) has announced that Lotus F1 Team, currently standing a close fourth in the Constructors' Championship after the first seven races, has built a mission-critical network infrastructure using Juniper's portfolio of switching, security, wireless LAN, routing and application software solutions to improve flexibility and enhance performance.
Market Data 
Markets 
