From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The major averages ended in mixed fashion as the Dow shed 0.1% while the Nasdaq added 0.5%. For its part, the S&P 500 ended flat.
Equities held their levels into the afternoon as market participants awaited the Minutes from the June 18/19 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Most notably, the Minutes indicated several members judged a reduction in asset purchases would be warranted 'soon.' However, the Fed will continue to look for more evidence suggesting projected acceleration of growth remains on track before tapering.
With regard to Treasury yields, some participants voiced concern about a few institutions being ill-prepared to handle a rapid run-up in rates. In addition, other members said that 'a prolonged period of low interest rates would encourage investors to take on excessive credit or interest rate risk and would distort some asset prices.'
Committee participants also stressed their desire to emphasize the distinction between decisions about slowing bond buying and future rate hikes.
Overall, the Minutes did not provide too much fresh insight. With that in mind, the major averages returned to their earlier levels after spiking to fresh highs immediately after the Minutes crossed the wires.
Energy and financials displayed weakness throughout the day before settling near their lows. The energy sector shed 0.6% despite the continued rise in crude oil, which added 2.4% to $106.04 per barrel. The energy component has rallied steadily since late June, and reports of a well leak off the coast of Louisiana contributed to today's strength.
Elsewhere, major banks registered losses across the board as the financial sector settled lower by 0.6%.
Also of note, the Dow Jones Transportation Average fell 1.0% after jumping 2.3% yesterday.
While most cyclical groups finished in the red, the technology sector outperformed with a gain of 0.5% as most of its top components registered gains. Qualcomm (QCOM 60.46, +1.08) ended higher by 1.8% after providing leadership throughout the session.
Countercyclical consumer staples, health care, and utilities added between 0.1% and 0.7% while the telecom services sector shed 0.4%.
May wholesale inventories decreased 0.5% while the Briefing.com consensus expected an uptick of 0.3%. Today's report followed last month's revised decrease of 0.1%.
Tomorrow, weekly initial claims, June import prices ex-oil, and export prices ex-agriculture will be reported at 8:30 ET. In addition, the Treasury will release its June budget at 14:00 ET.
The U.S. Treasury will auction $13 billion in 30-yr bonds.DJ30 -8.68 NASDAQ +16.50 SP500 +0.30 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1427/1.51 bln/1028 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1601/670.4 mln/1395
3:30 pm :
Aug crude oil steadily trended higher as it gained support from a huge drop inventories, reports of a well leak off the coast of Louisiana, and a weaker dollar index. The Dept of Energy reported that inventories for the week ending July 5 declined by 9.874 mln when a much smaller draw of 3.15 mln was anticipated. The energy component lifted off its session low of $104.97 per barrel and settled with a solid 2.9% gain at $106.49 per barrel, slightly below its session high of $106.66 per barrel
Aug natural gas, however, retreated into negative territory after trading as high as $3.73 per MMBtu in early morning action. It dipped to a session low of $3.64 per MMBtu but recovered into the black and eventually settled with a 0.5% gain at $3.68 per MMBtu
Precious metals erased most of their earlier gains as they sold off heading into pit trade close
Aug gold touched a session high of $1260.80 per ounce in morning action but reduced gains to just 0.1% as it settled at $1247.60 per ounce
Sep silver also settled 0.1% higher at $19.16 per ounce despite trading as high as $19.33 per ounce earlier in the session
Both gold and silver rallied to their respective HoD of $1264.50 per ounce and $19.40 per ounce in electronic trade following the 14:00 ET release of the FOMC minutes but have pulled back since.
Large Cap Gainers
DG (53.4 +3.09%): Trading higher following peer FDO's earnings (DLTR also higher).
AMGN (100.7 +2.41%): Amgen, Pfizer (PFE), and Sanofi (SNY) are trying to develop new cholesterol drugs, according to reports.
DB (42.63 +2.35%): Upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Large Cap Losers
BBY (28.21 -5.11%): Weakness attributed to cautious Cleveland comments.
PNC (74.28 -2.6%): Downgraded to Hold from Buy at Sandler O'Neill.
NFLX (241.76 -2.27%): Initiated with a Neutral at Citigroup; heard Pacific Crest expects solid Q2 but sees risk/reward not favorable at this level.
Mid Cap Gainers
NUS (74.99 +12.65%): Updated Q2 results and raised 2013 guidance; sees FY13 revs of $2.83-2.86 bln vs $2.53 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, EPS of $4.85-5.00 vs $4.29 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; tgt to $82.50 from $62 at JPMorgan, tgt to $81 from $68 at Wedbush, tgt to $80 from $65 at Deutsche Bank.
PCYC (100.9 +12.71%): Submitted NDA for ibrutinib to the FDA; tgt to $120 from $108 at ROTH.
MDRX (14.47 +8.15%): Co sees Q2 bookings to exceed $200 mln vs. $194 mln last year; backlog +13% to ~$3.1 bln; North Shore-LIJ extended Allscripts outsourcing agreement through 2020.
Mid Cap Losers
RAX (38.47 -7.94%): Trading lower following reports that Amazon.com (AMZN) cut price of its EC2 cloud platform; heard Cowen defending RAX.
P (18.46 -6.06%): BTIG out cautious on Pandora - New/improved Siri holds great promise as iTunes integrates with cars.
NBR (15.17 -5.19%): Co expects Q2 operating results to fall below consensus ests; tgt lowered to $16 from $18 at FBR Capital; downgraded to Underperform at Credit Agricole; removed from Conviction Buy list at Goldman.
9:35AM Hewlett-Packard gaps above June peak to set a new 17 month high after upgrade (HPQ) 26.22 +0.76 :
Cisco (CSCO) announced that the Cisco Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series routing platform has been selected by OVH.com to support the expansion of its Internet Protocol network.
ANADIGICS (ANAD) is shipping production volumes of its AWC6340 HELP power amplifier to Huawei for the new Ascend P6.
8:31AM Western Digital acquires VeloBit, terms not disclosed (WDC) 66.20 : Co has acquired privately held VeloBit, a provider of storage I/O optimization software. VeloBit will be fully integrated into HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition builds on HGST's strategy to enhance the overall value of datacenter storage by integrating HGST SSDs with software.
Broadcom (BRCM) announced Broadcom's Near Field Communication and Wi-Fi technology is powering Brother's new NFC printers.
HP (HPQ) -- HP Autonomy announced that its augmented reality platform, Aurasma, has surpassed 20,000 global customers and 6 million active monthly users since its launch in June 2011
Quantum (QTM) expects revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 to be between $147 million and $148 million, which was below estimates. with preliminary results including $15 million in royalty revenue related to the intellectual property agreement entered into with Microsoft Corporation in May 2013.
ADTRAN (ADTN) reported second quarter earnings of $0.21 per share, which was better than expected, while revenues fell 11.8% year/year to $162.2 million, which also topped expectations. "Continuing improvement in our Internetworking and Broadband Access product areas led revenues which exceeded estimates for the quarter. During the quarter we benefited from market share gains, the geographic expansion we began last year and an improved spending environment."
Chipmos Technology (IMOS) issued downside guidance for the second quarter with revenues of $164.9 mln, which was below expectations, but in-line with the Company's guidance in which revenue was expected to increase by approximately 10% to 14%, as compared to the first quarter of 2013. The Company expects gross margin on a consolidated basis for the second quarter of 2013 to be approximately 15.5%, as compared to guidance of approximately 14-18%. Revenue growth and gross margin improvement reflect continued strength in the Company's LCD Driver and bumping businesses, with additional demand for assembly services.
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