Sector Investing

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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The S&P 500 ended today's quiet session modestly lower with eight of ten sectors settling in the red.

Stocks slipped out of the gate after better-than-expected economic data from China and Great Britain was unable to spark an early bid. In China, the Non-Manufacturing PMI rose to 54.1 from 53.9 while Great Britain's Services PMI posted its best reading since 2006, rising to 60.2 from 56.9.

Equities climbed off their early lows before receiving an additional push following the release of the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index, which posted its best reading since February 2011. The index jumped to 56.0 from 52.2 as business activity and production levels spiked to 60.4 in July from 51.7 in June. Just like the manufacturing report, the jump in production came from a strong gain in new orders (57.7 from 50.8).

Although today's data provided stocks with a boost, the S&P never made it into the green as comments from Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher knocked the key indices off their highs. Mr. Fisher said the Fed's bond buying program may lay the groundwork for misallocation of resources and fuel future inflation. In addition, he said the market could expect a slowdown in asset purchases later in the year if the economy continues to "improve along the lines envisioned by the Committee."

These remarks caused the S&P to return to the middle of its range while the tech-heavy Nasdaq briefly slipped into the red before regaining its flat line during afternoon action. On a related note, the technology sector tacked on 0.2% as the largest sector component, Apple (AAPL 469.45, +6.91), rose 1.5% after an International Trade Commission ban on certain devices made by the company was overturned.

Outside of technology, only the consumer staples sector (+0.1%) managed to eke out an advance. Tyson Foods (TSN 29.69, +1.18) jumped 4.1% after beating on earnings and revenue.

While the outperformance of technology boosted the Nasdaq, the S&P was kept from turning positive as energy, industrials, and discretionary shares weighed.

The energy space shed 0.3% as crude oil endured a volatile session. The energy component was down as much as 1.1% at the open before trimming its loss to 0.4% at $106.49 per barrel.

Elsewhere, industrials lagged amid weakness in transportation companies. The Dow Jones Transportation Average lost 0.8% as 18 of 20 components ended in the red.

Lastly, broad weakness among home builders pressured the discretionary sector. The iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB 22.38, -0.33) lost 1.5%.

Similar to stocks, Treasuries spent the entire session near their lows. The benchmark 10-yr yield added four basis points to end at 2.65%.

As mentioned earlier, today's volume was well below average as only 533 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. This represented the third lowest total of the year.

Tomorrow, the June trade balance will be reported at 8:30 ET. The U.S. Treasury will auction $32 billion in 3-yr notes.DJ30 -46.23 NASDAQ +3.36 SP500 -2.53 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1427/1.43 bln/1068 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1248/533.0 mln/1778

3:30 pm :

Sep crude oil erased most of its earlier losses as it gained support from the strongest reading of the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index since Feb 2011. The energy component climbed off its session low of $105.70 per barrel and brushed a session high of $107.06 per barrel. It settled just 0.3% lower at $106.56 per barrel.
Sep natural gas, on the other hand, pulled back from its session high of $3.36 per MMBtu and fell into negative territory. It brushed a session low of $3.31 per MMBtu and eventually settled with a 0.9% loss at $3.32 per MMBtu.
Precious metals traded in the red following the better-than-anticipated economic data released this morning.
Dec gold retreated from its session high of $1310.20 per ounce and touched a session low of $1296.70 per ounce. Unable to erase much of the loss, it settled 0.6% lower at $1301.90 per ounce.
Sep silver slipped to a session low of $19.52 per ounce moments after pit trade opened. It settled with a 1.0% loss at $19.72 per ounce, slightly below its session high of $19.75 per ounce.

10:17AM Apple: AAPL extends the post EPS up-trend this morning with shares now nearing a test of the 200d exp. moving avg. in play @ 468.70; Session Hod now @ 467.93 (AAPL) 467.92 +5.38 :

6:59AM Canadian Solar: Concord Green Energy to acquire five utility-scale solar power plants from Canadian Solar valued at over $277 mln (CSIQ) 14.11 : Co announced that its subsidiary, Canadian Solar Solutions, has entered into a sales agreement with Concord Pacific's green energy affiliate, Concord Green Energy, whereby Concord will acquire from Canadian Solar five utility-scale solar power plants totaling 49MW (AC) valued at over CAD 290 million ($277 million). Under the agreement, the five utility-scale solar power plants, located in Chesterville, Pefferlaw, Springwater, Sudbury and Wyebridge, Ontario, Canada, are expected to start construction during 2013 and 2014 with commercial operation expected in 2014. Canadian Solar will provide turnkey engineering, procurement and construction services to complete the projects and will provide operations and maintenance services after completion. BowMont Capital and Advisory acted as financial advisor to Concord on the transaction.

6:32AM JA Solar and Jinglong Group secure RMB 550 mln credit facility from Bank of Communications of China (JASO) 8.40 : Co announced that JA Solar and Jinglong Group, a related party of JA Solar, have secured a RMB 550 mln credit facility from the Bank of Communications of China. Of the credit facility, RMB 250 mln ($40.8 mln) will be available to JA Solar and RMB 300 mln ($48.9 mln) will be available to Jinglong Group. JA Solar intends to use the credit facility for working capital and general corporate purposes.

6:05AM Spreadtrum Comms announces extraordinary general meeting (SPRD) 30.00 : Co announced that it has called an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to be held at 10 a.m., Beijing Standard Time, on Sep 4, 2013. The meeting will be held to consider and vote upon a proposal to approve and authorize the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of July 12, 2013 by and among Tsinghua Unigroup, a limited liability company established under the laws of the People's Republic of China, Spreadtrum Acquisition, an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands and a wholly owned, indirect, subsidiary of Parent, and the Company, pursuant to which the Merger Sub will be merged with and into the Company, with the Company surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent, and to approve and authorize the Plan of Merger required to be filed with the Registrar of Companies in the Cayman Islands in order to give effect to the Merger.

Datalink (DTLK) announced that it plans to offer and sell, subject to market and other conditions, 3,300,000 shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. Datalink also plans to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 495,000 shares to cover over-allotments, if any.Datalink intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for potential acquisitions of other businesses or technology that will complement its current business model and growth plans, although it has no present commitments or agreements to do so.Any amount of the net proceeds of this offering not used for acquisitions will be used for general corporate purposes. Canaccord Genuity Inc. is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC and Needham & Co, LLC are acting as co-managers for the offering.

Needham initiated Perficient (PRFT) with a Buy and price target of $20, as they believe Perficient's strong domain and vertical capabilities, improved account "mining" of its top 50 accounts, and high win rates, combined with the broad pickup in spending on IT services, should lead to improving organic growth trends over 2H FY13 and into FY14. At the same time, they believe Perficient has multiple levers to drive gross and EBITDA margin expansion, which in turn should lead to 15-20% EPS growth.