From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : Equities ended on their lows as the S&P 500 shed 0.4% while the Nasdaq settled flat.
The major averages held modest gains into the final hour of the session when comments from Secretary of State John Kerry regarding the situation in Syria contributed to broad-based selling. Mr. Kerry said additional information about the recent chemical attack is being compiled and will be made public. In addition, President Obama is expected to decide on the next step in the coming days.
The comments injected a bit of uncertainty and the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 14.92, +0.94) jumped to a session high as downside protection received an afternoon surge in interest. However, the Treasury market did not see much of a safety bid as the complex remained confined to a narrow range. The benchmark 10-yr yield ended lower by two basis points at 2.79%.
The sharp move to session lows was exacerbated by the fact today's session saw very limited participation. With only 546 million shares changing hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, today's total was the lowest since August 5.
Nine of ten sectors ended in the red with countercyclical groups leading to the downside. Consumer staples, telecom services, and utilities lost between 0.8% and 1.3% to continue their recent underperformance. As a result of today's losses, the three sectors are down between 4.0% and 5.3% this month.
The fourth countercyclical group, health care, managed to outperform its defensively-oriented peers and finish in the lead with a gain of 0.1%. The sector was underpinned by biotechnology after Amgen (AMGN 113.75, +8.15) made an offer to acquire Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX 123.49, +6.53) for $125 per share, representing a 5.6% premium to Friday's closing price.
Biotechnology companies also comprise a fair share of the Nasdaq. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 197.10, +4.05) rose 2.1%, and the relative strength of its components contributed to the outperformance of the Nasdaq.
All cyclical sectors ended in the red. The materials space outperformed, ending flat as gold miners advanced. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 30.41, +0.27) climbed 0.9% while gold futures added 0.4% to $1401.80 per troy ounce. Meanwhile, silver futures surged 2.2% to $24.27 per troy ounce.
Today's economic data was limited to the July durable orders report. Overall, the report was not very encouraging. New orders for primary metals and machinery were both flat while orders for computers and electronic products declined 3.6%. Furthermore, nondefense capital goods orders, excluding aircraft -- a proxy for business investment -- fell 3.3% after a 1.3% increase in June. The kicker in terms of third quarter GDP implications is that shipments of nondefense capital goods orders, excluding aircraft, declined 1.5%.
Tomorrow, the June Case-Shiller 20-city Index will be reported at 9:00 ET and August Consumer Confidence will be released at 10:00 ET.DJ30 -64.05 NASDAQ -0.22 SP500 -6.72 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1137/1.36 bln/1363 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1249/546.2 mln/1785
MRVL (11.95 -1.97%): Reuters reporting that co's patent trial mistrial request has been denied
OCZ Technology Group (OCZ) and Mellanox Technologies (MLNX) have collaborated together to deliver flash I/O storage performance and complete fault tolerance to VMware (VMW) clusters on top of on-host server flash and hard disk drives.
Mellanox Technologies (MLNX) and Micron (MU) announced a collaborative solution to enable higher storage performance and efficiency for virtualized environments using VMware's (VMW) ESXi 5.1.
8:03AM First Solar sells Canadian Power Plants to GE-Alterra Partnership (GE); Terms were not disclosed. (FSLR) 38.97 : Co announced today that it has sold a collection of solar projects in Ontario, Canada, totaling 50 megawatts (MW) AC to an investment partnership led by GE (GE) unit GE Energy Financial Services. Terms were not disclosed. It is the first project transaction between First Solar and GE since their solar technology and commercial partnership was announced Aug. 6. The ABW Partnership raised debt for the acquisition, with The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company serving as agent and lead arranger. First Solar has completed construction of the power plants -- Amherstburg (10MWAC), Belmont (20MWAC) and Walpole (20MWAC) -- and has commissioned and energized them so they are providing power to the grid. First Solar will provide operations and maintenance services under long-term contracts. Output of the power plants will be sold to Ontario Power Authority under its Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP), with 20-year power purchase agreements.
Symbol Last Change
Dow 14,946.46 64.05 (0.43%)
Nasdaq 3,657.57 0.22 (0.01%)
S&P 500 1,656.78 6.72 (0.40%)
10-Yr Bond 2.8050% 0.0130
NYSE Volume 0
Nasdaq Volume... 0
Indices: US - World | Most Actives
Advances & Declines
NYSE NASDAQ
Advances 1,701 (40%) 1,132 (44%)
Declines 2,370 (56%) 1,357 (52%)
Unchanged 131 (3%) 100 (4%)
Up Vol* 1,036 (39%) 686 (50%)
Down Vol* 1,573 (59%) 666 (48%)
Unch. Vol* 60 (2%) 22 (2%)
New Hi's 113 136
New Lo's 98 39
*in millions
more...
Most Actives
NYSE LAST CHANGE Nasdaq LAST CHANGE
BAC 14.49 0.55%
VXX 15.29 3.31%
GE 23.61 0.71%
F 16.41 0.24%
AMD 3.58 1.92%
FB 41.34 1.95%
MSFT 34.15 1.73%
CSCO 23.83 0.13%
SIRI 3.66 0.95%
TSLA 164.22 1.47%
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
