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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 06-Sep-13

Dow -14.98 at 14922.5, Nasdaq +1.23 at 3660.01, S&P +0.09 at 1655.17

The S&P 500 eked out the slimmest of gains (+0.09 point) to register its fourth consecutive advance, maintaining its September advance at 1.4%.

Prior to the opening bell, it was reported that August nonfarm payrolls increased by 169,000, which was below the 177,000 expected by the Briefing.com consensus. Private payrolls came in at 152,000 while the consensus expected a reading closer to 180,000. More notably, July nonfarm payrolls were revised down nearly 36% to 104,000 from 162,000 while private payrolls saw a 21% revision to 127,000 from 161,000. The unemployment rate ticked down to 7.3% from 7.4%, but once again, that was the result of a drop in the labor force participation rate to 63.2%. This represents the lowest rate since August 1978. The one bright spot could be found in aggregate income, which increased 0.6%.

A recent stretch of better-than-expected data played into the expectation that the Fed may lower the pace of its asset purchases at the upcoming September 17/18 FOMC meeting. However, today's jobs report painted a more uncertain picture, which sparked a market reaction consistent with lowered expectations of tapering in the near term.

Immediately following the report, crude oil, equity futures, Treasuries, and gold futures jumped to their highs while the Dollar Index (82.15, -0.48) tumbled to its lows. Most notably, the 10-yr note saw its yield slide from 2.96% to 2.87%. However, Treasuries surrendered a portion of their gains intraday with the benchmark 10-yr yield closing at 2.94%.

The opening hour saw the S&P lose its 50-day average (1657/1658) after headlines from the conclusion of the G-20 summit indicated Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will assist Syria in the event of an external attack. However, Russia and Syria have been allied for years, thus Mr. Putin's comments were not necessarily a "new" development. The ensuing selloff ended as the S&P bounced at its 100-day moving average (1642/1643) and regained its 50-day average in late-morning action.

Stocks slipped from their highs and the S&P once again lost its 50-day average during the final hour after reports from Al-Arabiya indicated another chemical attack has taken place in Damascus. However, the veracity of the reports could not be confirmed as Al-Arabiya attributed the report to an 'unidentified activist.'

With the continued uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East, crude oil climbed throughout the day. The energy component ended higher by 2.0% at $110.54 per barrel, registering its highest close since May 2011.

Elsewhere, gold futures climbed 1.0% to $1.386.70 per troy ounce. This contributed to the strength of miners as the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 28.01, +0.48) advanced 1.7%.

Consumer staples (+0.1%) and utilities (+0.6%) outperformed as the retreat in yields provided the two groups with a measure of support.

Today's participation was somewhat limited as 672 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Monday's economic data will be limited to the July consumer credit report, which is scheduled to be released at 15:00 ET.

Week in Review: Stocks and Yields Climb

On Monday, bond and equity markets were closed for Labor Day. Tuesday's session saw the S&P 500 add 0.4% after intraday weakness knocked the index off its high, and below its 100-day moving average. Equities displayed broad strength at the open after global indices rallied on Monday. The early gains did not hold past the initial two hours as late-morning comments from House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor served as a reminder that the option of military action in Syria remains likely. Both Speaker Boehner and Mr. Cantor said they support the president's "call to action" with U.S. Congress scheduled to debate the issue during the week of September 9. Crude oil climbed with the remarks from the two Congressional leaders providing an additional boost. The energy component rose 0.8% to $108.55 per barrel while the energy sector added 0.6%. Commodities were strong all-around as gold futures advanced 1.2% and silver futures spiked 3.4% to $1412.30 and $24.31 per troy ounce, respectively. In addition, copper jumped 2.4% to $3.312 per pound. As a result, the materials sector finished among the leaders with a gain of 0.6%.

The market resumed its climb on Wednesday. The S&P 500 settled higher by 0.8% and regained its 100-day moving average (1640/1641) shortly after the open. The Dow and S&P started the session by chopping around their respective flat lines before the two indices began tracking the Nasdaq, which outperformed with a gain of 1.0%. Morning reports revealing Senator John McCain's tepid support for the first draft of the Syria strike proposal fueled speculation that the whole plan could be in danger of unraveling. That was enough to spark a risk rally with some short-covering activity peppered in after sellers had pressed on anticipating the plan to make its way swiftly through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In the end, an afternoon vote containing two McCain amendments passed through the Committee by a 10-7 vote. Stocks slipped from their highs in reaction to the results of the afternoon vote, but still managed to hold the vast majority of their gains. Meanwhile, Treasuries did not reflect much of a safety bid as the complex remained pinned to its lows. The benchmark 10-yr yield ended higher by 5 basis points at 2.894%. More notable was the move in the 2-yr yield, which added four basis points to end at 0.462%, the highest since June 2011.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 added 0.1% to register its third consecutive advance. Although stocks finished in positive territory, their gains were capped by the benchmark 10-yr yield hitting its highest levels since July 2011.Treasuries began displaying weakness overnight as the Asian session got underway. The selling paused briefly during U.S. pre-market action before a slate of better-than-expected economic reports for initial claims, second quarter productivity, factory orders, and ISM Services lent support to the belief that the Federal Reserve would begin slowing the pace of its asset purchases at the upcoming September 17/18 policy meeting. The benchmark 10-yr yield rose eight basis points to 2.98%. The continued rise in interest rates has pressured on the most rate-sensitive sectors. Consumer staples (-0.1%), telecom services (-0.8%), and utilities (-0.4%) finished at the bottom of the Thursday leader board, which widened their third quarter losses. Since the start of July, the three sectors are down 0.5%, 6.2%, and 3.2%, respectively. Meanwhile, the last countercyclical group, health care, maintained its quarter-to-date gain of 5.1% thanks to the continued strength of biotechnology. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 201.55, -0.37) is higher by 16.1% this quarter. In turn, the relative strength of biotech companies has helped the Nasdaq outperformed the other indices during the third quarter.

 
 Index	   Started Week  Ended Week   Change  %Change	YTD % 
 DJIA	     14810.31	  14922.50    112.19	0.8	13.9 
 Nasdaq	      3589.87	   3660.01     70.14	2.0	21.2 
 S&P 500	1632.97	   1655.17     22.20	1.4	16.1 
 Russell 2000  1010.90	   1029.55     18.65	1.8	21.2

This week's top 20 % gainers

Technology: MEI (25.9 +48.33%), HIMX (8.08 +45.85%), NOK (5.37 +38.29%), HSOL (3.95 +35.59%), YGE (5.59 +35.38%), SFUN (49.53 +34.75%), SOL (5.72 +31.41%), EGAN (13.34 +26.34%), TI (7.93 +22.41%), KONG (14.69 +22.14%)
Services: ZLC (13.84 +19.6%)
Industrial Goods: JKS (18.39 +28.35%), KDN (35.5 +22.54%)
Healthcare: INO (2.43 +27.88%), ASTX (8.73 +25.37%), DYAX (5.02 +20%)
Financial: GCAP (9.72 +31.2%), EJ (8.69 +29.28%), NOAH (14.76 +24.51%)
Basic Materials: MILL (7.07 +24.05%)

This week's top 20 % losers

Technology: OVTI (15.37 -13.57%), BV (9.29 -13.22%), GAME (4 -11.87%), UBNT (33.01 -8.5%)
Services: FRAN (18.05 -23.88%), SHOS (31.4 -17.09%), KKD (18.67 -15.38%), GCO (62.07 -10.38%), BEBE (5.64 -10.02%), DANG (8.09 -9.65%), CONN (53.19 -8.57%), TFM (50.07 -8.44%)
Healthcare: MDXG (4.2 -26.71%), VVUS (10.96 -12.44%)
Financial: WETF (11.34 -8.7%)
Consumer Goods: LF (9.39 -8.37%)
Basic Materials: MTDR (15.7 -11.88%), NG (2.78 -11.56%), PVG (8.12 -9.27%), SAND (6.26 -8.79%)

1:27PM Notable movers of interest (SCANX) : The following are some of today's most notable movers of interest, categorized by market capitalization (large cap over $10 billion and mid cap between $2-10 billion) and ranked by % change (all stocks over 100K average daily volume).
Large Cap Gainers

BSAC (24.78 +5.63%): Hearing upgraded to Buy from Underperform at BofA/Merrill
AMT (72.07 +4.83%): Announced agreement to acquire Global Tower Partners for ~$4.8 bln, expected to be immediately accretive to adjusted funds from operations upon closing
IBN (31.59 +3.74%): Strength in select Indian companies following 1.5% gain in Sensex

Large Cap Losers

GMCR (83.23 -1.94%): Announced it will consolidated all of its Canadian coffee and portion pack production to its Montreal, Quebec facility; expected to affect 2% of total workforce, whose positions will be eliminated
TSLA (167.11 -1.66%): Mentioned cautiously in blog article
ATVI (16.89 -1.63%): Trading lower in sympathy with Electronic Arts (seeing reports that initial sales of "Madden NFL 25" are down compared to last year)

Mid Cap Gainers

PAY (22.96 +10.81%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.04 ($0.24 ex items vs $0.20 estimate), revs fell 15.2% yoy to $418 mln vs $400.88 mln estimate; sees Q4 EPS of $0.25 ex items vs $0.25 estimate, revs of $418-422 mln vs $412.22 mln estimate
YELP (63.07 +7.06%): Initiated with an Overweight at Barclays
USG (25.23 +5.43%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Sterne Agee

Mid Cap Losers

CONN (52.99 -12.21%): Continued weakness following weak earnings reported yesterday morning
BPL (66.11 -4.27%): Downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan
EA (26.68 -3.61%): Seeing reports that initial sales of "Madden NFL 25" are down compared to last year

12:24PM Nokia to issue convertible bonds of EUR 1.5 billion to Microsoft (MSFT) (NOK) 5.37 -0.12 : Nokia announced that, in connection with its announcement to sell to Microsoft Corporation substantially all of its Devices & Services business, Microsoft had agreed to make available to Nokia EUR 1.5 billion of financing in the form of three EUR 500 million tranches of convertible bonds.
Nokia announces that it has decided to draw down all of this financing and thus Nokia will issue three tranches of senior unsecured convertible bonds, each with a nominal value of EUR 500 million. Nokia intends to use the proceeds of the offering to prepay financing raised for the acquisition of the shares in NSN which was completed in August 2013 and for general corporate purposes.

8:15AM LTX-Credence announces agreement to purchase Dover's (DOV) Multitest and Everett Charles Technologies for $93.5 mln; acquisition to be immediately accretive to earnings (shares halted) (LTXC) 4.20 : Co announced an agreement to acquire the Multitest and Everett Charles Technologies (ECT) businesses of Dover (DOV). LTX-Credence and Dover Printing & Identification, a subsidiary of Dover, have signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition by LTX-Credence of the assets and stock exclusively and primarily related to the Multitest and ECT businesses for a purchase price of $93.5 mln, of which $73.5 mln will be paid in cash through a combination of existing cash-on-hand and bank debt and $20.0 mln will be paid by the issuance of a promissory note by LTX Credence to Dover. Co anticipates that this acquisition will create a combined co with trailing 12-month pro forma revs of ~ $420.0 mln and expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to LTX-Credence's earnings.

8:06AM LM Ericsson acquires Airvana's EVDO business (ERIC) 12.54 : Co announced it has acquired Airvana Network Solutions' EVDO business. The transaction was structured as a stock purchase. Network Solutions is a Massachusetts-based company and supplier of EVDO software to Ericsson. The two cos will jointly seek dismissal of the lawsuit filed by Airvana in February 2012, against Ericsson in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, USA.

VeriFone (PAY 22.55, +1.83) is +8.8% following its better-than-expected earnings and revenue.
In addition to the aforementioned August nonfarm payrolls, nonfarm private payrolls, unemployment rate, hourly earnings, and the average workweek will all be reported at 8:30 ET.

Beginning Sept. 6, AT&T (T) will offer pre-orders for the Samsung (SSNLF) Galaxy Note 3. The Galaxy Note 3 will be available for $35 per month with AT&T Next or $299.99 with a two-year agreement. For more information or to pre-order, visit www.att.com/galaxynote. Orders will begin shipping around Oct. 1.
T- Mobile US (TMUS) will launch Samsung's (SSNLF) first wearable experience, Galaxy Gear, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 nationwide October 2.
Qualcomm (QCOM) announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, launched a new chip family as part of its portfolio of low-power Wi-Fi solutions designed to connect a multitude of devices that comprise the Internet of Everything.
Lexar, a subsidiary of Micron Technology (MU), announced the Lexar JumpDrive V20 USB multipack, a storage solution designed for users who need to stay organized.
Rovi (ROVI) announced STM Holdings has chosen DivX Video Service to power its new video-on-demand service in China. As part of the licensing agreement STM will use DivX Plus Streaming, Rovi's advanced adaptive streaming format with DivX DRM, as well as Rovi TotalCode, a professional quality video encoding solution.

U.S. Cellular (USM) has announced that the Samsung (SSNLF) Galaxy Note 3 will be available for customers in October. This highly-anticipated device builds on the evolution of Samsung's Note category and S Pen experience and will be offered in Jet Black.

1:32 am Tech Sector trading +0.2%, but behind broader marketThe tech sector is trading modestly higher today, trailing wider gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness as well with the SOX trading only 0.01% higher. Within the chip index, NXPI (-2.4%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.3% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.3% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.2% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, FB (+3.1%) is showing notable strength, while VZ (-0.6%) is showing weakness.

In tech earnings last night:

PAY (+11.0%) beat by $0.04, beat on revs, and guided Q4 EPS in-line, revs above consensus
FNSR (+4.3%) reported EPS in-line, revs in-line; guided Q2 above consensus
SEAC (-1.8%) beat by $0.02, misses on revs; reaffirmed FY14 EPS guidance, guided FY14 revs below consensus
BLOX (+13.0%) beat by $0.05, beats on revs; guided Q1 EPS in-line, revs above consensus; guided FY14 EPS in-line, revs above consensus
AMBA (+13.0%) beat by $0.07, beat on revs
RALY (+2.3%) beat Q2 ests; guided Q3 EPS in-line, revs above consensus; guided FY14 above consensus

In news, reuters reported that the MU (+0.2%) Hynix China plant may re start in two or three weeks.

Among notable analyst upgrades in tech this morning, ERIC (+3.9%) was upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse, TMUS (+0.6%) was upgraded to Outperform at William Blair, and EZCH (+3.4%) was upgraded to Buy at Chardan. Also, SPLK (+2.8%) was initiated with a Buy at Canaccord Genuity.

In downgrades, INXN (-4.6%) was downgraded to Perform at Oppenheimer.

08:47 am Finisar target raised to $31 at Stifel on expectation of sustained trends: . Stifel notes FNSR's F1Q14 (July) results provided little surprise given the co's positive pre-announcement on August 6th with rev and pro forma earnings matching expectations. Guidance impressed with FNSR targeting well above consensus F2Q14 (Oct) rev and pro forma EPS. Rev is targeted to increase approx 7% q/q and 23% y/y at the mid-point, off of record levels, once again largely driven by datacom although augmented by the expectation of improving trends in telecom. Mgmt continues to see several drivers of growth for datacom, discussed signs of improving telecom order trends, and appears optimistic on near-to-intermediate business trends. Tgt to $31 from $27.

Finisar (FNSR) reported first quarter earnings of $0.31 per share, excluding non-recurring items, which is in line with estimates, while revenues rose 20.7% year/year to $266.1 million which is in line with expectations. The company issued guidance for the second quarter with EPS of $0.37-0.41 which is above estimates with revenues of $277-292 million which is higher than expected.

VeriFone (PAY) reported third quarter earnings of $0.24 per share, excluding non-recurring items, which is better than expected, while non-GAAP revenue fell 15.2% year/year to $418 million which is higher than expected. The company issued guidance for the fourth quarter with non-GAAP EPS of $0.25 which is line with estimates and non-GAAP revenues of $418-422 million which higher than expected. "Our revenues and earnings exceeded our guidance, cash flow exceeded our expectation, and we paid down $160 million of debt, bolstering our financial position. We are also pleased by the acquisition of ENZ, which extends to New Zealand our payment-as-a-service business model that is thriving in the Nordics under Point and launching in other geographies such as the U.S. In fact, Q3 Services revenues were up 17% from a year ago. And, with our increased investments in R&D and infrastructure, we are making good progress in bringing to market the advanced products to meet customer demand."

Immersion (IMMR) announced that it has entered into a broad multi-year licensing arrangement with Xiaomi, one of the fastest growing smartphone makers in China, and that the recently released Xiaomi Mi3 smartphone uses Immersion's TouchSense technology to add new dimension of engagement in Xiaomi's MIUI interface.