From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The S&P 500 kicked off the fourth quarter on an upbeat note, climbing 0.8%. Stocks made the bulk of their advance during the opening 90 minutes before spending most of the afternoon near their highs. Late afternoon trade saw some profit-taking, but a final-minute surge sent the indices back to their highs as equities appeared unconcerned with the first day of the government shutdown.
All ten sectors posted gains as equities drew strength from typical start-of-quarter inflows. Risk assets also benefited from the rebound in Europe where yesterday's fears of a possible collapse of the Italian government were alleviated by reports indicating about 20 PDL ministers are ready to form a breakaway party supporting Prime Minister Enrico Letta. The fluid situation is expected to become a bit clearer tomorrow when the prime minister appears in front of the parliament.
The Nasdaq was the top performing index of the third quarter (+10.8%) and its relative strength continued into today's session. The index advanced 1.2% with support from its largest component. Apple (AAPL 487.96, +11.21) rose 2.4% after activist investor Carl Icahn said, in a tweet, that he pushed for a $150 billion buyback during his dinner meeting with Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook.
The outperformance of the Nasdaq was also due in part to the relative strength of the tech sector (+1.0%) and biotechnology. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 213.78, +4.18) climbed 2.0%, contributing to the strength of the health care sector (+1.3%), which ended in the lead.
In the health care space, Dow component Merck (MRK 48.74, +1.13) jumped 2.4% after announcing restructuring plans that include about 8,500 layoffs.
Outside of technology and health care, the discretionary sector (+0.9%) was the only other outperformer. Retailers fared well as Amazon.com (AMZN 320.95, +8.31) advanced 2.7% and the broader SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 82.93, +0.91) added 1.1%.
Elsewhere, commodity-related sectors, energy (+0.5%) and materials (+0.5%), finished in the green even as crude oil and gold registered losses. The underlying commodities fell 0.5% and 2.8% to $101.84 per barrel and $1290.00 per troy ounce, respectively.
Treasuries ended near their lows with the benchmark 10-yr yield rising three basis points to 2.64%.
Trading volume was roughly in-line with the average as 717 million shares traded hands on the floor of the NYSE. Today's economic data was limited to the September ISM Manufacturing Index, which increased to 56.2 from 55.7. This represented the strongest reading since April 2011 while the Briefing.com consensus expected the index to fall to 55.0.
Production levels improved modestly as the related index increased to 62.6 in September from 62.4. After reaching its highest point since April 2011, the new orders index fell from 63.2 in August to a still elevated 60.5 in September.
The August construction spending report was also on today's schedule, but was delayed due to the government shutdown.
Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00 ET and the September ADP Employment Change report will cross the wires at 8:15 ET.DJ30 +62.03 NASDAQ +46.50 SP500 +13.45 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1828/1.75 bln/714 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2177/717.0 mln/832
3:35 pm :
Precious metals and crude oil fell today as investors reacted to the first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years. Dec gold fell below the $1300.00 level, selling off sharply in the first 20 minutes of pit trade. It traded near the $1290.00 per ounce level for the remainder of the session and settled with a 3.0% loss at $1285.70 per ounce.
Dec silver slid from its session high of $21.46 per ounce set moments after floor trade opened and brushed a session low of $20.63 per ounce. It inched slightly higher in afternoon pit action and settled at $21.16 per ounce, or 2.6% lower.
Crude oil fell for a third consecutive session, brushing a session low of $101.06 per barrel. It gained momentum as it headed into the close and touched a session high of $102.10 per barrel just before settling with a 0.3% loss at $102.02 per barrel.
Natural gas, on the other hand, spent its entire floor session in positive territory. It pulled back slightly from its session high of $3.65 per MMBtu and settled with a 1.4% gain at $3.61 per MMBtu.
4:45PM Cirrus Logic acquires Acoustic Technologies, terms not disclosed (CRUS) 22.97 +0.31 : Co announced today that it has acquired Acoustic Technologies, Inc. The Mesa, Ariz.,-based firm is a leader in embedded firmware voice processing technology, including noise reduction, echo cancelation and voice enhancement. Acoustic Technologies has approximately 30 employees who have now joined Cirrus Logic.
Large Cap Gainers
TI (8.6 +5.52%): Reinstated with a Buy at Goldman.
WAG (56.15 +4.37%): Reported EPS in-line, revs in-line with preannouncement.
NFLX (321.39 +3.94%): Tgt raised to $370 from $285 at MKM Partners.
Large Cap Losers
NEM (26.93 -4.16%): Co may bid for Glencore's (GLNCY) Las Bambas mine, according to reports; Fitch said gold rebound unlikely; fall to USD1,000 may hit ratings (ABX and GG also lower).
PAYX (39.75 -2.19%): Beat on EPS by $0.01, reported revs in-line; reaffirmed FY14 guidance.
SYMC (24.59 -0.65%): Announced CFO James Beer leaving to become CFO of McKesson (MCK).
Mid Cap Gainers
CREE (67 +11.31%): Upgraded to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity; tgt raised to $80 from $65.
LKQ (33.98 +6.62%): Upgraded to Outperform at Robert W. Baird; tgt raised to $38.
ALU (3.76 +6.52%): Outlined the Shift Plan strategy to accelerate telecommunications to the cloud.
Mid Cap Losers
SLW (23.91 -3.47%): Fitch said gold rebound unlikely; fall to USD1,000 may hit ratings (AUY, AEM, GFI, AU also lower).
RH (62.25 -1.74%): 10% holder CP Home Holdings filed form 144 related to proposed sale of 3,978,731 shares.
VMI (136.06 -2.05%): Downgraded to Mkt Perform from Outperform at William Blair.
Riverbed Technology (RVBD) announced W3 Ltd. is deploying the Riverbed Stingray application delivery controller.
EXFO (EXFO) announced the launch of its new tablet-inspired MaxTester 700B OTDR Series.
Ciena (CIEN) announced that Ritter Communications will deploy Ciena's new packet networking solutions to support growing customer demand for 10 Gigabit Ethernet wholesale transport and Internet services as well as mobile backhaul requirements for Tier 1 mobile operators.
Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) is partnering with Wistron NeWeb, an ODM in Asia and supplier of connected home solutions for a number of branded OEMs. WNC is leveraging Skyworks' power management and ZigBee front-end modules for several of their low-power RF devices.
Unisys (UIS) announced that it is making its IT Service Management as a Service solution available to clients via Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Azure cloud platform.
AMD (AMD) announced SAPPHIRE Technology as its exclusive global distribution partner for AMD FirePro professional graphics.
Analyst comments: AIXG -3.3% (downgraded to Sell from Hold at Canaccord Genuity), OLED -9.5% (downgraded to Sell from Hold at Canaccord Genuity), FINL -2.7% (downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman), BWLD -1.5% (downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James), RRGB -1% (downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James), A -0.4% (Agilent downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel)
8:21AM BlackBerry announced that the National Police of Colombia is upgrading their BlackBerry smartphones (BBRY) 7.95 : Co announced that the National Police of Colombia is upgrading their BlackBerry smartphones and migrating to BlackBerry's newest Enterprise Mobility Managementsolution, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. The National Police of Colombia selected the BlackBerry solution for its embedded controls that support regulatory compliance in government environments with the highest security requirements. To date, more than 25,000 BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 commercial and test servers have been installed globally, including within the world's top organizations.
Select solar stocks trading higher: SFUN +3.2%, SOL +2.6%, STP +2.4%, SPWR +2.4%, FSLR +2.2%.
6:28AM Alcatel-Lucent outlines the Shift Plan strategy to accelerate telecommunications to the cloud (ALU) 3.53 : Co announces it will outline how The Shift Plan -- the company's industrial transformation from telecoms generalist to specialist in IP Networking and Ultra-Broadband Access -- will leverage new technologies to accelerate the move to the cloud by service providers. In particular, co will talk about how Alcatel-Lucent is leveraging Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technology, and how it will help service providers meet the always-connected demands of their customers. NFV enables network services to be deployed on a shared cloud infrastructure instead of dedicated, purpose-built hardware.
In addition, Alcatel-Lucent is moving major parts of its portfolio to the cloud. By doing this heavy lifting, Alcatel-Lucent is both creating a path to NFV technology and giving service providers choices on which key network services to deploy to the cloud.
08:17 am LKQ upgraded to Outperform at Robert W. Baird; tgt raised to $38: . Baird upgrades LKQ to Outperform from Neutral and raises its tgt to $38 from $34 after meeting with key European leaders within the organization. Investors have begun to appreciate the collision strategy in Europe, where alternative part utilization rates are low, but may not appreciate the opportunity to consolidate the mechanical part market as well. Firm considers LKQ a premium mid-cap growth story with the potential to sustain EPS growth near 20%-30% through organic growth, acquisitions, and operating leverage.
08:16 am Agilent downgraded to Hold at Stifel on valuation + lack of NT catalyst post announced spin-off: . Stifel downgrades A to Hold from Buy due to valuation. Additionally, firm sees limited upside potential to shares from current levels given lack of a near-term catalysts post Agilent's announced split into two focused market leaders consisting of the "New Agilent" (inclusive of LDA assets) and a "New Electronic Measurement" company (consisting of EMG assets).
08:16 am Valmont downgraded to Hold at Stifel: . Stifel downgrades VMI to Hold from Buy. After several years of powerful growth in several of Valmont's businesses, firm now believes the uncertainty around continued organic growth and the ability to maintain margins as markets weaken in likely to create a continued overhang on VMI shares for the next few quarters. Firm reduced its 2014 estimates for the following reasons 1) Lower expected revenue growth and margins in Utility, 2) Lower expected revenue growth and margins in Irrigation, 3) Lower expected revenue growth and margins in Coatings.
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Down Vol* 685 (21%) 418 (23%)
Unch. Vol* 34 (1%) 7 (0%)
New Hi's 209 205
New Lo's 82 18
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