From Briefng.com: 4:10 pm : It was a poor start to the week for the equity market and the same thing could be said for politics in Washington. The two were inextricably linked today as stock market participants were put off by some revelations from House Speaker Boehner over the weekend that made it sound as if partisan positions are hardening and not easing the closer we get to the October 17 debt limit deadline.
In particular, Mr. Boehner told ABC's George Stephanopolous that:
the House does not have the votes to pass a clean continuing resolution
the votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit increase; and
the US is on a path to default because President Obama won't negotiate over the debt ceiling
Mr. Boehner's viewpoints were decried by his opponents as reckless rhetoric. The bottom-line for the market, however, is that nothing has been done yet with respect to the budget and debt ceiling. That understanding in turn left many participants sticking to the sidelines on concern that a deal may wait until the last minute.
Even though conventional wisdom holds that a deal will get done and that a worst-case scenario will be averted, the market is nonetheless mindful that a similarly-held position in 2011 didn't stop the S&P 500 from falling 17% between July 22 and August 8 that year.
Not surprisingly, volume was on the light side today as the incentive to participate was taken away by Washington's woes.
An absence of buyers paved a path to a sizable decline when the opening bell rang. Shortly after the start of trading, the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 dropped 152, 34, and 16 points, respectively. They would soon attract some buying interest with the S&P 500 holding support in the 1675/1674 area. The opening losses would eventually be cut in half, but the rebound effort ran out of steam. The major indices were then range-bound for the majority of today's session until they rolled over again in the final hour on a wave of late selling pressure that transpired without a specific news catalyst.
The only sector to escape today's weakness was the telecom services sector (+0.6%). All other sectors traded lower with the growth-sensitive cyclical sectors bearing the brunt of the selling pressure. The consumer discretionary (-1.4%), financial (-1.2%), and materials (-1.2%) sectors were the biggest losers.
In terms of market cap size, the small-cap Russell 2000 (-1.1%) and S&P 400 mid-cap (-1.1%) averages were the hardest hit, although the blue chip averages were not far behind, demonstrating that today's selling was broad-based.
The standout performer today was the CBOE Volatility Index (19.24, +2.50). It surged 15% to a three-month high as participants were positioning for an increase in near-term volatility.
The Consumer Credit report for August was the lone economic release today. The report, which is compiled by the Federal Reserve, showed consumer credit increased $13.6 bln (Briefing.com consensus $11.8 bln) versus a prior increase of $10.4 bln. Like most other consumer credit reports, though, this one was also glossed over given its dated nature and history of seeing large revisions.
The August trade balance report and the JOLTS - Job Openings report were due to be released on Tuesday, but they will be delayed on account of the partial government shutdown which is looking like it will enter its eighth day on Tuesday.
DJ30 -136.34 NASDAQ -37.38 SP500 -14.38 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 660/1.42 bln/1885 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 644/595 mln/2394
3:35 pm :
Nov crude oil traded lower today as production in the Gulf of Mexico resumed after the U.S. National Hurricane Center downgraded Tropical Storm Karen to a Tropical Depression. Prices dipped as low as $101.86 per barrel in early morning pit trade and later brushed a session high of $103.74 per barrel
The energy component pulled back slightly in afternoon floor action and settled 0.7% lower at $103.03 per barrel
Nov natural gas, on the other hand, extended Friday's gains as forecasts called for warmer weather. It lifted from a session low of $3.57 per MMBtu and rose to a session high of $3.66 per MMBtu in late morning action. Natural gas eventually settled with a solid 3.4% gain at $3.63 per MMBtu
Precious metals rose on a weaker dollar index and a continued stalemate over a budget/debt ceiling deal
Dec gold popped to a session high of $1329.50 per ounce shortly after equity markets opened and settled with a 1.1% gain at $1324.90 per ounce
Dec silver came off its session low of $21.91 per ounce and touched a session high of $22.50 per ounce by late morning pit action. It booked a 1.1% gain as it closed at $22.38 per ounce.
Large Cap Gainers
HCP (39.9 +2.18%): Mentioned positively in blog article following termination of CEO Jay Flaherty
AAPL (491.87 +1.83%): Upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies, target raised to $600 from $425
MU (18.7 +1.25%): Target raised to $30 from $19 at Citigroup
Large Cap Losers
PCYC (132.77 -4.89%): Weakness in large cap biotech: REGN, VRTX, AMGN also lower
QIHU (83.69 -2.88%): Weakness in Chinese internet companies: SINA, YOKU, CYOU also lower
SAP (71.6 -2.51%): Reuters reporting that co is discussing bids for all or parts of BlackBerry (BBRY)
Mid Cap Gainers
NBG (5.19 +13.12%): Strength following reports that Greece is planning a swap between bailout loans and a 50 year government bond
BBRY (7.98 +3.77%): Reuters reporting that Google (GOOG), Cisco (CSCO), and SAP (SAP) are discussing bids for all or parts of the company
FNP (25.46 +3.75%): Announced agreement to sell the intellectual property of Juicy Couture to Authentic Brands Group for $195 mln in cash
Mid Cap Losers
DECK (63.97 -5.83%): Mentioned cautiously at OTR Global
INCY (38.47 -4.09%): Hearing mentioned cautiously at Wells Fargo due to potential threat from competitor
GPN (55.13 -3.16%): Downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at First Analysis
Linear Technology (LLTC) and PowerbyProxi announced that they have been working in partnership to develop wireless power systems for use in a range of applications and environments. LLTC introduced the LTC4120 integrated circuit that combines a wireless power receiver with a full-featured battery charger to implement the receiver side of a complete wireless power transfer system.
8:05AM Advanced Micro: Verizon (VZ) selects AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 for enterprise class services: Verizon Cloud Compute and Verizon Cloud Storage (AMD) 3.91 : Co announced that Verizon (VZ) is deploying SeaMicro SM15000 servers for its new global cloud platform and cloud-based object storage service, whose public beta was recently announced. Verizon and AMD co-developed additional hardware and software technology on the SM15000 server that provides unprecedented performance and best-in-class reliability backed by enterprise-level service level agreements.
7:51AM Canadian Solar launches financing program targeting fast growing U.S. residential solar market (CSIQ) 19.59 : Co launched the Canadian Solar Residential Financing Program, which targets the fast growing U.S. residential solar market. The new program is designed to make it even easier for residential solar installers and developers to bring more solar projects to completion in the U.S. market. The program is being launched in partnership with Boston, MA based, privately held Admirals Bank.
Veeco Instruments (VECO) announced that the University of Oklahoma will receive the first shipment of Veeco's new GENxplor R&D Molecular Beam Epitaxy System early in the fourth quarter.
SunEdison (SUNE) announced that on September 30, 2013, its wholly owned subsidiary, SunEdison Singapore and Gintech Energy, have terminated a long-term solar wafer supply agreement.
Silicon Labs (SLAB) and MaxLinear (MXL) announced a satisfactory settlement of all litigation between the two companies. MaxLinear has granted Silicon Labs a license to its substantial patent portfolio for the accused Silicon Labs products. Silicon Labs has granted MaxLinear a license to its substantial portfolio of patents for the accused MaxLinear products. As part of the settlement, the two companies have agreed to enter into a three-year covenant not to sue. The companies have also agreed to dismiss all pending cases.
Procera Networks (PKT) announced it has received a first-time multi-million dollar order from a large mobile operator in the Asia Pacific region. This is the third major APAC operator order that Procera has won in five months. This order is the first placed on a multi-year framework contract to provide Procera's leading edge Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions for deployment throughout this operator's network. The operator is experiencing rapid growth on their network, and will leverage Procera's fine-grained analytics combined with advanced policy creation capabilities to drive new services for their mobile subscribers.
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