From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : It was day eight of the partial government shutdown and it was day two this week in which the major indices fell victim to broad-based selling interest. Once again, the budget/debt ceiling impasse in Washington was largely to blame.
The Nasdaq Composite was the biggest loser today, sliding 2.0% on the back of pronounced weakness in many of the market's favorite momentum stocks. The cracks in leading names like LinkedIn (LNKD 222.59, -14.62), Priceline.com (PCLN 997.60, -44.08), Tesla (TSLA 174.70, -8.37) and Facebook (FB 47.14, -3.38) provided an added cue for buyers to stick mostly to the sidelines.
There were efforts during the day to forge a rebound effort, but they were all short-lived as another day of back-and-forth remarks between Republicans and Democrats that amounted to more of the same entrenched views on reaching a budget agreement and raising the debt limit provided little incentive to commit new money.
Briefly, House Speaker Boehner said he would like the president to sit down and negotiate with the GOP before passing a continuing resolution and raising the debt limit while President Obama said he is open to negotiating after Congress passes a continuing resolution and raises the debt limit.
The major indices finished at their lows for the day as a final wave of selling interest in the last ten minutes completed today's damage.
The utilities (+0.6%) sector was the only sector in the S&P 500 to finish in positive territory. It was only fitting perhaps that the low beta sector outperformed as high beta stocks got hit hard.
Even so, there wasn't a full-on safety trade today. Longer-dated Treasuries and gold prices ended with modest losses while the US Dollar Index was little changed to the upside.
In terms of the Treasury market, the real point of interest was at the front end of the curve. The 4-week bill surged nearly 14 basis points to 0.29% as traders remained leary of the paper with the October 17 debt limit deadline on the near horizon. The 4-week yield is at its highest level since October 2008.
Wal-Mart (WMT 72.89, +1.02), Procter & Gamble (PG 76.35, +0.70), and Coca-Cola (KO 37.28, +0.23) were the only Dow components to finish higher. That helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average show some relative strength versus its counterparts, most of which fell between 1.2% and 2.0%.
The continued weakness in the stock market and the continued impasse in Washington continued to benefit the CBOE Volatility Index (20.48, +1.07), which tacked on another 5.5% after gaining 16% on Monday.
Volume picked up on today's sell-off. 733 mln shares traded at the NYSE versus just 595 mln on Monday. DJ30 -159.71 NASDAQ -75.54 SP500 -20.67 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 505/2.03 bln/2040 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 566/733 mln/2421
3:30 pm :
Nov crude oil traded higher today despite the dollar index recovering into positive territory. It advanced to a session high of $104.08 per barrel in morning floor action and spent the remainder of the session chopping around slightly below that level. It settled at $103.52 per barrel, booking a gain of 0.5%
Nov natural gas rose for a third consecutive session, climbing as high as $3.73 per MMBtu in afternoon pit trade. It settled 2.2% higher at $3.71 per MMBtu
Dec gold climbed to a session high of $1330.80 per ounce after lifting from its session low of $1315.40 per ounce set moments after pit trade opened. The yellow metal pulled-back as the dollar index gained momentum, and settled the session unchanged at $1324.90 per ounce
Dec silver slipped to a session low of $22.11 per ounce in early morning pit trade but erased the early loss and spent the remainder of the session trading slightly above the break-even line. It settled at $22.45 per ounce, booking a gain of 0.3%
4:08PM Alcoa beats by $0.05, beats on revs; reaffirms 2013 forecast for 7% aluminum demand growth (AA) 7.94 -0.03 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.11 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.06; revenues fell 1.2% year/year to $5.76 bln vs the $5.66 bln consensus. Results were led by continued strength in Engineered Products and Solutions and Global Rolled Products, despite traditional third quarter weakness. Global Primary Products overcame falling metal prices and lower premiums to deliver significant performance improvement through productivity gains.
Alcoa reaffirms its 7% global aluminum demand growth forecast for 2013 and sees essentially balanced alumina and aluminum markets. Alcoa continues to project global growth this year across the aerospace (9-10%), automotive (1-4%), packaging (1-2%), commercial building and construction (4-5%), and industrial gas turbine (3-5%) end markets. In the heavy truck and trailer market, Alcoa is raising its 2013 growth expectation, (5-9%, previously 3-8%), on improvements in the European market and a stronger Chinese market.
During Q3, settlement discussions with the DOJ and the SEC regarding Alba continued, although no settlements were reached.
Large Cap Gainers
MCK (135.02 +4.16%): Co may be in advanced discussions to acquire Celesio for $5.08 bln or more, according to reports.
ED (55.88 +1.99%): Strength in utilities names (PCG, XEL, FE, SO also higher).
CVS (57.42 +1.22%): Initiated with a Buy at Jefferies; tgt $71.
Large Cap Losers
YHOO (32.38 -5.16%): Target raised to $41 from $33 at Stifel.
YNDX (35.48 -5.24%): Co announced it is now offering online stores a new model for listing their products on Yandex.Market.
BMRN (68.43 -5.39%): Announced proposed offering of $300 mln of senior subordinated convertible notes due 2018 and $300 mln senior subordinated convertible notes due 2020.
Mid Cap Gainers
SMI (3.83 +6.63%): Announced that its customers' bank card IC products adopting SMIC's eEEPROM platform have obtained China Union Pay certifications.
FBR (12.26 +4.34%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
MNST (53.62 +3.81%): Strength attributed to positive BMO note.
Mid Cap Losers
ACAD (23 -16.55%): Weakness attributed to possible cautious doctor commentary on pimvanserin.
NOW (48.21 -9.46%): Initiated with a Neutral at Janney.
P (24.07 -8.48%): Apple (AAPL) is planning to expand iTunes Radio in UK prior to Pandora, according to reports.
9:02AM Seagate Tech completes private share redemption transaction of 32.7 million shares held by Samsung (SSNLF); Seagate and Samsung reaffirm strategic alignment announced in April 2011 (STX) 45.16 : Following the transaction, Samsung will continue to own approximately 12.5 million shares of Seagate and Dr. Seh-Woong Jeong, Executive Vice President at the Systems LSI Division of Samsung Electronics.
ARM (ARMH) and MediaTek announced that MediaTek has acquired a broad license to Cortex-A50 Series processor cores and the next generation of ARM Mali graphics processing Unit solutions.
10:53 am Technology sector trading lower by -0.7%, behind the broader market
The tech sector is trading lower today, behind narrower losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness as well with the SOX trading 0.5% lower. Within the chip index, IDCC (-2.1%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.2% lower today, while the QQQ and the NASDAQ are trading 0.7% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, FB (-3.7%) is under notable pressure.
In tech earnings last night, CYBE (-7.3%) provided a Q3 warning. Also, OCZ (-5.7%) announced it completed its restatement of financial results. This morning, OCZ (-6.0%) reported Q1 results and Q2 guidance.
In news, NUAN (-0.9%) announced the appointments of Brett Icahn and David Schechter to the Company's Board of Directors. Elsewhere, XRX (-1.2%) was informed by Lynn Blodgett, Executive Vice President of Xerox and President, Xerox Services, that he has received a "Wells notice" from the SEC staff. Also, SSNLF (0.0%) lost its bid for presidential veto of AAPL (-0.3%) import ban.
In rumors, STX (+0.8%) for FIO (+5.4%) is making the rounds.
Among notable analyst upgrades in tech this morning, FNSR (+3.7%) was upgraded to Hold at Jefferies and Chardan upgrades ADNC (+5.1%) to Buy. Also of note, Wunderlich initiated CHTR (+0.6%) with a Buy.
In downgrades, Oppenheimer downgraded CEVA (-1.1%) and AUDC (-4.7%) to Perform, SFTBY (-1.4%) was downgraded to Neutral at Citigroup and KYO (-1.3%) was downgraded to Outperform at Credit Agricole. Also, FDS (-1.5%) was initiated with an Underperform at Raymond James.
ADTN (-1.4%) is the only notable name in tech scheduled to report after the close.
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