From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Equity indices enjoyed a broad-based rally on Tuesday that sent the S&P 500 (+1.5%) and the Russell 2000 (+2.7%) to new closing record highs.
Stocks surged out the gate after index futures received a considerable bid around 1:00AM ET. The overnight strength came about after it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin called back the troops that were conducting exercises on the country's border with Ukraine. Mr. Putin commented on the tense situation, saying Russia is not aiming to annex the Crimean peninsula and that military force is a choice of last resort.
Mr. Putin's comments were followed by a response from Secretary of State John Kerry who visited Kiev today. Secretary Kerry called on Russia to refrain from using force and said the United States is not seeking a confrontation, but if Russia does not deescalate, then the U.S. will be forced to increase pressure on Russia. Less than 30 minutes after the comments from Secretary Kerry, Russia's Foreign Ministry said the introduction of any potential sanctions will be met with a response that is "not necessarily symmetrical."
The overnight developments were viewed positively by market participants who rushed into risk while shedding some of the safe-haven assets that were in strong demand yesterday:
Treasuries spent the entire session in a steady retreat with the 10-yr yield ending at its session high (+9 bps at 2.69%);
Gold futures fell 0.9% to $1337.80/ozt; and
Crude oil lost 1.6%, ending at $103.34/bbl.
In turn, the risk rally translated into solid gains for all ten sectors. The three largest S&P 500 groups-financials (+2.0%), technology (+1.5%), and health care (+1.9%)-paced the advance while most of the remaining groups added at least 1.0% with utilities (+0.8%) as the lone exception.
Elsewhere, industrials (+1.7%) also factored into the advance thanks to big gains among transports. All 20 members of The Dow Jones Transportation Average (+2.2%) finished in the green with airlines and railroads blazing the trail. Union Pacific (UNP 183.85, +4.34) and Delta Air Lines (DAL 34.45, +1.86) settled higher by 2.4% and 5.7%, respectively.
Although stocks spent the entire session in a steady push to new highs, a brief dip took place in the afternoon amid reports indicating Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Astrakhan region. While the initial headline lacked detail, subsequent reports indicated the test was planned in accordance with international laws and that U.S. officials received an early notice.
The afternoon reports did not derail the rally, allowing the S&P 500 to settle just below its best level of the day.
Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET while the February ADP Employment Change will be announced at 8:15 ET. The ISM Services report for February will cross the wires at 10:00 ET while the Federal Reserve will release its March Beige Book at 14:00 ET.
Nasdaq Composite +4.2% YTD
Russell 2000 +3.9% YTD
S&P 500 +1.4% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.1% YTD
DJ30 +227.85 NASDAQ +74.67 SP500 +28.18 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2153/2.15 bln/469 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2563/837.5 mln/495
3:35 pm :
WTI crude oil, gold and silver futures all remained weak during today's trade
Meanwhile, copper and natural gas futures held onto strength and closed with a nice gain
Apr gold finished today's session 0.9% lower at $1337.80/oz, while May silver lost 1.3% to $21.21/oz
Apr natural gas futures traded in positive territory all session today and ended 3.5% higher at $4.48/MMBtu
Apr crude oil fell 1.6% to $103.34/barrel
5:48PM Ixia announces completion of Audit Committee internal investigation, SEC filings update, and CFO transition (XXIA) 13.08 +0.88 : Co announced today that the Audit Committee of Ixia's Board of Directors has completed the internal investigation that was initiated by the Committee as a result of the October 2013 resignation of the company's former president and chief executive officer. The Committee retained independent counsel and an advisory firm with forensic accounting expertise to assist the Committee in conducting the investigation, which included an email review and performing procedures to assess the company's recording of certain financial transactions and the corresponding impact on the company's financial reporting.
Results of Audit Committee Internal Investigation: On February 26, 2014, the Committee completed the investigation and made its findings with respect thereto. The Committee found that, although the company's former president and chief executive officer (the "Former CEO") had misstated his academic credentials, age, and early employment history, the investigation did not establish that he engaged in intentional misconduct with respect to the company's financial results or financial statements. The Committee also concluded that Tom Miller, the company's former chief financial officer, did not engage in any intentional misconduct. The investigation found, however, an aggressive tone at the top set by the Former CEO, a lack of leadership in terms of tone at the top with respect to the company's recently resigned chief financial officer, and insufficient resources, controls, and training of relevant personnel with respect to revenue recognition, all of which collectively resulted in certain identified errors in the company's revenue recognition.
As a result of the investigation and the company's own internal review, certain errors in the company's revenue recognition practices that affect the timing of the company's recognition of revenue for certain prior periods were identified. Any correction of these errors will result in a shift of revenues between accounting periods. The errors do not have any impact on the total amount of revenue ultimately recognized by the company and do not reflect a lack of validity of the underlying transactions. The company is currently proceeding as quickly as possible to complete its quantification and evaluation of the impact of the identified errors on the company's previously issued financial statements in order to determine whether the company will need to restate financial statements for any prior period(s).
SEC Filings Update: On March 4, 2014, the company filed with the Commission a Form 12b-25 Notification of Late Filing relating to the Form 10-K. The company reported in the Form 12b-25, that it was unable to file the 2013 Form 10-K by the prescribed due date of March 3, 2014 without unreasonable effort or expense. As indicated in the Form 12b-25, due to the errors in the company's revenue recognition practices identified in the investigation and by the company, and due to the company's need to file the Form 10-Q before filing its Form 10-K, the company requires additional time to complete its consolidated financial statements as of and for the three years ended December 31, 2013, and its assessment of its internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2013. The company is currently working to file the Form 10-K as soon as possible. If the Form 10-K is filed on or before March 18, 2014, the filing would be within the extension period of 15 calendar days provided under Rule 12b-25 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. There can be no assurance, however, that the Form 10-K and the audit of the company's financial statements to be included therein will be completed by that date.
CFO Transition: The company also announced that, following the completion of the Audit Committee investigation, Tom Miller has resigned as its chief financial officer, effective March 3, 2014. The Board has appointed Brent Novak, the company's vice president, finance, to also serve as the company's acting chief financial officer. Novak joined the company in 2004 as senior director, finance, and has served as vice president, finance since 2006. Miller has agreed to continue as an employee of the company for three months following his resignation in order to provide support during the transition period.
4:05PM Cohu: Elmos Semiconductor selects Cohu's SATURN for testing its next generation automotive products (COHU) 10.52 +0.41 : COHU announced that Elmos Semiconductor, Germany, has chosen SATURN as its next generation handler platform for automotive IC testing.
SATURN is a high speed handling system that dramatically reduces cost of test with an innovative test plunging mechanism that achieves extremely short index times and exceptional reliability at extended test temperatures from -60 C up to +175 C. Features like smart soaking and the hybrid plunging technology enable SATURN to achieve high productivity at low cost.
"We at Elmos selected the Cohu SATURN to test next generation QFN devices, driving continuous improvement and further lowering cost of test with this new hybrid gravity, pick & place handler," said Reinhard Senf, COO at Elmos.
3:01PM LTX-Credence promotes Mark J. Gallenberger to the Position of Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer (LTXC) 10.18 -0.03 : Co announced that its Board of Directors has promoted Mark J. Gallenberger to the position of Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, effective as of March 1, 2014. Mr. Gallenberger has been with Company since the year 2000 when he joined LTX as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer.
3:00PM LTX-Credence promoted Mark Gallenberger to Senior VP, COO and CFO, effective as of March 1, 2014 (LTXC) 10.18 -0.03 : ... Prior to joining LTX, Mr. Gallenberger was a vice president with Ernst & Young's consulting practice.
12:25PM 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
YNDX (35 +8.59%): Russia related names rebounding following news that Putin has ordered Russian troops in Western Russia to return to base.
QIHU (115.99 +6.36%): Strength in China internet names.
BBVA (12.42 +4.46%): Moody's upgraded BBVA's ratings to Baa2; outlook positive on long-term ratings.
Large Cap Losers
IRE (19.82 -7.1%): Wilbur Ross & Fairfax sold 6% stake in IRE, according to reports.
ISRG (445.63 -1.81%): Downgraded to Hold from Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald.
AZO (533.11 -1.5%): Beat on EPS by $0.09, beat on revs.
Mid Cap Gainers
VIPS (167.69 +31.25%): Beat on EPS by $0.08, beat on revs; guided Q1 revs well above consensus.
ATHM (46.36 +12.03%): Tybourne Capital disclosed 5.3% passive stake in 13G filing.
SUNE (20.75 +11.08%): Upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley; co filed to delay form 10-K.
Mid Cap Losers
ASNA (18.05 -4.35%): Beat on EPS by $0.02, reported revs in-line; reduced FY14 EPS below consensus.
AU (17.49 -2.62%): Downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
CLF (19.15 -2.05%): Downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
12:22PM Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session- New highs (101) outpacing new lows (0) (SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ABT, AGO, APD, AVGO, BEE, BHI, BKD, BWA, CAH, CBI, CBS, CCJ, CNO, CRZO, CSE, CUZ, CXO, DAL, DD, DFS, DIS, DLPH, DOV, DOW, DRH, DTV, EA, ECL, EMN, ENDP, EOG, ETE, FEYE, FIS, FL, FLIR, FSL, GD, GRMN, GT, HAS, HCA, HD, HON, HP, HST, HUN, IACI, ILMN, KAR, LAMR, LLTC, LM, LNG, LO, LUV, LVS, LYB, MCK, MGM, MMC, MTW, MYL, NOC, OC, ORCL, P, PBI, PDS, PFE, PNR, PWR, QIHU, RDN, RHT, RTN, SEE, SIG, STJ, SUNE, SWFT, SWKS, TEX, TOL, TRIP, TRMB, TRN, TSN, TXN, TXT, TYC, UNH, UNP, URI, WLL, WWAV, WYNN, XLNX, XLS, YY, ZNGA
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: none
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: BJK, COW, DBA, DVY, IGN, IHF, IHI, ITA, IWC, IWF, IWM, IYH, IYJ, IYM, MDY, NLR, OEF, PBD, PBW, PHO, PPA, PPH, SMH, SOXX, SPY, TAN, UWM, UYM, VTI, XLB, XLI, XLK, XLV, XLY
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: SMN
10:42AM Riverbed Technology: Elliott responds to Riverbed share repurchase announcement; says 'clear evidence of the Board's entrenchment' (RVBD) 21.82 +0.06 : Elliott, affiliates of which collectively own or have economic exposure to ~10.5% of the common stock and equivalents of Riverbed, issued the following statement:
"Riverbed's announcement today of an increased buyback program is more clear evidence of the Board's entrenchment. Riverbed's shareholders want and expect the Board to explore a value-maximizing sale, not to reflexively announce a buyback when the stock is up 35% on buyout speculation. Instead of engaging interested buyers, the Board has once again confirmed that it is focused on the wrong issues and desperately searching for any tactic that will allow it to retain control over a public Riverbed. The correct path forward is for the Board to allow all interested buyers, including Elliott, to conduct diligence so they can present shareholders with their best offers for the Company."
9:02AM Alcatel-Lucent to help Verizon Wireless (VZ) manage growing data traffic (ALU) 4.17 : Verizon Wireless is to deploy Alcatel-Lucent's (ALU) advanced data management platform throughout its network, helping to support the carrier's LTE expansion. The Alcatel-Lucent Subscriber Data Manager (SDM), part of the company's IMS Subsystem portfolio of technologies designed to enable rich multimedia applications, will help support the expansion of Verizon's LTE services by centralizing multiple application databases. The deployment continues the role Alcatel-Lucent plays in the expansion of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network, for which the company was named a key supplier for the IMS portion when the network was originally launched.
8:30AM Riverbed expands Stock Repurchase program; Increases authorized share repurchase by $250 million; total program now at $750 million (RVBD) 21.76 : Co announced today that its board of directors approved a $250 million increase to the company's share repurchase program first announced August 19, 2011. The total authorized repurchase amount under the program is now $750 million. Approximately $375 million remains of the newly increased program.
Brocade (BRCD) announced that Rackspace (RAX) has completed the deployment of Brocade Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN solutions across its global data center network to accommodate explosive customer growth.
QLogic (QLGC) announced that its FlexSuiteT 2600 Series 16Gb Gen 5 Fibre Channel adapters are now shipping for the Lenovo (LNVGY) ThinkServer Product Family.
8:18AM Violin Memory names Eric Herzog Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development (VMEM) 4.31 : ( EMC and IBM storage industry veteran )
7:33AM Qualcomm raises quarterly dividend by 20% to $0.42 per share from $0.35 per share; Board approves $5.0 bln increase in co's stock repurchase authorization (QCOM) 73.63 : The $5.0 bln increase in the stock repurchase program brings the current authorization to $7.8 bln. Prior to this increase, $2.8 bln remained available under the stock repurchase program. To date in fiscal 2014, the Company has repurchased 27.6 million shares of common stock for $2.0 bln.
Guidewire Software (GWRE) reported second quarter earnings of $0.16 per share, which is higher than expected, while revenues rose 15.7% year/year to $83.5 million which is higher than expected. The company sees third quarter adjusted EPS of $0.01-0.03 and revenues of $77-79 million which are both in line with estimates.
China Mobile Games (CMGE) reported fourth quarter ADS of $0.10 vs $0.17 single est; revs increased 49.2% YoY to $24.4 mililon which is below single estimate. Fourth Quarter Operating Data Total paying users4 for social games were 3.2 mln, compared with 48,235 in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 2.8 mln in the third quarter of 2013. Average revenue per paying user account for social games was RMB36.6, compared with RMB92.47 in the fourth quarter of 2012 and RMB24.9 in the third quarter of 2013. Total paying users5 for single-player games (excluding game bundles) were 2.8 mln, compared with 5.0 mln in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 2.6 mln in the third quarter of 2013. ARPU for single-player games (excluding game bundles) was RMB7.4, compared with RMB2.4 in the fourth quarter of 2012 and RMB4.3 in the third quarter of 2013. The quarter-over-quarter increase in ARPU was driven by a shift in product mix toward single-player games with higher ARPUs. Total subscriptions6 for game bundles were 1.1 mln in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with 1.1 mln in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 1.6 mln in the third quarter of 2013. Average revenue per subscription for game bundles was RMB4.90, compared with RMB4.01 in the fourth quarter of 2012 and RMB5.56 in the third quarter of 2013.
Trina Solar (TSL) reproted fourth quarter earnings of $0.13 per share, which is higher than expected, while revenues rose 73.6% year/year to $525.6 mililon which is lower than expected. Total shipments were 770.1 MW, compared to 774.6 MW in the third quarter of 2013 and 414.5 MW in the fourth quarter of 2012. The sequential decrease in revenues was primarily due to lower than expected contribution of system sales, and other sales during the fourth quarter. The year-over-year increase in revenues was driven largely by rising shipment volumes on growing demand from key geographical regions, particularly China and Japan. Gross margin was 15.1% in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to 15.2% in the third quarter of 2013 and 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2012. The sequential decrease was primarily due to the disposal and impairment loss of $9.3 million on our downstream projects in the U.S. The year-over-year increase in gross margin was primarily due to the decrease in costs per watt exceeding the decrease in the ASP of modules year-over-year. Gross margin excluding the impact of project loss was 16.8%. Guidance: In the first quarter of 2014 the Company expects to ship between 670 MW to 700 MW of PV modules, of which 20 MW to 30 MW of PV modules will be shipped to its downstream PV projects. The company believes its blended gross margin for the first quarter of 2014, taking into account of the contribution from its downstream PV projects, will be in the mid-teens in percentage terms. Such guidance is based on the exchange rate between the Euro and the U.S. dollar as of March 4, 2014. For the full year of 2014, the co expects its total PV module shipments between 3.6 GW and 3.8 GW, of which 400 MW to 500 MW of PV modules will be shipped to its own downstream projects. This would represent an increase of 39.5% to 47.3% respectively, from 2013. For the full year 2014, the Company expects to complete construction of its downstream PV projects between 400 MW and 500 MW.
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