From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : All of the fear and loathing last week about the Sunday referendum in Crimea was set aside today. Stock markets in Europe and the US rallied, not because there was a de-escalation of the standoff in Ukraine, but because there has yet to be an escalation of the standoff that would threaten global economic growth.
As expected, Crimeans voted overwhelmingly in favor (95.5% of votes cast) of joining the Russian Federation. As expected, the outcome of the referendum was not accepted as valid by President Obama and EU leaders. Still, there were two points of relief that sparked a short-covering rally on Monday:
Military force has not been used; and
Hard-hitting economic sanctions have yet to be imposed
President Obama made a brief speech today to discuss a signed executive order that freezes the assets and imposes travel bans on a small group of advisors and allies of Vladimir Putin and only warned that more sanctions would be forthcoming if Russia continued to push a provocative stance in Ukraine. Things have the potential to get more serious, but from the market's standpoint, it hasn't been given reason yet in the aftermath of the referendum to fear a worst-case scenario of economic sanctions being handed down that would impede global GDP growth.
The latter consideration ignited a short-covering rally in European stock markets that carried over to the US. Gains here were fast-paced off the open as the Dow Jones Industrial Average sported a 205-point gain a little more than 30 minutes after the opening bell rang.
The early rush of buying activity was helped along by a positive showing out of China's stock market (+1.0%), which responded favorably to news of a new urbanization plan. Separately, there were reports that the People's Bank of China would expand the yuan's daily trading band to 2% from 1%. In the event of further yuan weakness, that would bode well for the country's exporters.
Basically, then, last week's main points of concern -- Ukraine and China -- were minimized, if only for a day. To be sure, plenty of questions remain about China's growth prospects and shadow banking system, as well as the path Russia will follow in Ukraine.
The gains in the US were broad-based. Every stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher and so did every sector in the S&P 500. From a broader perspective, there wasn't any true weakness on Monday. Rather, weakness was couched in terms of which sectors were up the least.
Gains for the major indices ranged from 0.6% for the Russell 2000 to 1.1% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The stock market was underpinned throughout the day by quality leadership from some of its most heavily-weighted sectors. That included the technology (+1.3%), industrials (+1.3%), financial (+1.0%), and health care (+0.9%) sectors. The utilities sector (+0.6%) trailed all other sectors, but it still made a respectable showing, particularly with interest rates rising at the back end of the Treasury yield curve.
Some of the weakness there followed an encouraging report that industrial production increased 0.6% in February, bolstered by a 0.8% jump in manufacturing production. The February strength came on the heels of a 0.2% decline in industrial production in January.
Separately, the Empire Manufacturing Index for March was slightly better than expected with a 5.6 reading (Briefing.com consensus 5.4). A number above zero denotes expansion. The NAHB Housing Market index, however, still reflected declining builder confidence with a reading of 47 for March. That was up from 46 in February but below the Briefing.com consensus estimate that called for a jump to 50.0, which is the dividing line between rising and declining confidence.
Despite today's nice-sized gains for the major indices, participation in the move was unequivocally light. Just 593 mln shares traded at the NYSE versus a recent average of 706 mln shares. This was a tacit sign that today's move wasn't so much a relief rally in unbridled form as it was a short-covering move to account for a negative development that has yet to live up to its advance, fear-based billing.
Tuesday's economic calendar will feature the Housing Starts (Briefing.com consensus 915,000) and Building Permits (Briefing.com consensus 955,000) report for February, as well as the CPI report for February. The Briefing.com consensus calls for total CPI and core CPI to be up 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. After Tuesday's close, Oracle (ORCL 38.22, +0.62) and Adobe Systems (ADBE 68.17, +0.98) will report their quarterly earnings results.
Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.95% YTD
Nasdaq Composite +2.5% YTD
S&P 500 +0.6% YTD
Russell 2000 +2.1% YTD
S&P Midcap 400 Index +2.3% YTD
DJ30 +181.55 NASDAQ +34.55 SP500 +17.70 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1782/1.70 bln/945 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2203/593 mln/817
3:30 pm :
Apr gold fell for the first time in six sessions despite a slightly weaker dollar index. The yellow metal rose to a session high of $1382.90 per ounce in morning floor trade but gave up the gain as it slipped to a session low of $1370.00 per ounce. It spent afternoon action trading just above that level and settled with a 0.4% loss at $1373.10 per ounce.
May silver brushed a session high of $21.44 per ounce in morning action but quickly fell back into the red. It settled 0.7% lower at $21.27 per ounce, slightly above its session low of $21.23 per ounce.
Apr crude oil fell for the first time in three sessions as investors reacted to relatively limited sanctions imposed by the West against Russia following the completion of Crimea's referendum with no escalation of violence. 95.5% voted in favor of the region joining Russia. The energy component retreated from its session high of $98.69 per barrel and brushed a session low of $97.37 per barrel. It eventually settled at $98.05 per barrel, or 0.9% lower.
Apr natural gas, on the other hand, spent its entire floor session in the black, trading as high as $4.59 per MMBtu in early morning action. It spent the remainder of the session trading slightly above the $4.50 per MMBtu level and settled with a 2.5% gain at $4.53 per MMBtu.
4:04PM SolarCity announces it will report its earnings Tuesday, after the market closes (SCTY) 73.70 -0.09 : Briefing.com Note: Recall co reported the majority of its metrics on Feb 24 but delayed its EPS release due to accounting issues with an acquisition.
11:55AM Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (198) outpacing new lows (18) (SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAN, ABCB, AGN, ALK, ALV, AMKR, AMRI, ASRV, ATVI, BAS, BCR, BEE, BKH, BOFI, BPZ, BWA, BWS, BYLK, CAK, CBOE, CBT, CELH, CHC, CHD, CLDN, CMRX, CNL, CODE, COLB, CPE, CPK, CPS, CRL, CRVL, CUR, CVCO, CVGW, CVS, DBD, DJCO, DLB, DMND, DOX, DPZ, ECA, EMES, ENLK, ENTA, EQT, ETE, EVER, EVK, EWBC, FCH, FCNCA, FFBC, FITB, FNHC, FPRX, FRC, FSRV, GA, GAS, GB, GFN, GIII, GNRC, GPRE, GSAT, GSM, GVA, GXP, H, HELE, HI, HRG, HRTX, HST, IBKC, ICGE, IG, IPXL, ISBC, ISIL, ISR, ISSI, IT, JACK, JASO, KAMN, KNDI, KNX, KONA, KRNY, LBY, LNT, LOGM, LSG, MANH, MDRX, MEAS, MFRM, MGEE, MKL, MOBI, MPC, MPWR, MRH, MVNR, NEE, NEU, NG, NGVC, NRF, NVDQ, NWLI, ODFL, OHRP, OZRK, PAGP, PANW, PCAR, PEB, PEBO, PFSW, PKOH, PLL, PLOW, PMC, PNFP, PPC, PPP, PQ, PRI, PRTS, PRXL, PZZA, QADA, RCAP, REX, RFMD, RLJ, RLYP, RNR, RUSHB, SAAS, SAFM, SGB, SGK, SHEN, SIG, SIMG, SIVB, SOHO, SONC, SPB, SPNC, SRE, SSRI, STAA, STO, SUSS, SWC, SWN, TFX, TMNG, TPC, TQNT, TRCB, TRNS, TSH, TSN, TTWO, UA, UBSH, UCTT, UGI, URI, USEG, USMO, UTL, VGR, VLCCF, VMW, VNDA, VSB, VTSS, VVC, WEC, WG, WGP, WIBC, WLB, WLP, WSCI, WSM, WTFC, YDKN
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ALAN, ARO, AVNW, CHL, COOL, COVS, CZZ, ESV, EXPR, FSYS, GGS, ICA, MCGC, OIBR, PBR.A, SDRL, TEU, TLM
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: COW, DVY, EGPT, EIS, GREK, NIB
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: none
11:51AM 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
HTZ (27.42 +5.54%): FT.com reporting co is consdering spiining off its construction equipment business for ~$4.5 bln
BIIB (345.18 +3.82%): To replace American Electric Power (AEP) in the S&P 100
YHOO (38.97 +3.64%): Seeing reports that Alibaba could file for IPO as soon as April, has chosen to list on a US exchange
Large Cap Losers
FB (66.88 -1.25%): Downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus
STZ (81.69 -0.98%): Downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman
CHK (24.79 -0.96%): Filed form 10 registration statement for possible spin-off of Chesapeake Oilfield Services
Mid Cap Gainers
SINA (68.95 +6.75%): Filed initial F-1 to IPO its Weibo micro-blogging service
WTS (59 +4.50%): Upgraded to Buy from Hold at BB&T Capital Markets, target $67
PTEN (29.99 +4.17%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman, added to Conviction Buy list
Mid Cap Losers
ICPT (395 -14.55%): Missed FY13 EPS by $0.03 (-$3.76 vs -$3.73 estimate); announced Phase 3 POISE trial of obeticholic acid (OCA) for the treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) demonstrated that OCA, at both a 10 mg dose and a 5 mg dose titrated to 10 mg, met the trial's primary endpoint
SBGI (24.37 -8.25%): Downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo
VRSN (50.62 -7.71%): National Telecommunications & Information Administration announced its intent to transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community; Verisign said this will no affect the company's operation of the .com and .net registries
SDL announced that Atmel (ATML) has selected SDL's LiveContent application suite to improve its content creation processes as part of an effort to drive end-to-end improvements in Customer Experience.
Aquantia announced the completion of series G financing for $16 mln. Xilinx (XLNX) led the round and existing investors provided additional capital.
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