From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The major indices strung together some modest gains on Tuesday on the back of some strong showings from blue-chip issues and a volatile rebound effort by the beaten-down biotechnology stocks.
The move followed on the heels of a strong outing by major European bourses, which shot up largely in response to some remarks from Bundesbank head, Jens Weidmann, who suggested it was not out of the realm of possibility for the ECB to implement a QE-type program to fight deflation. It would be remiss not to add that ECB President Draghi spoke later in the day and said the ECB is not currently seeing any evidence of deflation.
Mr. Draghi's viewpoint helped the euro recover a good portion of overnight losses, but his view did not lead to a major trend reversal in the US stock market.
There were indeed bouts of trading volatility in today's session. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 239.44, +0.21) was the standard bearer in that respect as it saw a 4.0% range between its intraday high and intraday low. The ETF, which had dropped as much as 11% over the preceding four sessions, gained just 0.1% on Tuesday. The roller-coaster action in that closely-watched and widely-chased sector kept a lid on things for the Nasdaq Composite, which trailed the blue-chip laden Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500.
Strikingly, it was Big Blue itself -- IBM (IBM 195.04, +6.79) -- that carried the day for the broader market. It surged 3.6% on a few announcements detailing new business activity, yet we suspect it was also accorded a low-beta premium in an environment of late that has featured some material hiccups for high-beta momentum stocks. IBM led all Dow components; however, the blue chip bias was also evident in fellow components like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 97.38, +2.18), Caterpillar (CAT 98.59, +1.74), Merck (MRK 55.19, +1.41), 3M (MMM 134.06, +1.64), and United Technologies (UTX 115.20, +1.45).
Today's gains were broad-based in nature. Nine out of ten S&P 500 sectors closed the day with a gain. The lone loser was the consumer discretionary sector (-0.6%), which was held back by a relatively weak showing from the apparel and media stocks. Some disappointing second quarter and full-year earnings guidance from Carnival Corp. (CCL 38.02, -1.98) also weighed on the sector.
Notwithstanding the broad-based gains, the financial sector (+0.01%) was a notable underperformer in Tuesday's trading as JPMorgan Chase (JPM 60.93, -0.14), Goldman Sachs (GS 163.25, -2.47), Bank of America (BAC 17.21, -0.16), and Morgan Stanley (MS 31.59, -0.85) all traded lower. Leadership from the industrial (+0.9%), energy (+0.8%), and health care (0.8%) sectors, though, provided an influential offset.
There was a round of economic data today that revolved largely around the housing sector:
The January Housing Price Index from the FHFA increased 0.5%, which followed a revised uptick of 0.7% observed during the prior month.
The Case-Shiller 20-city Home Price Index for January rose 13.2% while a 13.3% increase had been expected by the Briefing.com consensus. This followed the previous month's increase of 13.4%.
New home sales declined 3.3% in February to 440,000 from a downwardly revised 455,000 (from 468,000) in January. The Briefing.com consensus expected sales to fall to 445,000. Commentators will likely point out that the drop in sales was the result of extreme winter conditions, but sales actually increased 36.7% in the frigid Midwest and fell 15.9% in the West. In actuality, sales are running a little ahead of the 12-month average with the drop in February resulting from normal volatility.
The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index strengthened in March. The index increased to 82.3 from an upwardly revised 78.3 (from 78.1) in February. The Briefing.com consensus pegged the index at 78.2. The reading put confidence levels at the highest point since January 2008. Typically, confidence levels trend with unemployment, gasoline prices, and the equity market. The increase in volatility in the equity market over the past few weeks did nothing to harm confidence. Instead, consumers relied on more favorable employment conditions.
The stock market seemed to divorce itself from the data on Tuesday, following instead the path of activity in the biotech sector and leading blue chip issues. Similarly, the Treasury market rocked back and forth between negative and positive territory before ending modestly lower at the cash settlement.
On a related note, the $32 bln 2-yr note auction went okay, drawing a high yield of 0.469% (0.471% when issued) and a 3.20 bid-to-cover ratio. The latter was below the 12-auction average, but there was strong demand from indirect bidders who accounted for 40.9% of the allotment versus a 12-auction average of 25.7%.
A $35 bln 5-yr note auction will be held on Wednesday. In addition, the economic calendar will feature the latest reading for the mortgage applications index and February data for durable goods orders (Briefing.com consensus +1.0%).
Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.24% YTD
Nasdaq Composite +1.4% YTD
S&P 500 +0.9% YTD
Russell 2000 +1.3% YTD
S&P 400 Midcap Index +2.2% YTD
DJ30 +91.19 NASDAQ +7.88 SP500 +8.18 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1354/2.13 bln/1309 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1790/632 mln/1233
3:30 pm :
Apr gold rose to a session high of $1316.60 per ounce after touching a session low of $1306.20 per ounce in early morning pit trade. However, the yellow metal pulled back towards the unchanged line and settled 20 cents lower at $1311.20 per ounce.
May silver see-sawed between positive and negative territory today, touching a session high of $20.17 per ounce after trading as low as $19.92 per ounce in early morning action. It eventually settled with a 0.4% loss at $19.98 per ounce.
May crude oil advanced to a session high of $100.25 per barrel after trading as low as $98.80 per barrel in morning action. However, the energy component retreated back into negative territory and settled with a 0.4% loss at $99.18 per barrel.
Apr natural gas, on the other hand, trended higher after coming off its session low of $4.36 per MMBtu. It settled 3.0% higher at $4.41 per MMBtu, just below its session high of $4.42 per MMBtu.
4:31PM SunPower sells more than 70 megawatts in concentrator cell packages for two projects in inner Mongolia, China (SPWR) 31.27 -0.77 : Co announced the sale of more than 70 megawatts (MW) of cell packages to the Huaxia Concentrated Photovoltaic Power Co., Ltd., joint venture (JV) in Inner Mongolia, China. These packages will be used for the first phase of two SunPower C7 Tracker (C7) projects, which includes a 20-MW project in Saihan and a 100-MW project in Wuchuan. Both are located in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia and completion is expected in 2015.
The definitive agreement for the Huaxia Concentrated Photovoltaic Power JV was initially signed in December of 2012, and officially approved and registered in November of 2013.
4:09PM 3D Systems announces its ProJet 3510 MP 3D printer and proprietary VisiJet Stoneplast dental materials are now also available for use with 3Shape Implant Studio (DDD) 58.45 +0.47 : Co announced that its ProJet 3510 MP 3D printer and proprietary VisiJet Stoneplast dental materials are now also available for use with 3Shape Implant Studio, allowing dental professionals to output accurate and fully functional dental implant drill guides that are designed using the 3Shape Implant Studio software.
12:14PM 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
WAG (66.21 +2.95%): Missed on EPS by $0.01, revs in-line with March 5 preannouncement; raised Alliance Boots synergy target.
RIO (54.17 +2.61%): Strength in metals/mining stocks (BHP also higher).
AGU (95.32 +1.85%): Co exec discussed potential sale of assets, according to reports out last night.
Large Cap Losers
CCL (38.01 -4.98%): Beat on EPS by $0.08, reported revs in-line; guided Q2 EPS below consensus; lowered FY14 EPS guidance.
AMX (19.76 -4.45%): Downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill; co and Televisa (TV) may be impacted by new Mexico telecom bill, according to reports.
BMRN (71.68 -2.75%): Downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman; removed from America's Buy list.
Mid Cap Gainers
HDS (25.08 +8.71%): Beat on EPS by $0.01, reported revs in-line.
RAX (34.72 +6.11%): Upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
MKC (71.5 +5.91%): Beat on EPS by $0.04, beat on revs; reaffirmed FY14 EPS guidance, revs guidance.
Mid Cap Losers
HIMX (11.22 -16.14%): Downgraded to Underperform from Buy at BofA/Merrill.
SPLK (72.53 -6.13%): Unfavorable mention on Mad Money.
COMM (23.58 -3.48%): Announced secondary offering of 17.5 mln shares of common stock by an affiliate of The Carlyle Group (CG).
12:00PM Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (99) outpacing new lows (22) (SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ABG, ADI, AR, ARW, ASTE, ATI, AVAV, AVT, BGMD, BRCD, BXMT, CAT, CHFC, CJES, CLD, CNQ, CPK, CRS, CRT, CSX, CVGW, CVS, DOW, EFII, EGL, EIX, EMC, EXH, FSL, FWV, GLNG, GLOG, GLW, GMT, GSIG, GVA, HAL, HDS, HIL, HP, IFN, IPHI, ITRN, JNJ, JPM, KAMN, LECO, LKFN, LRCX, LVLT, LXK, MCRL, MD, MEAS, MHLD, MRCY, MRTN, MSA, MSFT, MTR, MTZ, MVNR, NBCB, NBR, NEU, NOA, NSIT, OILT, ORA, PAGP, PCAR, PDS, PPC, QLGC, REX, RSPP, RYAAY, SAVE, SFE, SFNC, SGU, SGY, SIR, SLB, SLP, SONC, SSL, TFX, THRM, UTL, VE, VET, VSAT, VSB, WHG, WLB, WLFC, WSCI, WSTG
Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AEO, AHP, AKBA, ARO, BODY, CSLT, DPRX, GLMD, GMET, HAE, KBR, KIOR, MLVF, ORCT, OTEL, QTWO, RALY, SPHS, TBAC, VEEV, WRLD, WTSL
ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: EGPT
ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: none
RFMD (RFMD) has signed a $9.7 mln agreement with the Manufacturing and Industrial Technologies Directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory to transfer and produce a 0.14 micron Gallium Nitride monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology.
8:09AM Oracle announces Java 8 and Oracle Health Sciences Empirica Healthcare Analysis release (ORCL) 38.18 : As part of the most significant Java technology release by Oracle, the company will host the Java 8 launch webcast today (13:00 ET). Oracle is announcing Java Platform, Standard Edition 8 (Java SE 8), Java Platform, Micro Edition 8 (Java ME 8) and the related releases of Oracle's Java Embedded products. Members of the Oracle Java development team, as well as other industry leaders, will highlight the key features of these new products during the webcast. In addition, over 30 technical videos covering Java SE 8, Java ME 8, Java Embedded and the Internet of Things will also be available on demand.
Oracle Health Sciences today introduced Oracle Health Sciences Empirica Healthcare Analysis, an analytics platform that enables health sciences organizations, regulatory agencies and healthcare payers and providers to develop safety surveillance, advanced risk management strategies and comparative effectiveness initiatives to improve product safety and healthcare outcomes. This Web-based application, which can be deployed on-premise or hosted, provides access to a repeatable analysis environment to effectively assess and improve the safety and risk/benefit profile of a product. Oracle Health Sciences Empirica Healthcare Analysis Provides High Performance Data Analytics to Support Safety Surveillance and Comparative Effectiveness Initiatives
Rackspace (RAX 33.84, +1.12): +3.4% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to 'Overweight' from 'Equal-Weight.'
Trina Solar (TSL) announced that all solar PV cells produced by the co have achieved anti-PID ability following the optimization of the Company's manufacturing technology.
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