- 18:16 ET Tuesday After Hours : prices levels vs. 4 pm ET: Today's lackluster tone has carried over into the extended session, where the Nasdaq 100 futures, at 1149, are flat with fair value, and the S&P futures, at 1473, are 1 point below fair value. Tonight's earnings announcements have come from a variety of companies, and have been mostly upbeat.
- Xilinx (XLNX) -3%: Semiconductor company guides Q3 (Mar) revenues up 9-10% sequentially, to $398.5-402.2 mln; Reuters Research consensus estimate stands at $398.2 mln; Management also said its gross margins target remains unchanged at approx 63%; Related companies ALTR and LSCC are also down in a profit-taking move
- 14:24 ET Floor Talk : In speaking with several trading desks on the catalyst for today's sell off, the general consensus is multiple waves of programs coming throughout the trading day amid a variety of factors. The dollar became a driver with a broad and dramatic late morning rally. According to Briefing.com's bond team, speculation is bubbling that Friday's numbers will be the trigger leading to a rate hike. The run on the buck has led to worries that foreign central bank bond buying may fall off, which is contributing to a 21/32 decline in the 10-yr. In addition, the Challenger, Gray and Christmas report showing decreased layoffs helped buoy the positive labor outlook... Equity traders also citing speculative froth in the market as advances in small-cap momentum stocks trigger memories of 1999 market top. Also, market indicators such as put/call ratio seen as suggesting a "toppy" market.
- 14:09 ET Sell programs, dollar cited for market decline :
- 12:43 ET Speculation is that water has been found on Mars :
- 12:37 ET Hearing that "significant findings from Mars" will be announced in press briefing at 2ET at NASA headquarters :
- 12:07 ET Bond Market Update : Treasuries were sliding lower on fair trade, until recently when volume and speed picked up to the downside. Players were tiptoeing around the market much of the day in advance of Greenspan's 12:30 ET speech, and any surprises out of the chairman would be to the upside for bonds, especially if comments put a damper on expectations for a solid non-farm payroll number on Friday. The dollar became a driver with a broad and dramatic late morning rally, with speculation bubbling that Friday's numbers will be the trigger leading to a rate hike. The run on the buck leads to worries that foreign central bank bond buying may fall off, and a major price support will become less reliable. The Challenger, Gray, and Christmas report showing decreased layoffs helped buoy the positive labor outlook. Traders are seeing "heavy put buying" in interest rate options, helping to add a bid to volatility levels, which had been sagging over the past 2-weeks. The ten-year has swung off to tag 4.058% from the session open 3.996% and are currently -22/32nds yielding 4.058%; twos are -04/32nds yielding 1.713%; threes are -06/32nds yielding 2.184%; fives are -11/32nds yielding 3.031%; thirties are -1 07/32nds yielding 4.915%.
- 12:03 ET High Short Interest Point Gainers : ASF +0.58 (Short Interest 33% of the float), CPKI +0.87 (18% of the float), GVHR +1.92 (11% of the float), MIDD +1.90 (10% of the float), HIFN +1.08 (8% of the float), AVCI +0.93 (4% of the float).
- 07:32 ET Hewlett-Packard announces largest printing services deal in company history (HPQ) 23.00: Co announces its largest-ever imaging and printing services contract, signed with Ford Motor. The contract builds on HP's Total Print Management wins first announced last October, which now amount to more than $650 mln to date. The agreement affects a total of 150,000 users and optimizes a fleet of printing systems in excess of 15,000 devices in the
US andEurope .
Guy Boscart,