>>> US CLose Dow-0,23% S&P-0,45% Nasdaq-0,63% Russell-1,23%


Closing Market Summary: Stocks Register First Decline in Four Sessions

The stock market began the week with a pullback from record levels, but not before setting fresh intraday record highs during the opening minutes of action. The S&P 500 (-0.4%) registered its first decline in four sessions while the Nasdaq Composite (-0.6%) underperformed.

Equity indices displayed modest gains in the early going to follow a relatively quiet weekend. It is worth noting that China's Shanghai Composite soared 3.0% after MNI reported the People's Bank of China is looking into purchasing local government bonds. Meanwhile, European markets began the day under pressure, but finished with solid gains amid optimism that followed reports Greece has reshuffled its negotiating team.

As for U.S. stocks, the S&P 500 held an eight-point gain at the start with cyclical sectors underpinning the early strength; however, biotechnology lagged from the early going and pressured the health care sector (-1.8%) to the bottom of the leaderboard. For its part, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 348.55, -15.15) lost 4.2% and contributed to the underperformance of the Nasdaq.

Biotechnology weighed on S&P 500 and the Nasdaq while the Dow (-0.2%) was able to end a little ahead since the price-weighted index does not contain any biotech listings. That being said, the largest Dow component by weight—Goldman Sachs (GS 196.52, -1.47)—lost 0.7% while the financial sector (-0.3%) settled a step ahead of the S&P 500.

Similar to financials, four of the remaining five cyclical groups settled ahead of the broader market while the consumer discretionary sector (-0.9%) underperformed. On the flip side, materials (+0.9%) and technology (+0.4%) spent the day in positive territory.

The materials sector enjoyed broad support, including a 4.6% spike in Dow component DuPont (DD 74.81, +3.29) after Institutional Shareholder Services recommended Nelson Peltz for the company's board of directors. Steelmakers and miners also rallied with Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 19.76, +0.40) and Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 35.79, +0.29) gaining 2.1% and 0.8%, respectively.

Elsewhere, the technology sector (+0.4%) kept the market from sliding deeper into negative territory thanks to solid gains among large cap components. Most notably, Apple (AAPL 132.65, +2.37) climbed 1.8% ahead of its quarterly report while chipmakers held up relatively well with the PHLX Semiconductor Index adding 0.3%. The modest uptick in the chip index masked an 8.4% plunge in the shares of Applied Materials (AMAT 19.97, -1.83) brought on by news that the company terminated its combination agreement with Tokyo Electron due to regulatory concerns.

Treasuries retreated throughout the morning, but reversed course to erase the bulk of their losses. The 10-yr yield ticked up a basis point to 1.92%.

Today's participation was ahead of recent averages with more than 780 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Tomorrow, the Case-Shiller 20-city Index for February will be reported at 9:00 ET ( consensus 4.7%) while the April Consumer Confidence report will cross the wires at 10:00 ET (expected 102.2).
  • Nasdaq Composite +6.9% YTD 
  • Russell 2000 +4.1% YTD 
  • S&P 500 +2.4% YTD 
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.2% YTD

>>> China Stats Bureau researcher He: Lower price of raw materials helped boost industrial profits; Recent interest rate cut also lowered operational costs



China Stats Bureau researcher He: Lower price of raw materials helped boost industrial profits; Recent interest rate cut also lowered operational costs - Shanghai Daily
- Says: Recovery in the energy sector is another important source of better profit.
- Overall conditions are still severe due to weak demand; Poor sales have added to pressure on inventory

(TWT) ed hammond: RT @SashaDamouni: $TEVA is meeting $MYL investors later this week to gauge interest on value; investors we talked


ed hammond: RT @SashaDamouni: $TEVA is meeting $MYL investors later this week to gauge interest on value; investors we talked
2015-04-27 19:28:24.538 GMT

RT @SashaDamouni: $TEVA is meeting $MYL
investors later this week to gauge interest on
value; investors we talked to see range of
$85-$95 in a deal
ed hammond @EdHammondNY
 
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tweet on the Twitter web site.

Twitter profile information as of April 27, 2015

Description: Bloomberg deals reporter based in NY. Ex-FT. Views expressed here
are my own, RT's are not endorsements.

Tweets: 680  Following: 92  Followers: 2,108  Tweeting Since:
10/21/2013  Twitter Verified

-0- Apr/27/2015 19:28 GMT

FT : Tsipras reshuffles negotiating team to sideline Varoufakis


Greece’s outspoken finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has been sidelined after three months of fruitless talks with international creditors, which culminated in an acrimonious meeting of eurozone finance ministers last Friday.
The Athens stock market surged on the news of the reshuffle of the bailout negotiators, in which Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, promoted two low-profile UK-trained economists.

The move came after Mr Varoufakis was rounded on at last Friday’s meeting in Riga for his failure to make progress on reaching a deal with bailout monitors to unlock €7.2bn of funds frozen since last year.
The shake-up signals that Mr Tsipras may be preparing to make concessions to creditors as Greece struggles to raise €1bn to pay pensions and subsidies this month, and repay loan and interest of €880m to the IMF by mid-May.
“This is a positive development for the likelihood of a deal,” said Mujtaba Rahman of risk analysts Eurasia Group.
“Varoufakis has become the single biggest impediment to a Greek deal. His relationship with Tsipras and Tsipras’s willingness to cut him loose has been the central question investors have been focused on,” he added.
A government official said the finance minister would head a new “political negotiating team” and would remain “in the frame of collective decision-making and execution” by the leftwing Syriza-led government.
But Euclid Tsakalotos, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, was appointed co-ordinator of the new team, in effect curbing Mr Varoufakis’s role. An Oxford-trained economist and Syriza’s shadow finance minister, he was passed over for the top job when Syriza came to power at the January election.
George Chouliarakis, who returned from teaching at Manchester University in the UK to head the finance ministry’s council of economic experts, will handle day-to-day bailout negotiations in Brussels.
He is seen as more moderate than his predecessor Nikos Theocarakis, a colleague of Mr Varoufakis who faced accusations by EU officials of foot-dragging in the negotiations.

(BFW) *BOEING SEES $2.7T GLOBAL MKT FOR JETLINERS OVER NEXT DECADE

BN 04/27 14:41 *BOEING INVESTMENTS FOCUSED ON ORGANIC GROWTH: MCNERNEY
BN 04/27 14:40 *BOEING SEES $2.7T GLOBAL MKT FOR JETLINERS OVER NEXT DECADE
BN 04/27 14:39 *BOEING CEO JIM MCNERNEY ADDRESSED SHAREHOLDERS AT ANNUAL EVENT
BN 04/27 14:39 *BOEING WORKING TO HARVEST TECHNOLOGICAL GAINS FROM 787: CEO
*BOEING SEES $2.7T GLOBAL MKT FOR JETLINERS OVER NEXT DECADE
2015-04-27 14:42:48.58 GMT

--PATRICK MCHALE

-0- Apr/27/2015 14:42 GMT

>>> Reckitt Benckiser reaffirms interest in buys despite recent lull

Deal Reporter

Reckitt Benckiser reaffirms interest in buys despite recent lull

Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB), the UK-based consumer health & hygiene company, continues to look for acquisition opportunities despite not making any notable buys recently, according to CEO Rakesh Kapoor.

On Friday’s 1Q15 sales and revenue call, Citigroup analyst Toby McCullagh noted that the company had been fairly quiet in terms of M&A and asked if this was due to price or a lack of available assets.

Kapoor said RB had been quiet on the M&A front for around a year, with its last deal the purchase of the K-Y brand. However, he said RB was not in a hurry to make deals and would focus on finding the right opportunity from both a strategy and value-creation perspective.

The CEO noted that the possibilities for acquisitions were helped by the continued fragmented nature of the market, adding that the company had to decide which opportunities to participate in and what value they would offer.

“I don’t believe that the market has dried up. We continue to look at many M&As,” Kapoor said. “I don’t think you should… go away with the idea that somehow the opportunity has dried up just because we haven’t done one for eight months or whatever.”

Previous remarks

On the 4Q14 earnings call in February, CFO Adrian Hennah said the company viewed acquisitions as an important part of its strategy and saw significant opportunities in this area. CEO Kapoor added that the consumer health space remained fragmented, with opportunities existing in this market.

On the February call, Kapoor said RB had made a number of strategic moves in 2014, including the demerger of its specialty pharmaceuticals business Indivior and the separation of its Russian hospital business. He said RB had also expanded its position in the US sexual wellbeing market with its K-Y acquisition.

RB agreed to buy the global rights to intimate lubricants provider K-Y brand in March 2014. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

RB’s portfolio includes 19 ‘Powerbrands’ that represent 71% of net revenues. Its main market segments are health, hygiene and home.

The company has worked with several different financial advisors on deals in recent times, according to the Mergermarket M&A database, including Deutsche Bank, Jefferies and Morgan Stanley on the Indivior separation. Morgan Stanley was also used for the GBP 866m purchase of Utah-based Schiff Nutrition in late 2012, along with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison on the legal side.

Slaughter and May has been used for a number of RB’s larger acquisitions. The firm is named as RB’s solicitor in the latter’s 2014 annual report. In-country law firms have also been used on occasion.

RB has a market capitalisation of GBP 42.4bn.