>>> US Close Dow -1,13%S&P-1,35% Nasdaq-0,93% Russell-1,64% VIX (20,27)+18%

Closing Market Summary: Stocks Slide While FOMC Remains Patient

The stock market finished the midweek session on a mixed note despite showing considerable strength in the early going. The S&P 500 (-1.4%) lost its 100-day moving average (2,010) and settled behind the Nasdaq Composite (-0.9%) while the Russell 2000 (-1.7%) lagged throughout the day.

Equities appeared to be on solid footing at the start with the Nasdaq up 1.0% after Apple (AAPL 115.31, +6.17) reported better than expected results for the quarter and issued strong guidance. The stock surged 5.7% and helped the technology sector (-0.1%) finish near its flat line while most of the remaining sectors struggled.

The benchmark index traded little changed ahead of the afternoon release of the latest policy statement from the Fed, but slumped into the close. Once again, the policy directive reiterated the Fed's intent to remain patient in determining the appropriate timing for the first rate hike, which helped send Treasuries to new highs. The 10-yr yield fell ten basis points to 1.73% while the 30-yr yield dropped 11 basis points to register its lowest close on record (2.28%).

The Fed described U.S. economic growth as ‘solid' while categorizing job growth as ‘strong.' The central bank did not spend much time discussing overseas developments, which could help explain some of the selling that developed after the statement was released. Furthermore, the FOMC showed little concern over low inflation, saying that while the price level is expected to decline in the near term, a gradual return to 2.0% should follow once the ‘transitory effects of lower energy prices and other factors dissipate.'

Today, however, energy prices deteriorated further with crude oil dropping 3.6% to $44.53/bbl. The energy component continued slipping in electronic trade while the energy sector plunged 3.9% to widen its January decline to 5.7%.

The energy sector resides near the bottom of the January leaderboard with only financials (-2.0%) showing a larger decline for the month (-6.3%). Together, the underperformance of the pair serves as a reminder of the global growth concerns that have been at the forefront so far in 2015.

Elsewhere among influential sectors, consumer discretionary (-1.3%) and health care (-1.5%) finished a little behind the market while industrials (-0.9%) outperformed. Retailers and media names pressured the discretionary sector while biotechnology weighed on health care. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 318.98, -7.00) lost 2.2%.

For its part, the industrial space ended ahead of the broader market thanks to upbeat earnings and guidance from Dow component Boeing (BA 139.64, +7.16). In other earnings news, Electronic Arts (EA 54.61, +6.20) and Freescale Semiconductor (FSL 31.16, +4.81) surged 12.8% and 18.3%, respectively, after beating estimates.

The afternoon slide fueled a rush for portfolio protection, evidenced by a 17.9% spike in the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 20.30, +3.08). The near-term volatility measure returned to last week's levels with the entire move taking place after the FOMC statement.

Today's participation was a little above average with 835 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which fell 3.2% to follow the prior week's surge of 16.1%.

Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims will be reported at 8:30 ET (consensus 301K) while the Pending Home Sales report for December (consensus 0.6%) will be released at 10:00 ET.
  • Nasdaq Composite -2.1% YTD 
  • Russell 2000 -2.5% YTD 
  • S&P 500 -2.8% YTD 
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average -3.5% YTD

>>> Facebook beats by $0.06, beats on revs --> -0,15% in afterHours

Facebook beats by $0.06, beats on revs 

Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.54 per share, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.48; revenues rose 49.0% year/year to $3.85 bln vs the $3.78 bln consensus.
Free cash flow for the full year 2014 was $3.63 billion.

* Key Metrics
Daily active users (DAUs) were 890 million (Briefing.com consensus 890 mln) on average for December 2014, an increase of 18% year-over-year. Mobile DAUs were 745 million on average for December 2014, an increase of 34% year-over-year.
Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.39 billion (Briefing.com consensus 1.394 bln) as of December 31, 2014, an increase of 13% year-over-year. Mobile MAUs were 1.19 billion as of December 31, 2014, an increase of 26% year-over-year.

* Revenues
Revenue from advertising was $3.59 billion, a 53% increase from the same quarter last year.
Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 69% of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2014, up from approximately 53% of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2013.

* Expenses and Margins
Costs and expenses -- Excluding amortization of intangible assets, share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, non-GAAP costs and expenses were $1.63 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 50% compared to $1.09 billion for the fourth quarter of 2013.
non-GAAP operating margin was 58% for the fourth quarter of each of 2014 and 2013.

>>> Mellanox Tech beats by $0.15, beats on revs; guides Q1 revs above consensus

Mellanox Tech beats by $0.15, beats on revs; guides Q1 revs above consensus  


Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.59 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.15 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.44; revenues rose 33.7% year/year to $141.1 mln vs the $135.2 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $140-145 mln vs. $135.12 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Non-GAAP gross margins were 72.3% vs 69.0% a year ago, non-GAAP operating margin was 20.6%.
"We are pleased with the results of the quarter. They were achieved by the adoption of 40 Gigabit Ethernet by some of our leading customers, the growth in high-performance computing deployments with our increased market share and additional penetration into Web 2.0, storage and cloud markets."
"The need for faster interconnects continues to grow as data increases exponentially. We are very excited to see our 100 Gigabit per second InfiniBand interconnect solution go to market and expect to be utilized by multiple applications starting in [Q1]."

WSJ : Bill Ackman on Receiving End of Hedge Fund Selling

Bill Ackman on Receiving End of Hedge Fund Selling

Hedge fund activist Bill Ackman is used to calling the shots at the listed companies he frequently targets.

So there is a certain irony in the fact that it is other hedge funds, he says, who are responsible for driving down the price of shares in his $5.8 billion listed firm, Pershing Square Holdings — a situation he calls a “disappointment.”

Mr. Ackman, known for among other bets a long-running short position on Herbalife, and holdings in stocks such as Allergan Inc.AGN -1.38% and Zoetis Inc.ZTS -0.32%, raised $2.7 billion from new investors via a listing of the investment vehicle on the Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam last year.

However, Pershing Square Holdings PSH.AE +0.25% currently trades at around $24.39 per share. That is some way below its net asset value per share of $26.43 as of Jan. 20. Net asset value per share is a measure of a fund’s assets divided by the number of shares.

The 8% discount, according to Mr. Ackman, is due to selling by event-driven hedge funds who bought in at the float.

He says 27% of capital sold at the flotation went to such hedge funds. Their original aim, he says, was to make a quick profit as the shares moved to a premium – i.e. trading above net asset value.

But wider events took over.

Having priced the fund’s initial public offering on Sept. 30, he points to the collapse in pharmaceutical giant AbbVie IncABBV -1.71%’s deal to buy Shire SHPG -0.66% PLC soon after, which hit the event-driven hedge fund sector hard. Some investors in these funds began asking for their money back.

“(The) Shire (deal) blew up,” he says, adding that “the market went down 6%, and event-driven investments had a horrible year. And so with big redemptions they’ve been selling a lot of things.”

He points to €800 million ($904 million) of selling of Pershing Square Holdings’ shares, “almost all of it coming from hedge funds.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mr. Ackman, who this week joined LCH Investments NV’s list of the greatest hedge fund managers with net gains of $11.6 billion from his fund since inception, is optimistic the discount won’t last. He predicts that the hedge fund sellers will be picked up by long only funds.

“Ultimately I expect it to trade at a premium.”

(BFW) Swedish Government Plans Bank Tax in Budget in 2016, DI Reports

Swedish Government Plans Bank Tax in Budget in 2016, DI Reports
2015-01-28 20:46:41.768 GMT


By Niklas Magnusson
(Bloomberg) -- Swedish Financial Markets Minister Per
Bolund says government aims to include new bank tax in budget in
2016, Dagens Industri reports, citing interview with Bolund.
* Bank tax to raise SEK4-5b annually, Bolund says
* Says Nordea’s raised dividend highlights need for bank tax
* Earlier: Nordea Raises Dividend by 44% After Profit Beat
Estimates
* NOTE: Oct. 13: Sweden Sees No Implementation of Bank Tax
Until After 2015
* NOTE: July 1: Sweden’s Banks Face New Taxes to Help Pay for
Education Spending


For Related News and Information:
First Word scrolling panel: FIRST<GO>
First Word newswire: NH BFW<GO>

To contact the reporter on this story:
Niklas Magnusson in Stockholm at +46-8-610-0708 or
nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net

>>> US Earning Calendar

Earnings Calendar

* Today after the close look for the following companies to report:
AF, LVS, UMPQ, IEX, STLD, ALB, ALGT, CLB, CTXS, FTNT, IBKC, LRCX, MKSI, MLNX, NOW, SLG, TER, TSCO, VAR, GHL, SHOR, SWFT, AVB, GGP, AMP, AZPN, CBT, EXTR, FB, KRC, VRTX, BRKL, CACI, CAVM, CGI, CMO, CRUS, CSII, DRE, FLEX, ISIL, KEX, MEOH, MUR, PRXL, QGEN, SGI, TGI, CMPR, ATK, CPT, ESIO, WSTC, HOLX, PTC, QCOM, DHT, TTEK, JEC

* Tomorrow before the open look for the following companies to report:
BAX, BX, BEAV, HOG, ABT, CHKP, DOW, EMC, NOC, NOK, NYCB, SWK, TMO, WRLD, ALV, ALXN, BC, BMS, CAM, CCMP, CELG, CMS, CSH, DGX, HUB.B, JBLU, LSTR, MJN, OSTK, OXY, PENN, PHM, POT, RCI, RCL, RTN, RYL, SILC, TDY, WCC, ZMH, CL, CMCO, F, NDAQ, SXC, TCB, COH, SHW, TKR, VRTS, AIT, ALLY, CRR, HSY, MTH, PSX, PSXP, RGLD, UBSI, VLY, WILN, APD, CAH, COP, DHX, DST, EPD, GLOP, HAR, HGG, IVZ, KEM, KMT, LANC, LLL, LRN, MD, MMYT, RDS.A, TWC, XEL, HAE, ITG, BABA, HZO, RGS, VLO, KELYA, CLFD, HP, VIAB, PTRY

>>> Greece's sale of 14 regional airports to Fraport consortium to be cancelled

Greece's sale of 14 regional airports to Fraport consortium to be cancelled

The sale of Greece’s 14 regional airports will be cancelled, a Greek-language report in Euro2day said. It cited George Stathakis, the new minister of Economy and Infrastructure.

The Fraport-Slentel consortium was declared the preferred bidder in November 2014, as earlier reported. The consortium's offer consisted of an upfront payment of EUR 1.234bn and an annual payment of EUR 22.9m for the life of the concession, the earlier report said.

euro2day

(re/code.net) Apple Paid Former Burberry Boss $73 Million to Become Its Retail C

Apple Paid Former Burberry Boss $73 Million to Become Its Retail Chief

Former Burberry boss Angela Ahrendts collected some lovely welcoming gifts in her new role overseeing Apple’s retail operations — a compensation package valued at $73.4 million, according to regulatory filings.

Ahrendts, 54, received the most lucrative pay package of any Apple executive last year, based on a filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Her compensation dwarfed that of all the other named executives at Apple and outpaced the next highest-paid executive, media boss Eddy Cue, by $48.9 million. Ahrendts’ deal highlights the importance of Apple’s lucrative retail operations.

Apple also notes that Ahrendts was among the highest-paid executives in the U.K. When she decided to leave her job at the luxury retailer, she left unvested stock awards worth approximately $37 million (as well as cash and perquisites that exceeded $5 million a year).

The Cupertino technology giant said its 2014 compensation package was designed to make Ahrendts whole financially — and successfully recruit an executive who, during her tenure at Burberry, led the company through a turnaround in which its market capitalization more than doubled.

Since joining the company in May, Ahrendts has collected some $70 million in stock grants from Apple — $37 million to compensate her for the value of the Burberry stock that she walked away from in accepting the Apple job, plus a new-hire stock allocation valued at $33 million — 40 percent of which is performance based, with the rest vesting over three years.

She also pocketed a $500,000 cash bonus and relocation expenses totaling $457,615.

Apple said it departed from its usual practice and extended Ahrendts a severance agreement that, upon termination, would pay a lump sum equivalent to the base salary she would have collected for the remainder of the three-year period.

The retail chief receives an annual salary of $1 million, plus bonuses, similar to that of other senior executives.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, meanwhile, saw his total compensation rise to $9.2 million, more than double the $4.2 million value of the pay, bonuses and stock he received 2013.

Lieutenants Cue and Jeff Williams, head of operations, both received total compensation worth more than $24.4 million.

Luca Maestri, who was named chief financial officer last year, collected a compensation package valued at $14 million that included an $11.3 million stock award.