POST MARKET WRAPPER

U.S. Stocks Give Back Gains as Bond Yields Spike After FOMC Minutes

4:01 PM ET, 02/21/2018 - MT Newswires

04:01 PM EST, 02/21/2018 (MT Newswires) -- Wall Street melted away its rally on Wednesday afternoon, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 turning into the red late in the session as Treasury bond yields spiked and a U.S. dollar measure traded higher in the wake of minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's January meeting.

While stocks initially spiked on the FOMC's optimistic economic comments, the gains were eroded as inflation concerns emerged. The S&P's sectors posted a mixed performance.

US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Wall St gives up gains as Treasury yields climb

4:04 PM ET, 02/21/2018 - Reuters

NEW YORK, Feb 21 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday in a rocky session after the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's January meeting pushed yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note to a four-year high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 168 points, or 0.67 percent, to 24,796.75, the S&P 500 lost 14.87 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,701.39 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 16.08 points, or 0.22 percent, to 7,218.23. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by James Dalgleish)Sector Update: Tech Stocks Hang on for Slim Advance

3:53 PM ET, 02/21/2018 - MT Newswires

03:53 PM EST, 02/21/2018 (MT Newswires) -- Top Tech Stocks

MSFT -0.20%

AAPL +0.54%

IBM -0.08%

CSCO -0.59%

GOOG +1.81%

Technology stocks still were trending higher this afternoon, with shares of tech companies in the S&P 500 adding more than 0.3% in value today while the Philadelphia semiconductor index was posting a 0.2% decline.

Among technology stocks moving on news:

+ Intel (INTC) was narrowly higher in late Wednesday trading, hanging on to a sliver of a nearly 2% rise to an intra-day high of $47.06 a share that followed reports the chipmaker is planning to to spend $5 billion by 2020 to expand production at its Kiryat Gat plant in southern Israel. Intel has invested around $17 billion in Israel since 1974, including a $6 billion upgrade in 2014 that resulted in 5% reduction of its corporate taxes over the next 10 years. It will likely receive an additional reduction worth up to 10% of the money spent on upcoming expansion, a spokeswoman for the Israeli economy ministry told Reuters. A spokesman for Intel in Israel declined to comment for the Reuters report. Earlier Wednesday, analysts at DA Davidson raised their price target for Intel shares by $6 to $55 apiece and also reiterated their Buy/Add investment rating for the company's stock.

In other sector news:

+ Sphere 3D (ANY) raced over 20% higher on Wednesday, reaching a session high of $2.95 a share, after agreeing to sell its data protection and archive business to an entity created and operated by Sphere 3D chief executive Eric Kelly for $45 million, subject to a working capital adjustment. In prepared remarks, Sphere 3D president Peter Tassioupoulos said the transaction is consistent with the company's recent strategic review and will also eliminate all of its existing debt, allowing it to better focus on its converged and hyperconverged product offerings. The deal is expected to close before mid-year.

- Qualcomm (QCOM) was falling during Wednesday trading, dropping over 2% to a session low of $62.65 a share after Broadcom (AVGO) reduced its buyout price for the specialty chipmaker after Qualcomm raised its acquisition offer for NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) on Tuesday. Broadcom said it is now prepared to pay $79 for each Qualcomm share, consisting of $57 in cash and $22 in Broadcom stock after the target company increased its offer for NXP Semi to $127.50 per share, although it also said its offer would automatically rise by $3 in cash per Qualcomm share if Qualcomm is unable to complete the proposed acquisition. Other terms of Broadcom's bid were unchanged, including an $8 billion regulatory reverse termination fee and 6% per annum ticking fee accruing beginning after the 12-month anniversary of the companies' merger agreement.

- Garmin (GRMN) retreated Wednesday despite the GPS-technology company reporting adjusted Q4 net income of $0.79 per share, up from $0.73 per share during the same period last year and exceeding the Capital IQ consensus forecast by $0.03 per share. Revenue rose to $888.5 million from $860.8 million during the year-ago quarter, also beating the $872.7 million Street call. The company is also projecting adjusted FYH18 net income of around $3.05 per share on about $3.2 billion in revenue.

Price: 46.15, Change: -0.17, Percent Change: -0.38