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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The stock market finished the Thursday session on a lower note with small caps leading the weakness. The Russell 2000 (-1.0%) and Nasdaq (-0.9%) posted comparable losses while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (unch) and S&P 500 (-0.1%) finished little changed after climbing off their lows during the last hour of action.

Equity indices began the day with modest gains, but were quick to slip into the red, where they remained for the rest of the session. Of the major averages, the Nasdaq faced the most aggressive selling due to the daylong weakness in biotechnology and an afternoon slump in the technology sector (-0.6%).

Biotechnology spent the entire session in a steady retreat that pressured the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 234.71, -6.89) back below its 100-day moving average (238.12). The biotech ETF lost 2.9% while the broader health care sector lost 0.3%.

For its part, the technology sector was among the early relative strength leaders before turning into a laggard during the early afternoon. It is worth mentioning the early strength was bolstered by a big gain in Google (GOOG 569.74, +2.74), which underwent a 2:1 split. The stock was up more than 3.0% in the morning before surrendering most of its gain over the course of the session. Most other large tech names finished in the red while Intel (INTC 26.41, +0.52) held a solid gain throughout the day.

Elsewhere, the discretionary sector (-0.5%) was another notable laggard after finishing among the leaders on Monday and Tuesday. Large components like Amazon.com (AMZN 333.62, -8.34), Priceline.com (PCLN 1237.45, -29.21), and Netflix (NFLX 354.69, -8.19) fell between 2.3% and 2.4% while homebuilders held up relatively well. The iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB 24.71, 0.00) ended flat.

On the upside, the energy sector (+0.6%) held a solid gain throughout the session while crude oil advanced 0.7% to $100.29/bbl.

Meanwhile, the other commodity-linked sector, materials (+0.1%) posted a modest gain, thanks to a boost from Monsanto (MON 117.04, +2.62), which gained 2.3% after being upgraded to 'Overweight' from 'Neutral' at JP Morgan.

Treasuries ended near the middle of their range with the benchmark 10-yr yield falling two basis points to 2.79%.

Participation was below average with 647 million shares changing hands at the NYSE.

Today's economic data included three reports:

The weekly initial claims level increased to 326,000 from a revised 310,000 (from 311,000). The Briefing.com consensus expected the initial claims level to increase to 320,000. After several months between 330,000 and 340,000, initial claims have broken those bounds and are now trending between 315,000 and 330,000. This range is more typical of a 200,000 monthly increase in nonfarm payrolls. We would not be surprised, given the strength of the claims data in March, if payrolls top 200,000 for the first time since November 2013.
The U.S. trade deficit increased to $42.30 billion in February from a slightly upwardly revised $39.30 billion (from $39.10 billion) in January. That was the largest deficit since reaching $43.40 billion in September 2013. The Briefing.com consensus pegged the trade deficit at $39.30 billion. The goods deficit rose to $61.70 billion in February from $59.50 in January, an increase of $2.20 billion. The services surplus fell $800 million to $19.40 billion in February from $20.20 billion.
The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index increased to 53.1 in March from 51.6 in February while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase to 53.5. The increase in the headline index was mostly the result of a recovery in employment. The Employment Index, which contracted in February, increased to 53.6 in March from 47.5.

Tomorrow's data will focus on jobs with March Nonfarm Payrolls (Briefing.com consensus 195K), Private Payrolls (consensus 205K), Unemployment Rate (consensus 6.6%), Hourly Earnings (consensus +0.2%), and Average Workweek (consensus 34.4) all set to cross the wires at 8:30 ET.

S&P 500 +2.2% YTD
Russell 2000 +1.6% YTD
Nasdaq Composite +1.5% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -0.02% YTD

DJ30 -0.45 NASDAQ -38.72 SP500 -2.13 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 819/1.92 bln/1992 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1238/647.3 mln/1777

3:30 pm :

Precious metals traded lower today as a stronger dollar index weighed on prices.
June gold brushed a session low of $1281.90 per ounce in early morning action and settled with a 0.5% loss at $1284.60 per ounce.
May silver dipped to a session low of $19.66 per ounce shortly after floor trade opened. It then consolidated near the $19.85 per ounce level and eventually settled 1.3% lower at $19.79 per ounce.
May crude oil lifted from its session low of $99.22 per barrel and broke into positive territory by late morning pit action. It brushed a session high of $100.34 per barrel and settled at $100.29 per barrel, booking a gain of 0.7%.
May natural gas fell to a session low of $4.36 per MMBtu following inventory data that showed a draw of 74 bcf when a draw of 74-75 bcf was anticipated. However, it quickly regained momentum and climbed to a session high of $4.48 per MMBtu before settling with a 2.5% gain at $4.47 per MMBtu.

4:06PM Micron beats by $0.09, beats on revs (MU) 24.00 -0.35 : Reports Q2 (Feb) earnings of $0.85 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.09 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.76; revenues rose 97.6% year/year to $4.11 bln vs the $4.02 bln consensus.

Revenues from sales of Trade NAND Flash products were 11 % higher in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2014 primarily due to a 35 % increase in sales volume offset by an 18 % decrease in average selling prices.
Revenues from sales of DRAM products were essentially unchanged in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2014 as both sales volumes and average selling prices remained stable.
The company's overall consolidated gross margin was 34 % in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 compared to 32 % in the first quarter of fiscal 2014 as a result of a higher DRAM gross margin.
Cash flows from operations for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 were $1.39 bln, while investments in capital expenditures were $565 mln. The company ended the second fiscal quarter with cash and marketable investments of $5.06 bln.

12:30PM 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

GOOG (578.1 +1.96%): Trading higher following Class C share dividend, resulting in a 2:1 split effective today.
MON (117.04 +2.29%): Upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
KKR (23.68 +2.69%): Initiated with an Outperform at Bernstein; tgt $33; reports out that co is buying shipping loans and may be interested in Lloyds (LYG) tranche.

Large Cap Losers

SJR (23.32 -3.72%): Downgraded to Sector Perform from Sector Outperform at CIBC Wrld Mkts.
IVZ (36.79 -2.36%): Trading lower following reports that St James plans to move fund management mandates.
ADSK (48.53 -2.12%): Mentioned unfavorably on Mad Money.

Mid Cap Gainers

RPM (44.01 +4.36%): Beat on EPS by $0.03, missed on revs; raised FY14 EPS guidance.
NFX (32.63 +3.85%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS; tgt raised to $37 from $26.
ONNN (9.86 +3.84%): Co to acquire Truesense Imaging for ~$92 mln in cash; expected to be immediately accretive to margins and earnings.

Mid Cap Losers

QUNR (29.7 -7.99%): Weakness in Chinese ADRs (SFUN, YY, WUBA also lower).
SPLK (67.01 -5.78%): Upgraded to Outperform from Underperform at Credit Agricole; tgt lowered to $80 from $100.
SCTY (60.96 -4.38%): Priced offering by its subsidiary, SolarCity LMC Series II, of $70.2 mln with an interest rate of 4.59% and an anticipated repayment date of April 2022.

12:18PM Lagging Nasdaq Comp -32 sets new session low along with S&P -4.3 -- Dow -19.9 hovering just above its low (TECHX) : Intraday relative sector weakness noted in: Internet FDN, Retail XRT, Restaurant, Casino BJK, Technology XLK, Software IGV, Networking IGN.

12:08PM Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (208) outpacing new lows (21) (SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAV, ABFS, ABG, ADI, ALV, AMAT, AMKR, AMSG, AN, ARW, ATI, BAH, BDBD, BELFB, BFAM, BHI, BKU, BMI, BMRC, BPL, BUD, BXE, CAR, CAT, CBI, CBSO, CCC, CDW, CFX, CHE, CLD, CLR, CNQ, CODE, CORT, CRI, CRK, CRS, CSE, CSL, CVD, CXO, CYT, DBD, DD, DISH, DLX, DMLP, DOV, DTE, DVN, ECA, EGY, EME, EMES, ENTG, EOG, FL, FLIR, FN, FNB, FNHC, FRP, FSL, FWLT, GA, GBX, GGAL, GLOG, GLW, GOOG, GPOR, GSAT, GSJK, GSOL, H, HAR, HCLP, HES, HI, HIL, HOLI, HPJ, HST, IRF, ISRG, ITRN, IVAC, JW.A, JWN, KAMN, KEP, KFS, KFY, KLAC, KR, LAZ, LBY, LEA, LINTA, LLTC, LLY, LRCX, LXK, MAR, MCHP, MDT, MED, MGPI, MKL, MLR, MPAA, MPET, MTDR, MTSI, MTX, MTZ, MXIM, NFX, NGL, NGLS, NOA, NP, NRG, NS, NVDA, NVDQ, NXPI, NYLD, OCLR, ONNN, ORAN, OSK, PACW, PBI, PES, PJC, PLCM, PMC, PMCS, PNY, POL, PSX, QCOM, QLGC, QUIK, R, RDNT, REI, REMY, RFMD, RMBS, ROK, RPM, RRMS, RTRX, RYAAY, SAN, SBSA, SCI, SFNC, SGK, SGU, SGY, SIR, SLB, SLCA, SLGN, SMMF, SOHO, SPB, SRLP, ST, STAG, STRZA, SUP, SWN, SXT, SYX, TAP, TECD, TEL, TER, THG, TOWR, TQNT, TRGP, TROW, TRW, TV, TWTC, TXI, TXT, UNT, UPL, VAC, VC, VECO, VET, VLO, VPFG, VPG, VSEC, VTNR, WDC, WEC, WES, WLL

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AEPI, AMAG, AVNW, CIX, CRCM, DRNA, GMO, HELI, INFI, KBIO, LQDT, MNTA, NEWL, ONTX, PBPB, SOQ, TBAC, TNGN, VEEV, VHI, VRNS

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: DIA, DIG, DVY, EWC, EWP, EWQ, EZU, GULF, IEO, IGE, IHI, IOO, IXC, IYE, IYM, IYT, MDY, MES, OEF, SDY, SMH, SOXX, SPY, UYM, XLB, XLE, XLK, XOP

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: SMN

9:38AM STMicroelectronics and Italiano di Tecnologia sign R&D collaboration agreement (STM) 9.33 0.00 : Co and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), an international scientific and technological research center based in Italy, have announced the signing of a formal agreement sealing their long-standing collaboration on a range of research activities, including Robotics, Neuroscience, Energy and Environment, and Health and Safety. The agreement, which will have an initial duration of three years, builds on many years of previous cooperation between the two parties.
9:34AM Intel provides early leadership for Semi sector and Dow (INTC) 26.28 +0.39 : The stock was resumed with an overweight from neutral rating and gapped higher to close the Jan bear gap at 26.32 (session high 26.32)

MaxLinear (MXL) and STMicroelectronics (STM) announced a reference design aimed at accelerating the adoption of next-generation Ultra HD set-top boxes and gateways for satellite pay-TV operators worldwide.

9:02AM SolarCity prices second securitization (SCTY) 63.75 : Co announces the pricing of the offering by its wholly-owned subsidiary, SolarCity LMC Series II, of $70.2 mln with an interest rate of 4.59% and an anticipated repayment date of April 2022. The notes were priced on April 2. The sale of the notes is expected to close on April 10.

9:00AM KEMET enters into agreement for sale of machinery division (KEM) 6.07 :

Co announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, KEMET Electronics Italia S.r.l., has entered into an agreement to sell the assets and specified liabilities of its Machinery division to Manz AG.
The division was originally acquired by KEMET as part of its purchase of Arcotronics Italia S.p.A. in 2007, and manufactures machines for the production of lithium-ion batteries, film capacitors and electrolytic capacitors. As a result of the sale, all 83 division employees will be transferred to Manz.
The transaction also includes a supply agreement by which Manz will supply certain capacitor manufacturing equipment to KEMET over the next four years.
The sale is expected to close no later than April 30, 2014.

Mellanox Technologies (MLNX) announced that its FDR 56Gb/s InfiniBand, 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s Ethernet solutions are fully certified on Cloudera 5.

8:30AM IXYS announces customer interest in high Megawatt 3-level press-pack IGBT Inverter Stacks (IXYS) 11.54 : Co announces wide ranging customer interest in the recent introduction of a range of standard three-level press-pack IGBT phase leg stacks with power rating up to 16 Megawatts.

The new stack designs are available for applications at three voltage levels 3.3kV, 6.6kV and 10kV and incorporate IXYS UK's market leading press-pack IGBT technology. The 3.3kV option is available as a single stack, comprising a complete phase leg of four 2400A press-pack IGBTs plus the anti-parallel and neutral point clamp diodes. The phase leg is rated at 8MW.

SunEdison (SUNE) signed an agreement with Shinsung Solar Energy. Co expects to purchase 660 MW of high efficiency solar cells manufactured by Shinsung with SunEdison solar wafers

BRCM -0.5% (resumed with a Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray)

ONNN +2.1% ( to Acquire Truesense Imaging for ~$92 mln in cash)

Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas, a business region of Avnet (AVT), opened two joint application design centers with Microsemi (MSCC). The design centers' efforts will concentrate on developing application-specific reference designs that solve OEM customers' major technical design challenges requiring low-power and security in the design.

7:03AM JinkoSolar Holding signs RMB241.4 mln loan with China Development Bank for 2 PV Solar Projects (JKS) 32.00 : Co announces that it has entered into RMB214.4 million (~$39 million) loan agreement with China Development Bank to finance two PV solar projects in Xinjiang and Gansu Provinces.

According to the terms of the agreements, CDB's Xinjiang Branch will provide a 18-year loan totaling RMB141.4 million to finance JinkoSolar's 20MW project located in Alaer, Xinjiang Province while the Gansu Branch will provide a 15-year loan totaling RMB100 million to finance JinkoSolar's 15MW project located in Jinchang, Gansu Province. The two projects were connected to the grid at the end of 2013.

6:01AM Chipmos Technology announced that its 62.1% owned subsidiary, priced its previously announced share subscription at a price of NT$26.5/share ($0.88/share) (IMOS) 22.91 :

20 mln common shares are being sold in an underwritten public offering, with Yuanta Securities Company, Limited is acting as the book-running manager and Capital Securities Corp. acting as the co-manager for the initial public offering. Pursuant to the Taiwan listing process, ChipMOS Taiwan is issuing 18.5 mln new common shares, while 1.5 mln shares are being offered by certain shareholders.
Under applicable Taiwan laws, an additional 3.3 mln new common shares have been reserved as incentive for the purchase by employees under managerial level of ChipMOS Taiwan.
ChipMOS Taiwan intends to use the proceeds from the sale of the 21.8 mln new common shares in this offering for general corporate purposes, including supporting potential growth opportunities. The offering is expected to close on April 9, 2014.

ON Semiconductor (ONNN) signed a definitive agreement to acquire Truesense Imaging, a provider of high-performance image sensor devices addressing a wide range of industrial end-markets including machine vision, surveillance, traffic monitoring, medical and scientific imaging, and photography. The acquisition of Truesense Imaging complements ON Semiconductor's image-sensor business by vastly expanding its technology portfolio and adding more than 200 new customers. Expands ON Semiconductor's presence in the high-margin industrial end-market. Establishes ON Semiconductor as a leading provider for a broad range of high-performance image sensors for applications in the industrial end-market. ON Semiconductor will pay approximately $92 million in cash to acquire Truesense Imaging, Inc. and the acquisition will be funded by cash on its balance sheet. Transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to margins and earnings.
CACI Intl (CACI) lowered fiscal year 2014 EPS guidance to $5.12-5.51, from $5.59-5.98 and lowered revenue guidance to $3.5-3.6 from $3.65-3.80 billion which are both below consensus. The company is revising its guidance as a result of the impact of the continued uncertainty our customers are experiencing despite the passage of the omnibus appropriations bill in January. Co continues to experience delays in contract awards for new business to CACI, lower run-rates on professional services contracts, and reductions in Afghanistan-related material purchases. Co now expects revenue for FY14 to range between $3.5-3.6 billion. Net income is now expected to range between $130 mln and $140 mln, which includes approximately $13 mln of one-time, pre-tax expenses associated with our acquisition of Six3 Systems. According to President and Chief Executive Officer Ken Asbury, "Our lower FY14 guidance reflects reduced government spending and delays in award activity." "We are disappointed that these factors have not been mitigated by the passing of the 2014 appropriations act, as we had anticipated. However, the operational performance across our company remains strong in this uncertain environment. We are seeing results from the strengthening of our business development initiatives, and we are very pleased with the progress of our integration of Six3 Systems and its performance. We remain confident in our market-driven strategy." Following are the key changes related to our revised FY14 guidance: "We expect that our direct labor costs will be flat to up slightly when compared with FY13, and our other direct costs will be 7-10% lower than FY13. ""We expect that our indirect costs and selling expenses will be about the same as FY13, with the ongoing operating costs of Six3 Systems and the associated one-time transaction costs offset by cost efficiencies in our base business.""We expect that Q4 net income will be higher than our Q3 due to higher award fees, greater contributions by Six3 Systems, increased volume of high margin product sales, modestly higher direct labor, and lower interest expense."
Cypress Semi (CY) raised guidance for the first quarter with revenues of $169-171 million from prior guidance of $161-168 million which is higher than expected. The company announced that Brad Buss, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, is retiring from Cypress after eight years of service. He will remain EVP and CFO through June 1, 2014, after which Thad Trent, currently Vice President of Finance, will assume the role of EVP and CFO. Buss will then continue on a part-time basis, assisting in the transition through September 1, 2014, after which he will become a non-employee advisor to the Board and the CEO through April 30, 2015. Trent joined Cypress in 2005 and has been Vice President of Finance since 2010.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) disclosed the following actions and charges associated with its previously announced integrated operating plan, or IOP. "The actions announced today are among several initiatives under our IOP that are designed to focus the Company on high-growth segments and to right-size certain functions. Overall, the Company believes that it is taking a balanced approach to cost management and prioritizing and strengthening our focus on the innovation that matters most to our customers." In connection with the efforts to streamline its business structure, the Company expects to reduce worldwide headcount by approximately 6%. The majority of these reductions are immediate, and a significant proportion are middle management positions. The Company estimates that it will incur cash charges of approximately $35 million for severance and other related employee termination expenses in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. In addition, in connection with a review of its product portfolio, the Company has determined to cease development of the application delivery controller technology licensed in July 2012 that will result in a non-cash intangible asset impairment charge of approximately $85 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. There are no revenues associated with this technology. In addition, the Company expects to accrue other non-cash asset write-downs of approximately $10 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. Additional actions and restructuring charges are expected to be taken in the second quarter and the balance of fiscal 2014, including facilities consolidations, marketing program reductions, and other asset restructures. In particular, as a part of the Company's long-term facilities plans and the above-mentioned work force reductions, the Company plans to consolidate its facilities, which will result in the future disposal of approximately 300,000 square feet of leased facilities, representing approximately 12% of our global facilities square footage. The Company currently estimates that it will incur facilities restructuring charges beginning in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 and continuing throughout the fiscal year of approximately $70 million in the aggregate. We anticipate potential additional restructuring charges of approximately $20 million to be accrued later in fiscal 2014.