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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : Equity indices finished the Tuesday session on their lows after spending the entire day in negative territory. The S&P 500 tumbled 0.9% with nine sectors registering losses, while the Russell 2000 fell 1.6%, settling below its 200-day moving average for the first time since November 2012.

Stocks were pressured from the get-go as index futures slid to their pre-market lows ahead of the opening bell. While the early slide was not brought on by a particular news item, it served as a reflection of the defensive sentiment in the foreign exchange market where the yen rallied to its best level in three weeks. The dollar/yen pair notched a session low in the 101.50 area, before inching up to 101.65 into the close.

The cautious posture was also visible in the Treasury market as the 10-yr note climbed off its overnight low into the New York open and continued into the afternoon. As a result, the 10-yr note added four ticks, sending its yield lower by two basis points to 2.59%.

Once the session got going, dip-buyers tried to force a turnaround, but were unable to do so as some of the top-weighted sectors kept the pressure on the broader market.

Most notably, the financial sector (-1.4%) underperformed for the second consecutive day. Influential components like Bank of America (BAC 14.73, -0.35), Citigroup (C 46.36, -0.82), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 53.34, -0.88) lost between 1.6% and 2.3%, while AIG (AIG 50.54, -2.18) plunged 4.1% after reporting a bottom-line beat on revenue that missed estimates.

Elsewhere, the discretionary sector (-1.4%) also posted a loss larger than 1.0% amid broad weakness. Retailers (XRT -1.7%) and homebuilders (ITB -2.0%) played a part in the underperformance, while Office Depot (ODP 4.83, +0.66) surged 15.8% after beating earnings estimates.

Also of note, the technology sector (-1.2%) held up a bit better than financials and discretionary shares, but was unable to stay out of the bottom third of today's leaderboard. Chipmakers, however, had a decent showing as the PHLX Semiconductor Index shed 0.4%.

Momentum names were not nearly as fortunate, with Facebook (FB 58.53, -2.69), LinkedIn (LNKD 142.33, -8.58), and Yelp (YELP 52.13, -8.06) diving between 4.4% and 13.4%, while Twitter (TWTR 31.85, -6.90) sank 17.8% on heaviest volume on record.

Just like momentum names, biotechnology lagged, sending the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 229.33, -3.95) lower by 1.7%, while the health care sector ended in line with the broader market.

On the upside, the energy sector (+0.2%) posted a slim gain to extend its quarter-to-date advance to 5.7%.

Despite the daylong selling, participation was a bit below average as less than 690 million shares changed hands at the NYSE.

Today's economic data was limited to the March Trade Balance report:

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $40.40 billion in March from a downwardly revised $41.90 billion (from $42.3 billion) in February, while the Briefing.com consensus expected the trade balance to decline to -$40.6 billion. The BEA assumed that the trade balance would increase to roughly $42.5 billion in the advance estimate to first quarter GDP. The lower-than-expected trade deficit should boost first quarter GDP growth in the second estimate. The goods deficit fell by $0.6 billion to $60.8 billion in March from $61.3 billion in February. The services surplus increased by $0.9 billion to $20.4 billion in March from $19.5 billion in February.

Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET, while Q1 Productivity and Unit Labor Costs will be announced at 8:30 ET. The day's data will be topped off with a 15:00 ET release of the March Consumer Credit report. Also of note, Fed Chair Janet Yellen will appear before the Joint Economic Committee at 10:00 ET.

S&P 500 +1.1% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.1% YTD
Nasdaq Composite -2.3% YTD
Russell 2000 -4.6% YTD

DJ30 -129.53 NASDAQ -57.30 SP500 -16.94 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 566/1.70 bln/2190 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 967/685.3 mln/2091

3:35 pm :

June gold chopped around slightly below the unchanged line today despite a weaker dollar index.
Economic data showed that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $40.40 bln in March from a downwardly revised $41.90 bln (from $42.3 bln) in February, while the Briefing.com consensus expected the trade balance to decline to -$40.6 bln. The yellow metal dipped to a session low of $1304.40 per ounce in morning action and eventually settled with a 0.1% loss at $1308.30 per ounce.
July silver, on the other hand, traded higher today. It brushed a session high of $19.70 per ounce in early morning action and consolidated near the $19.65 per ounce level for the remainder of the session. It settled with a 0.4% gain at $19.64 per ounce.
June crude oil pushed to a session high of $100.42 per barrel in morning action but gave up the gain in the last hour of pit trade. The energy component fell to a session low of $99.47 per barrel moments before settling at $99.52 per barrel, just 0.1% higher.
June natural gas trended higher after lifting from its session low of $4.74 per MMBtu. It held on to the momentum and settled 2.3% higher at $4.80 per MMBtu, just below its session high of $4.81 per MMBtu.

4:48PM Kopin misses by $0.02, beats on revs; maintains 2014 revenue guidance, in-line (KOPN) 3.15 -0.04 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of ($0.15) per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate loss of ($0.13); revenues fell 25.4% year/year to $4.7 mln vs the $4.3 mln consensus.
Kopin continues to expect full-year 2014 revenue in the range of $18-22 mln vs $20.5 mln consensus.

4:37PM Microchip beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (MCHP) 46.35 -0.41 : Reports Q4 (Mar) earnings of $0.64 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.61; revenues rose 14.7% year/year to $493.4 mln vs the $490.45 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.64-0.68, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.65 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $519.8-534.6 mln vs. $513.75 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:29PM First Solar Additional Metrics from Presentation (FSLR) 67.45 -0.97 : Q1 Actuals

Q1 Gross Profit 24.9%, Q4 was 24.6%.
Q1 Production 441 MW -1% q/q;
Q1 Cap Utilization 82% -1 bps q/q;
Q1 Conversion Efficiency 13.5% +10 bps q/q;

2014 Guidance

2014 expects module shipments 2.8 GW compared to 2.7 GW at end of Dec.
2014 revs guidance $3.7-4.0 bln, unchanged'
2014 Operating Cash Flow guidance $250-400 mln, prior $300-350 mln;
2014 CapEx Guidance $300-350 mln, unchanged; Production 1.9-2.0 GW, unchanged

4:28PM Planar Systems beats by $0.02, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS in-line, revs above consensus; guides FY14 EPS in-line, revs in-line (PLNR) 1.98 -0.05 : Reports Q2 (Mar) earnings of $0.03 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.01; revenues rose 4.3% year/year to $41.1 mln vs the $40.1 mln consensus.

Guidance: Co issues mixed guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.01-$0.03 vs. $0.03 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $41.5-$43.5 mln vs. $40.82 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co states, "In the short-term, the company expects to see continued strong revenue growth for digital signage products in the third quarter, driving overall revenue growth for the third quarter in excess of 10 percent compared with the third quarter of 2013."

Co issues in-line guidance for FY14, sees EPS of $0.15-$0.20 vs. $0.15 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY14 revs of $165-$175 mln vs. $167.28 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:22PM Extreme Networks misses by $0.02, misses on revs; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus; announces CFO transition (EXTR) 5.33 -0.23 : Reports Q3 (Mar) earnings of $0.02 per share, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.04; revenues rose 107.9% year/year to $141.8 mln vs the $144.78 mln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.02-0.04 vs. $0.07 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $145-150 mln vs. $159.37 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Extreme Networks today also announced that John Kurtzweil, the company`s chief financial officer, will transition his duties and become a special assistant to the CEO beginning June 2, 2014 and will stay with the company until the end of September 2014 to ensure a seamless transition of his responsibilities. Kurtzweil has served as the company`s CFO since 2012. The Company also announced that Ken Arola is joining Extreme Networks as senior vice president and CFO, effective June 2, 2014.

4:20PM Axcelis Tech misses by $0.01, misses on revs; System revenues increase by 27% reflecting continued market acceptance (ACLS) 1.77 +0.02 : Reports Q1 (Mar) net of breakeven, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.01; revenues rose 49.4% year/year to $60.8 mln vs the $61.89 mln consensus.

4:05PM Veeco Instruments appoints Shubham Maheshwari as Chief Financial Officer (VECO) 34.10 -2.73 : VECO has appointed Shubham Maheshwari, 42, as its new Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

Mr. Maheshwari replaces David D. Glass, who announced his retirement from Veeco last December.
Maheshwari most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of OnCore, a global manufacturer of electronic products in the medical, aerospace, defense and industrial markets.

12:38PM 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

AVGO (67.1 +4.44%): Co to replace LSI Corp. (LSI) in the S&P 500 after the close of trading on May 7.
EOG (103.2 +3.98%): Beat on EPS by $0.21, beat on revs.
ALU (4.01 +3.21%): Co may be a takeover target by Nokia (NOK), according to reports.

Large Cap Losers

TWTR (34.47 -11.03%): WSJ discussed that many advertisers are pitching for video ad spots on FB, according to reports; co's IPO lockup expired yesterday.
BCS (16.55 -4.22%): Reported Adj Pretax profit GBP1.69 bln vs GBP1.79 bln LY, revs of GBP6.65 bln vs GBP7.22 bln estimate; downgraded to Hold at Numis.
AIG (50.32 -4.55%): Beat on EPS by $0.15, missed on top line.

Mid Cap Gainers

ODP (4.85 +16.31%): Beat on EPS by $0.04, beat on revs; raised operating income, merger synergy guidance.
EXH (45.09 +7.46%): Beat on EPS by $0.05, missed on revs.
DATA (60.8 +4.85%): Beat on EPS by $0.10, beat on revs; guided Q2 above consensus, raised FY14 guidance; target raised to $65 from $60 at Mizuho; target lowered to $78 from $94 at FBR Capital; target raised to $78 from $70 at RBC Capital Mkts.

Mid Cap Losers

ATHN (110.01 -13.23%): Reaffirmed 2014 guidance; Greenlight's David Einhorn made cautious comments on ATHN at Ira Sohn, believes it could fall 80% - said ATHN is good co but stock is simply not at the right price (BBerg TV).
SGY (44.84 -7.66%): Beat on EPS by $0.13, beat on revs; sees Q2 production at 43.5-45.5 MBoe per day, sees 261-273 MMcfe per day.
MR (31.6 -6.15%): Beat on EPS by $0.02; revs rose 9.4% y/y to $264.8 mln vs the $292.5 mln consensus; reaffirmed FY rev to grow at least 15%, reaffirmed 2014 net income to remain similar to 2013 levels; announced that Mr. Jie Liu has resigned from his Chief Operating Officer position for personal reasons, effective immediately.

11:42AM Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (82) outpacing new lows (69) (SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAPL, ACMP, AER, AIRI, APC, ASMI, AV, AVGO, BP, BPL, BXE, CKEC, CRESY, CRZO, DAL, DMLP, DYN, ECOL, ELS, EMES, ENR, EOG, EPD, ESS, ESTE, FWLT, GLOG, GMK, GSAT, HGT, HHC, HOLX, IDXX, IHG, IRS, KEP, KFS, LSI, LVLT, LYB, MMP, MPC, MPET, MU, NGG, NGLS, NLS, NRG, NTI, NTZ, NVS, OKE, ORAN, PAC, PAM, POM, PPC, PPL, RDNT, RDS.B, RFMD, RHP, RTIX, SBGL, SNDK, SOFO, SPBC, SQBG, STO, SU, SXL, SYPR, TNET, TRN, VLO, WGP, WLP, WMB, WNR, XOM, YONG, ZBRA

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ACAT, AEPI, AHS, AMRC, AMWD, ARQL, BNNY, CAS, CCCR, CIT, CNSI, COCO, COH, CPIX, DCTH, DGII, DRL, EDMC, ELNK, ELRC, EXPR, FLL, FWM, GENE, GNE, GORO, GYRO, HEAR, HGR, ISLE, JOEZ, KBR, LEI, LUB, MCGC, MNTA, NAK, NEWL, NIHD, NILE, NMBL, OCN, OLED, PLPC, PRAN, PRO, RM, RSE, SEAC, SFM, SGI, SIGM, SNOW, SOQ, SPU, TCRD, TEU, TIGR, TR, TWER, TWGP, TWTR, TXTR, UNXL, UTIW, VCRA, VIVO, VSR, WPCS

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: AMJ, DIG, EGPT, EWK, EWP, EWU, FAN, FXB, IEO, IGE, IXC, IYE, XLE

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: UUP, VXX

Peregrine Semiconductor (PSMI) announced shipment of the first RF switches built on the UltraCMOS 10 technology platform.

9:11AM MKS Instruments authorized a quarterly cash dividend of $0.165/share, up from prior $0.16/share (MKSI) 28.23 :

9:07AM NVIDIA guides Q1 above consensus after inadvertently distributing results to ~100 people; call will still be held on Thursday afternoon (NVDA) 18.63 : Co issues upside guidance for Q1 (Apr), sees EPS of $0.29, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.22 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 (Apr) revs of $1.103 bln, up from $1.05 bln (+/- 2%) vs. $1.05 bln Capital IQ Consensus.

This press release is being issued because a preliminary draft of the co's financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 was inadvertently emailed to an internal distribution list of about 100 individuals. Because of this error, these results are being provided to the market in advance of trading in NVIDIA stock today as a precaution.
Co will report Q1 results on Thursday afternoon, as scheduled.

8:36AM Ixia receives expected Nasdaq letter; intends to request hearing before Nasdaq Hearings Panel (XXIA) 12.44 : Co announced that on May 2, 2014 and as expected, the company received a letter from the Listing Qualifications Department of The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC stating that unless the company requests on or before May 9, 2014 a hearing before a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel, the company's common stock will be delisted due to the company's non-compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1). The letter was issued in accordance with standard Nasdaq procedures because of the company's previously reported delay in filing its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 and Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013. The company plans to timely request a hearing before a Hearings Panel, and the request will automatically stay the delisting of the company's common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market for a period of 15 days after the deadline for the hearing request.

8:06AM SunEdison Interconnects 117 MW Of Utility-Scale Solar Projects In United Kingdom (SUNE) 20.26 : Co it has completed construction of a 117 MW DC portfolio of utility-scale photovoltaic solar power plants across the United Kingdom. The portfolio is comprised of eight separate solar power plants.
Additionally, Co also announces that it has completed construction of a 100 MW DC portfolio utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) solar power plants across the United Kingdom. The portfolio is composed of seven separate solar power plants.

8:05AM First Solar to build 42.76MW for EDF Renewable Energy (FSLR) 68.42 : Co has been selected as the turnkey Engineering, Procurement and Construction contractor for two projects under development by EDF Renewable Energy in California. First Solar and EDF Renewable Energy have signed EPC agreements for the 19.76 Megawatt (MW) AC CID Solar Project, located in Kings County; and the 23MWAC Cottonwood Solar Project, consisting of two sites, one located in Kings County and the other in Kern County. The CID Solar Project has a Power Purchase Agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The Cottonwood project has a PPA with Marin Clean Energy.

7:02AM JinkoSolar Holding reaffirms Q1 and FY14 guidance; will report results on May 27 (JKS) 27.36 :

Co announced that it reaffirms its guidance for the first quarter of 2014 and full year 2014:
Total solar module shipments are expected to be in the range of 440 MW and 470 MW for the first quarter of 2014
Total solar module shipments are expected to be in the range of 2.3 GW to 2.5 GW.
Total project development scale expected to be above 400 MW for the full year 2014.

The Company plans to release its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014 before the open of U.S. markets on Tuesday, May 27, 2014.

6:31AM ReneSola to provide 1.6MW in solar modules and 1MW in mounting systems to Consolidated Energy (SOL) 2.75 :

Co announced it has been contracted to provide 1.6MW in solar modules and 1MW in mounting systems to Consolidated Energy & Economic Engineering to power a series of residential and commercial rooftop projects in Jordan.
Under the terms of the agreement, ReneSola will provide 6,400 of its Virtus II 250W modules, along with 1.05MW of roof-mounting structures to Consolidated Energy. 4,400 units will be used for a 1.1MW commercial project to be completed within five months in Amman. The remaining 2,000 units will be used in a number of residential projects.

Veeco Instruments (VECO) reported first quarter loss of $0.06 per share, excluding non-recurring items, which is higher than expected, while revenues rose 47.0% year/year to $90.8 million which is higher than expected. The company issued guidance for the second quarter with ESP of $(0.23)-(0.14) & Revenues of $87-97 million which is below estimates. "After a long downturn in our MOCVD business, LED fab utilization rates have improved to high levels at most key accounts and LED adoption is happening faster than many had expected. Our customers are also reporting better market demand for LED backlighting products. It is encouraging to see that our leading customers are beginning to place orders for capacity expansions." "We currently anticipate that Veeco's [Q2] orders will be similar to or better than [Q1] orders. Yet, the timing and magnitude of key customer expansions could cause MOCVD orders to be lumpy and somewhat unpredictable on a quarterly basis, and we lack the visibility to see into the second half of the year."