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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The stock market ended the Thursday session on a broadly lower note after spending the entire trading day in the red. The S&P 500 fell 0.7% with eight sectors posting losses, while the Nasdaq (-0.8%) underperformed.

Equities slumped out of the gate following some disappointing economic data and reports of skirmishes in northern Iraq. The disappointing economic news pertained to the retail sector as retail sales increased just 0.3% (Briefing.com consensus 0.7%), while core retail sales, which closely match the consumption component of GDP, slipped 0.1% in May.

Separately, reports of intensifying battles in northern Iraq led by a breakaway militant group of Al-Qaeda raised concerns about the oil supply.

The headlines out of Iraq put a bid in the oil market (+2.1% to $106.54/bbl) while also creating a residual concern that higher energy prices will be an added tax on consumers who, broadly speaking, continue to be pinched by limited wage growth. Fittingly, the worries translated into relative weakness for the consumer discretionary sector (-1.3%), which ended at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Discretionary shares suffered from broad weakness among homebuilders and retailers. The iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB 23.99, -0.24) lost 1.0%, while SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 84.41, -1.15) tumbled 1.3%, extending its year-to-date loss to 4.2%.

Higher energy prices also pressured industrials (-1.3%), and specifically, transport stocks. The Dow Jones Transportation Average tumbled 2.0% with all 20 components ending in the red. Of the 20 listings, 16 posted losses larger than 1.0% with airlines leading the weakness. Delta Air Lines (DAL 38.50, -2.21) and United Continental (UAL 42.60, -2.66) fell 5.4% and 5.9%, respectively.

With transports unable to stage a bounce, the last hope for a rebound hinged on the performance of high-growth names. Small caps displayed relative strength in the morning, but an afternoon fade sent the Russell 2000 and the Nasdaq Composite to fresh lows.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended behind the remaining major averages due to afternoon weakness in biotechnology and chipmakers. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 247.83, -1.20) and PHLX Semiconductor Index posted respective losses of 0.5% and 0.3% despite showing intraday strength.

On the upside, energy (+0.3%) and utilities (+0.3%) finished modestly higher, extending their year-to-date gains to 8.6% and 10.3%, respectively.

Also of note, Treasuries enjoyed a strong day with the move flowing from some safe-haven positioning, some disappointment over the retail sales data, and some surprise at the strength of the 30-yr bond auction. The latter saw a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.69 (12-auction average was 2.35) and the highest takedown by indirect bidders (51.7%) since 2006. The benchmark 10-yr note, meanwhile, added 14 ticks, sending its yield lower by five basis points to 2.59%.

Participation left a bit to be desired as only 610 million shares changed hands at the NYSE.

Investors received several data points:

There weren't any major surprises with the initial claims report for the week ending June 7. It showed claims increasing by 4,000 to 317,000. That was roughly in-line with the Briefing.com consensus estimate, which was pegged at 315,000. The four-week moving average for this series jumped by 4,750 to 315,250. The Department of Labor clarified that there were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims, which continue to point to nonfarm payrolls growth in the neighborhood of 200,000.
Continuing claims for the week ending May 31 increased by 11,000 to 2.614 mln, which was better than the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 2.638 mln.
Total retail sales for May increased 0.3%. Excluding autos, they were up 0.1%. Those results were below the Briefing.com consensus estimates, which called for increases of 0.7% and 0.4%, respectively. That is the disappointing news. The offsetting news is that there were large upward revisions for April. Specifically, total retail sales in April were revised up to 0.5% from 0.1% while sales, excluding autos, were revised up to 0.4% from 0.0%.
Export prices, excluding agriculture, rose 0.1% in May after decreasing 1.2% in the prior reading. Excluding oil, import prices were unchanged, which followed last month's unchanged reading.
April business inventories rose 0.6%, while the Briefing.com consensus expected an uptick of 0.4%. This followed the prior month's unrevised increase of 0.4%.

Tomorrow, May PPI (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) and core PPI (consensus 0.1%) will be reported at 8:30 ET, while the June Michigan Sentiment survey (consensus 82.9) will be released at 9:55 ET.

S&P 500 +4.4% YTD
Nasdaq Composite +2.9% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.0% YTD
Russell 2000 -0.4% YTD

DJ30 -109.69 NASDAQ -34.30 SP500 -13.78 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 947/1.77 bln/1860 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1260/610.3 mln/1791

3:35 pm :

Precious metals trended higher today, gaining strength on a weaker dollar index. Aug gold and July silver both lifted from their respective session lows of $1261.80 per ounce and $19.20 per ounce set in morning action.
Gold touched a session high of $1274.60 per ounce and settled with a 1.0% gain at $1274.10 per ounce.
Silver brushed a session high of $19.55 per ounce moments before settling with a 1.9% gain at $19.53 per ounce.
July crude oil rose above the $106 per barrel level amid continued tensions in Northern Iraq.
The energy component brushed a session low of $105.68 per barrel in late morning action and pushed to a session high of $106.65 per barrel moments before settling at $106.54 per barrel, or 2.1% higher.
July natural gas rallied sharply following bullish inventory data that showed a build of 107 bcf when a build of 109-114 bcf was anticipated.
It rose to a session high of $4.77 per MMBtu after trading as low as $4.53 per MMBtu in early morning pit trade and closed with a solid 5.5% gain at $4.76 per MMBtu.

4:17 pm Intel raises Q2, FY14 sales and gross margin guidance, co cites stong demand for business PCs (INTC) : Co issues upside guidance for Q2 (Jun), sees Q2 (Jun) revs of $13.4-14.0 bln vs. $13.02 bln Capital IQ Consensus.

The co is forecasting the mid-point of the gross margin range to increase by 1 point to 64 percent, plus or minus a couple of percentage points (up from 63 +/-), driven mostly by higher PC unit volume.
R&D plus MG&A spending is expected to be ~$4.9 billion, $100 million higher than the prior expectation of ~$4.8 billion, driven largely by revenue- and profit-dependent items. The tax rate for the second quarter is expected to be 28 percent as compared to the prior expectation of 27 percent due to higher profits in higher tax jurisdictions. The expectation for second-quarter depreciation remains unchanged.

Co issues upside guidance for FY14 (Dec), Rraises FY14 (Dec) revs to 'some growth' from ~flat previously vs. consensus +0.7% to $53.06 bln.

The change in outlook is driven mostly by strong demand for business PCs.
The full-year gross margin percentage is now expected to be in the upper half of the previous range of 61 percent, plus or minus a few percentage points, driven mostly by expected improvements in unit cost and volume.
Full-year R&D plus MG&A spending is expected to be $19.2 billion, plus or minus $200 million, higher than the prior expectation of $18.9 billion, plus or minus $200 million, driven mostly by revenue- and profit-dependent items. The tax rate for each of the remaining quarters of 2014 is expected to be 28 percent, as compared to the prior expectation of 27 percent due to higher profits in higher tax jurisdictions. The expectations for full-year depreciation and capital spending are unchanged. No other guidance from the April 15 earnings release remains in effect.

4:12 pm Agilent Technologies calls for redemption of outstanding 5.5% senior notes due September 2015 (A) : Co announced it will redeem all of its outstanding 5.50% senior notes due September 2015 on July 14, 2014, the redemption date. This decision is consistent with Agilent's intention to resize its debt portfolio in connection with the expected spinoff of Keysight Technologies.

The accrued and unpaid interest on the notes up to but not including the redemption date. The aggregate principal amount of notes currently outstanding is $500 million.

4:06 pm Finisar misses by $0.02, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 EPS below consensus, revs above consensus (FNSR) : Reports Q4 (Apr) adj. earnings of $0.36 per share, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.38 vs. $0.36-0.40 guidance; revenues rose 25.7% year/year to $306 mln vs the $303.92 mln consensus.

Co issues mixed guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.30-0.34 vs. $0.41 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $320-335 mln vs. $313.41 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. non-GAAP operating margin of approximately 10.3% to 11.3%.

12:25 pm 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

TWTR (37.22 +4.73%): Co confirmed Ali Rowghani has resigned from his position as the Chief Operating Officer; Mr. Rowghani will continue to be a Twitter employee.
TSLA (208.57 +2.01%): Elon Musk confirmed via Twitter that there will be news on TSLA patents tomorrow at 10am.
CMG (580.42 +1.77%): Tgt raised to $625 from $560 at Raymond James.


Large Cap Losers

UAL (42.54 -6.01%): Weakness in airline names (AAL, DAL, LUV also lower).
VALE (12.73 -3.53%): Downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
GWW (261.36 -2.92%): Reported daily sales for the month of May 2014 increased 6% versus May 2013.


Mid Cap Gainers

RH (80.63 +13.01%): Beat on EPS by $0.07, beat on revs; guided Q2 EPS above consensus, revs in-line; raised FY15 guidance above consensus.
GTAT (18.15 +4.28%): Co announced agreement with Qatar Solar Energy to supply its HiCz200 furnaces for QSE's integrated PV manufacturing project in Doha, Qatar.
ITMN (43.9 +4.42%): Tgt raised to $55 from $48 at JMP Securities.


Mid Cap Losers

SFUN (8.93 -16.07%): Downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
LULU (37.73 -14.83%): Beat on EPS by $0.02, reported revs in-line; guided Q2 EPS below consensus, lowered FY15 EPS and revs below consensus, announced $450 mln buy back, CFO to retire; downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel; downgraded to Mkt Perform from Outperform at William Blair.
APU (44.84 -5.82%): Announced Heritage ETC, (selling unitholdler), an affiliate of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), priced a public offering of 8.5 mln AmeriGas common units at $45.80 per unit.

9:11 am Nokia's HERE plans to acquire Medio Systems; financial terms not disclosed (NOK) :

NOK's HERE announced plans to acquire Medio Systems. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close by the end of July 2014. The terms of the transaction are confidential.
Following the acquisition, HERE intends to share Medio's technology, as relevant, with the other two businesses of the Nokia Group, Networks and Technologies, to further capitalize on the acquisition.

9:07 am Advanced Micro names Lisa Su Chief Operating Officer; Co to create two business groups focused on further strengthening traditional businesses and driving growth in adjacent markets (AMD) : Co announced the latest step in the company's multi-year strategic transformation to deliver consistent growth and profitability by combining the company's previously separate business units, global operations and sales organizations to create a singular, market-focused organization responsible for all aspects of product strategy, product execution, sales and operations. The new structure will be implemented on July 1 and will be led by Dr. Lisa Su in her new role as AMD's Chief Operating Officer (COO), reporting to AMD President and Chief Executive Officer Rory Read.

As a part of the re-alignment, AMD also announced it will consolidate its business units into two expanded business groups designed to deliver unmatched customer value in both traditional PC markets and adjacent high-growth markets:

The Computing and Graphics Business Group will combine AMD's client, consumer graphics and professional graphics businesses, as well as their related product engineering and sales functions. AMD Chief Sales Officer John Byrne has been appointed senior vice president and general manager responsible for leading the Computing and Graphics Business Group, reporting to Dr. Su.
The Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group will combine AMD's server, embedded, dense server and semi-custom businesses, as well as their related product engineering and sales functions. Dr. Su will be the acting lead.

9:00 am GT Advanced Tech. announces agreement with Qatar Solar Energy to supply its HiCz200 furnaces for QSE's integrated PV manufacturing project in Doha, Qatar (GTAT) : Co announced that it has entered into an agreement with Qatar Solar Energy (:QSE) to supply its HiCz200 furnaces for QSE's integrated PV manufacturing project in Doha, Qatar.
The supply agreement is subject to QSE's receipt of government approvals and financing, at which time GT would expect to receive the equipment order.

VTSS -9.4% (prices 7,462,675 shares of common stock at $3.35 per share)

8:04 am BlackBerry announced new three-year agreement with EnStream ; expands mobile payments management services (BBRY) :

Co announced a new three-year agreement with EnStream LP, a mobile payments joint venture owned by Canadian wireless carriers Bell (BCE), Rogers (RCI) and TELUS (TU), to provide a secure platform that supports transaction services between leading banks and consumers.
Under the agreement, EnStream will leverage BlackBerry's proven and reliable infrastructure to enable financial institutions, including Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Group, CIBC and Desjardins, and mobile operators to securely provision sensitive payment card credentials into any smartphone capable of near field communication.