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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The stock market endured another rough session, but the major averages managed to climb off their worst levels of the day ahead of the close. The S&P 500 lost 0.8% while the Russell 2000 rose 1.0% after showing relative strength throughout the session.

Equity indices stumbled out of the gate to continue the weakness that started in the futures market overnight. Also weighing on sentiment was a trio of disappointing economic reports with retail sales, PPI, and the Empire Manufacturing Index all missing expectations. The data was met with dollar weakness while Treasuries soared.

The dollar retreated against other major currencies with the euro (+170 pips), yen (+120 pips) and Swiss franc (+130 pips) benefitting from the greenback weakness. For its part, the Dollar Index (84.97, -0.85) lost 1.0%.

Meanwhile, the 10-yr note was up more than two points at its best level of the day with the benchmark yield down 34 basis points. That represented the sharpest move since the $1 trillion QE program was unveiled in March 2009. The benchmark yield recovered the bulk of its decline into the close, ending lower by five basis points at 2.15%.

Treasuries may have also received a boost from comments made by The Wall Street Journal's Jon Hilsenrath, who said the recent drop in commodity prices gives the fed more room to delay its first rate hike. To that point, the fed funds futures market has pushed out the probability of the first hike from July 2015 to the end of 2015.

Interestingly, the stock market all but ignored the report, leading to speculation that equity investors may be starting to question the power of the Fed and other central banks after years of asset purchases and rate cuts that have been followed by subpar growth and disinflationary pressures.

Eight sectors ended in the red with financials (-2.0%) posting the largest loss. Bank of America (BAC 15.76, -0.76) reported better than expected earnings, but the report could not stop the major sector component from settling lower by 4.6%.

Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, the top-weighted group-technology-ended just ahead of the S&P 500. Chipmakers displayed relative strength with the PHLX Semiconductor Index climbing 0.5%. That advance took place despite a 2.7% decline in the shares of Intel (INTC 31.28, -0.87) after the industry giant reported a one-cent beat that was greeted with a Morgan Stanley downgrade to 'Underweight' from 'Equal-Weight.'

Also of note, the energy sector (+0.4%) was able to stage an intraday rebound while crude oil remained volatile. The energy component was down near 2.0% this morning, but ended the pit session with a ten-cent loss at $81.74/bbl. It is worth mentioning that the sector's outperformance followed heavy selling earlier in the month. The energy sector narrowed its October loss to 10.5%.

Similarly, the Dow Jones Transportation Average (+0.2%) rebounded to push this week's gain to 0.6%. The strength helped the industrial sector (-0.2%) end little changed.

Also of note, the utilities sector (-1.3%), which had shown relative strength earlier in the week, finished today's session among the laggards. Meanwhile, another countercyclical group-consumer staples (-1.2%)-was pressured by Wal-Mart (WMT 75.20, -2.78), which fell 3.6% after lowering its fiscal-year 2015 guidance to reflect expected sales growth of 2-3% (3-5% previous).

Today's wild ride invited above average participation with more than 1.1 billion shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Investors showed strong demand for volatility protection with the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 25.35, +2.56) spiking to its highest level since November 2011 before pulling back.

Economic data included Retail Sales, PPI, Empire Manufacturing, Business Inventories, and the MBA Mortgage Index:


Retail sales declined 0.3% in September following an unrevised 0.6% gain in August, while the Briefing.com consensus expected a downtick of 0.2%.
Motor vehicle sales declined 0.8% after increasing 1.9% in July, which was in-line with the decline in per unit sales reported by the motor vehicle manufacturers
Excluding autos, retail sales declined 0.2% in September after increasing an unrevised 0.3% in August, while the consensus expected an increase of 0.3%
Producer prices fell 0.1% in September after reporting no change in August, while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of 0.1%
As expected, energy prices fell 0.7% in September, which was the third consecutive monthly decline
Food prices fell for the second consecutive month and the fourth time in the last five months, dropping 0.7% after falling 0.5% in August
Excluding food and energy, core PPI was flat after increasing 0.1% in August, while the consensus expected an increase of 0.1%
The Empire Manufacturing Survey for October fell to 6.2 from 27.5, while the Briefing.com consensus expected a downtick to 20.4
Business inventories increased 0.2% in August after increasing an unrevised 0.4% in July, while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of 0.4%
The weekly MBA Mortgage Index rose 5.6% to follow last week's 3.8% increase

Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 290K) will be released at 8:30 ET, while September Industrial Production (consensus 0.4%) and Capacity Utilization (expected 79.0%) will both be reported at 9:15 ET. Also of note, the Philadelphia Fed Survey for October (consensus 19.8) and the October NAHB Housing Market Index (expected 59) will both be reported at 10:00 ET.

Nasdaq Composite +0.9% YTD
S&P 500 +0.8% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -2.6% YTD
Russell 2000 -7.8% YTD

:23 pm eBay beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 below consensus (EBAY) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.68 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.67; revenues rose 11.8% year/year to $4.35 bln vs the $4.36 bln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.88-0.91, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.91 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $4.85-4.95 bln vs. $5.16 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.


PayPal net total payment volume (:TPV) grew 29% with Merchant Services volume up 37% and on-eBay volume up 9%. Revenue grew to $2.0 billion. PayPal gained 4.4 million new active registered accounts to end the quarter at 157 million, up 14%. Global on-eBay penetration increased to 80.5%. Mobile payment volume grew 72% to $12 billion, representing 20% of TPV. Active accounts acquired on mobile were 2.9 million. Newly rebranded PayPal Credit grew 29%. PayPal also rolled out new product innovations like its One Touch offering making it simpler and easier to check-out and pay with PayPal. eBay Marketplaces gross merchandise volume (GMV.V) grew 9% to $20.08 bln vs. $20.41 bln consensus, with the U.S. up 7% and international up 11%. Revenue grew to $2.2 billion. Marketplaces gained 3.4 million new buyers to end the quarter with 152 million active buyers, up 13%. The selection of items available on Marketplaces grew to over 800 million listings, including both platform and non-platform offerings, reflecting the success of improved selling initiatives, particularly on mobile. Marketplaces mobile volume grew 41% to $7 billion. Fixed price sales grew 15% and now represent 79% of the total sales on the platform.4:12 pm Netflix beats by $0.05, misses on revs; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (NFLX) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.96 per share, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.91; revenues rose 10.6% year/year to $1.22 bln vs the $1.41 bln consensus.


Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.44 vs. $0.87 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $1305 mln vs. $1.49 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.Notable Comments from Letter:
"Separate from forecast variability, year on year net additions in the US were down (1.3 million in Q3 2013 to 1 million in Q3 2014). As best we can tell, the primary cause is the slightly higher prices we now have compared to a year ago. Slightly higher prices result in slightly less growth, other things being equal, and this is manifested more clearly in higher adoption markets such as the US"."In hindsight, we believe that late Q2 and early Q3 the impact of higher prices appeared to be offset for about two months by the large positive reception to Season Two of Orange is the New Black"."We are forecasting Q4 US contribution margin to increase almost 500 basis points on a y/y basis, but to decrease slightly sequentially, as it did last year from Q3 to Q4, due to significant sequential increases in content and marketing expense"."Our international markets launched prior to this year (Canada 4 years ago through Netherlands 1 year ago) are now collectively profitable on a contribution basis and will continue to help us fund new markets. Moreover, contribution margin from our first expansion market, Canada, now approximates the US"."Our US contribution margin grew about 500 bps to 28.6% for Q3. After achieving 30% contribution margin, likely in Q1 or Q2 of next year, we will seek to grow margins an average of 200 basis points per year for the following years. Ideally, we will achieve 40% contribution margin five years after achieving 30%. This increase in our domestic contribution margin gives us room to increase content spending as we grow, as well as substantial domestic profitability".
Please see 14:06 Comment for key metrics.

4:07 pm Extreme Networks guides well below consensus - halted (EXTR) :

EXTR sees Q1 EPS of ($0.02)-$0.00 vs. s $0.07 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees revs $135.0-136.5 mln vs $151.22 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate"Extreme faced a number of headwinds that affected our revenue this quarter. Our EMEA business was impacted by the weakening of the Euro and the political and economic conditions in the Eastern part of these markets. In North America, we experienced significant delays in closing deals," said Charles Berger, president and CEO of Extreme Networks.Stock is halted12:41 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

SWN (34.57 +4.44%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
ETE (49.67 +3.89%): A director of the company bought 1,178,567 shares at $49.01-53.55 worth ~$60.5 mln.
TWTR (49.31 +1.5%): Favorable mention on Tuesday's Mad Money.

Large Cap Losers

SHPG (190.41 -22.14%): The Board of AbbVie (ABBV) is going to meet to reconsider its recommendation that AbbVie shareholders approve the merger with SHPG.
KEY (11.79 -8.53%): Reported EPS in-line of $0.26, missed on revs.
BAC (15.56 -5.81%): Beat on EPS with a loss of only $0.01 vs. consensus loss of $0.09, revenues for the quarter of $21.43 billion vs. $21.33 bln consensus; downgraded to Underperform from Sector Perform at Portales Partners.

Mid Cap Gainers

AGIO (68.19 +9.86%): Announced the initiation of four expansion cohorts in its ongoing Phase 1 study of AG-221, a first-in-class, selective, potent IDH2 mutant inhibitor.
SXL (39.83 +5.57%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
CAVM (41.79 +4.82%): Upgraded to Mkt Outperform from Mkt Perform at JMP Securities.

Mid Cap Losers

NBG (2.19 -14.26%): Weakness in Greek stocks as Greece indices drop 6.3% on renewed political and economic uncertainty fears and a jump in bond yields.
THS (76.64 -6.54%): Downgraded to Underweight from Hold at KeyBanc Capital Mkts.
EDU (20.68 -6.04%): Downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman.

11:52 am European Markets Closing Prices (:SUMRX) : European markets are now closed; stock markets across Europe performed as follows:

UK's FTSE:-2.8%Germany's DAX:-2.9%France's CAC:-3.6%Spain's IBEX:-3.7%Portugal's PSI:-3.2%Italy's MIB Index:-4.4%Irish Ovrl Index:-2.5%Greece ASE General Index: -6.3%

11:42 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session- New lows (166) outpacing new highs (2) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: SO, XEL

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ABB, ACM, AES, AFL, ALB, ALLY, ALU, AMD, APA, APO, ARCC, ARCP, ATML, BA, BABA, BBEP, BBVA, BCS, BEAV, BEN, BP, CA, CBI, CCE, CCJ, CDK, CHK, CIE, CNP, CNX, COG, CS, CVE, CVX, CXO, DAN, DAR, DB, DISCA, DNOW, DNR, DVN, EMN, EMR, EPE, EQT, ERIC, ETN, F, FAST, FBHS, FCX, FIG, FLR, FMER, FNFG, FULT, GE, GM, GNW, GPOR, GPS, GSK, GT, HFC, HOG, HON, HTZ, HUN, IM, JCI, JEC, KATE, KBR, KEY, KKR, KOG, KORS, KOS, L, LAMR, LLTC, LMCA, LNCO, LPI, LUK, LYG, MAT, MBT, MCD, MCHP, MDRX, MET, MOS, MPEL, MRC, MRO, MSI, MTW, MUR, MXIM, NBG, NBL, NCR, NE, NWSA, OAS, OC, OCN, OII, ONNN, ORI, OXY, P, PBF, PDS, PE, PFE, PGH, PH, PKG, PNR, PSEC, PTEN, PWE, PX, PXD, QEP, QIHU, RDC, RF, RICE, RKT, RLGY, ROSE, RRC, RRD, SAP, SC, SM, SMFG, SPN, SU, TEF, TER, TEX, TLM, TMUS, TOT, TROW, TS, TSCO, UBS, UMPQ, UTX, VIAB, VIP, VOD, W, WDR, WLL, WPG, WPX, YOKU, ZION, ZNGA

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: BND, CSJ, HYD, IEF, IEI, LQD, MBB, MUB, TLH, TLT

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: BJK, BNO, CROP, CUT, DBC, DIG, DJP, EFA, EWG, EWI, EWK, EWN, EWO, EWQ, EWU, EZU, FAN, FXC, GREK, GSG, HYG, IEO, IGE, IWM, IXC, IYE, IYZ, JNK, KBE, KCE, KOL, KRE, OIH, OIL, PBW, PHO, REMX, SEA, TAN, TBT, UHN, URA, USO, UWM, VGK, XES, XHB, XLE, XME, XOP

Note: To reduce the list of stocks making 52 week highs/lows to a manageable size we have filtered out stocks below $2 bln in market cap and below 1 mln average volume. Without this filter 12 stocks made 52 week highs and 642 stocks made 52 week lows.

11:02 am Intel introduced Intel Data Protection Technology; will bridge security gap, and help adoption of IoT; estimated that enterprise businesses will spend $114 bln dealing with malware-related cyberattacks (INTC) : Co introduced Intel Data Protection Technology for Transactions, the industry's first solution to provide end-to-end encryption of consumer and financial data that is built into the point of sale platforms.

Developed in collaboration with NCR (NCR), the Intel Data Protection Technology for Transactions combines software optimized for retailers with Intel hardware, including Intel Core and select Intel Atom processors, to deliver a higher level of security from the start of a transaction until transaction data is stored on a bank server.

9:03 am SolarCity launches first public offering of solar bonds; will issue up to $200 mln in solar bonds (SCTY) : SolarCity has created funds to finance the installation of ~$5 bln in renewable energy assets with investments from a number of the world's leading financial institutions and corporations.
9:01 am Emulex raises Q1 rev guidance (ELX) : Raises rev expectations for Q1 (Sept) to a range of $102 mln to 104 mln vs. $96 mln cinsensus. The co had previously projected revenue within a range of $93 million to $99 mln.

"solid performance across multiple product lines including Fibre Channel and Ethernet. While we continue to manage through some transitions in our business, we are well positioned with both a new general manager of Network Visibility Products in place and a broad set of I/O qualifications completed on next generation 'Grantley-based' servers at the world's top OEMs. We look forward to expanding our 10Gb Ethernet position as these new platforms ramp over the coming year."

8:34 am Solar Power to acquire both land and project development rights for a 6 megawatt project in Susami City (SOPW) : announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire both land and project development rights for a 6 megawatt project in Susami City, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan.

The agreement calls for SPI's Japan subsidiary, SPI Solar Japan GK, to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the project, which SPI will own following its completion. Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in November 2014, with completion expected by August 2015.

Atmel (ATML) announced the company has expanded its Atmel | SMART portfolio of energy metering products with the introduction of the SAM4C32 dual-core secure MCU, along with the SAM4CMS32 and SAM4CMP32 for residential, commercial and industrial metering applications.

Extreme Networks (EXTR) announced National Cable Communications Media has selected and deployed Extreme Networks' high performance switches to bring its data center into the next generation.

8:01 am Hewlett-Packard to resume share repurchase program; reaffirms FY14 & FY15 guidance (HPQ) :

Co announced that it will resume its share repurchase program under its current authorization after previously suspending activity due to the possession of material non-public information. The company is no longer in possession of such information. Briefing.com note: Separate reports this morning indicated that EMC (EMC) and HPQ have ended merger talks. HPQ reaffirms FY14 EPS guidance of $3.70-3.74 vs $3.73 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; reaffirms FY15 $3.83-4.03 vs $3.95 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.Reaffirms its fiscal 2015 operating cash flow outlook of $10 billion to $10.5 billion, with free cash flow of $6.5 billion to $7 billion.

2:34 am CSR plc: Qualcomm (QCOM) to acquire CSR for ~$2.5 bln (CSRE) : Qualcomm (QCOM) announced that it has reached agreement with CSR plc (CSRE) regarding the terms of a recommended cash acquisition through which the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of CSR will be acquired by Qualcomm Global Trading, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm.

The acquisition complements Qualcomm's current offerings by adding products, channels, and customers in the important growth categories of Internet of Everything (IoE) and automotive infotainment, accelerating Qualcomm's presence and path to leadership. This opportunity is aligned with Qualcomm's established strategic priorities in these rapidly growing business areas. At 9.00 per share, the acquisition of the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of CSR is valued at ~ 1.6 billion ($2.5 billion based upon an exchange rate of USD:GBP 1.6057). This cash offer has been unanimously recommended by the CSR board of directors.