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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The major averages endured another whipsaw session that ended with a flat finish for the S&P 500 while the Russell 2000 (+1.1%) registered its second consecutive advance. The price-weighted Dow was the weakest performer of the day with a loss of 0.2%.

Equity indices tumbled out of the gate for the second day in a row amid broad-based selling pressure that also weighed on equities in Europe. The S&P 500 marked a session low near the 1,835 level during the first hour, but spiked more than 20 points following comments from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard. Mr. Bullard appeared on Bloomberg TV and said the Fed should consider delaying the end of its Quantitative Easing program, which is set to wind down at the October FOMC meeting.

The market jumped from lows in reaction to the comments, but it is worth noting that Mr. Bullard is not a voting FOMC member this year and only an alternate voter on next year's schedule. The non-voter status did not get in the way of a surge in equities while Minneapolis Fed President (and FOMC voter) Kocherlakota provided a similar view, saying there is more the Fed can do to achieve maximum employment.

The intraday rebound was paced by some of the groups that faced the most aggressive selling in recent days. The energy sector (+1.7%) led the way, trimming its October loss to 9.0%. Crude oil also rallied, climbing 1.0% to $82.61/bbl after recovering from its overnight low near $79.91/bbl. Meanwhile, the other commodity-linked group-materials (+1.0%)-followed not far behind.

Elsewhere, the industrial sector (+0.7%) advanced with help from transport stocks. Delta Air Lines (DAL 33.32, +0.94) jumped 2.9% after beating earnings estimates while the Dow Jones Transportation Average (+1.1%) extended this week's gain to 1.7%.

The three growth-sensitive sectors spent the entire afternoon in the green while other cyclical groups were a bit more reluctant in joining the rebound. Financials settled in-line with the S&P 500, but the sector was weighed down by Goldman Sachs (GS 172.58, -4.66), which fell 2.6% despite reporting better than expected earnings.

Also of note, the discretionary space (+0.2%) was underpinned by major apparel names like Nike (NKE 87.04, +1.86) and V F Corp (VFC 63.98, +1.18) with their strength masking a 19.4% plunge in the shares of Netflix (NFLX 361.70, -86.89). The video streaming service surpassed its earnings estimates, but guided Q4 results below consensus and said its recent price hike has resulted in slower user growth.

On the downside, the technology sector lost 0.6% even as chipmakers rallied broadly, sending the PHLX Semiconductor Index higher by 1.5%. Large cap listings kept the sector in the red with Apple (AAPL 96.26, -1.28) falling 1.3% after refreshing its product lineup during an afternoon press event. Similarly, Google (GOOGL 536.53, -4.20) lost 0.8% ahead of its quarterly report.

Treasuries ended on their lows after a steady slide from early morning highs. The 10-yr yield ticked up two basis points to 2.16%, which represented an 18-bps spike from the low.

Strong participation continued with more than a billion shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data included Initial Claims, Industrial Production, Philadelphia Fed Survey, and the NAHB Housing Market Index:


The weekly initial claims level fell to 264,000 from an unrevised 287,000, while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase to 290,000
The Department of Labor said there were no special factors influencing the report
Industrial production increased 1.0% in September after falling a downwardly revised 0.2% (from -0.1%) while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of 0.4%
Manufacturing production did a full 180 degree turnaround. After falling 0.5% in August, production rose 0.5% in September. That gain was in-line with the improvements in the Federal Reserve regional manufacturing surveys and the national ISM production index
The Philadelphia Fed's Business Outlook Survey Dipped to 20.7 in October from 22.5, while the Briefing.com consensus expected a decline to 19.8
Production levels softened as the Shipments Index fell to 16.6 from 21.6 in September
Employment conditions worsened with the Number of Employees Index falling to 12.1 from 21.2
The NAHB Housing Market Index for October fell to 54 from 59, while the Briefing.com consensus expected the reading to hold at 59

Tomorrow, September Housing Starts (Briefing.com consensus 1013K) and Building Permits (consensus 1030K) will be released at 8:30 ET while the preliminary reading of the Michigan Sentiment survey for October (expected 84.0) will cross the wires at 9:55 ET.

Nasdaq Composite +1.0% YTD
S&P 500 +0.8% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -2.8% YTD
Russell 2000 -6.8% YTD

DJ30 -24.50 NASDAQ +2.07 SP500 +0.27 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1924/2.15 bln/1052 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2202/1.03 bln/898 3:35 pm :

Crude's LoD of $79.78 was reached in early morning trading on light volume, and futures have since trended higher, rallying as much as 5 points hitting its HoD of $84.83 shortly after lunch.
Futures pulled back slightly following this mornings inventory data that showed inventories had a build of 8.923 mln (consensus called for a build of 2.7 mln), but recovered quickly.
Natural gas sold off sharply to its LoD of $3.744 after data natural gas inventory data showed a build of 94 bcf vs expectations for a build of ~91 bcf.
Nov crude oil closed the day 0.9% higher at $82.51/barrel, while Nov nat gas -0.3% at $3.97/MMBtu.
Despite settling in negative territory, gold trended higher during the pit session after hitting its LoD of $1235.2 ~15min before the US equity market opened.
Dec gold ultimately fell 0.3% at $1241.20/oz, while Dec silver lost 0.2% at $17.43/oz
Copper prices fell below $3/lb, finishing the day 0.9% lower at $2.98/lb

4:46 pm SunPower announces its advancements in resource conservation and environmental stewardship in latest sustainability report (SPWR) : Highlights from this report include:

Received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certifications for its San Jose, Calif. Headquarters, Fab 2 solar cell manufacturing plant in the Philippines and Fab 3 AUO SunPower administration building in Malaysia Assisted more than 170 schools and 60,000 students through its participation in the Alliance for Mindanao Off-Grid Renewable Energy program Installed 4.7 gigawatts of solar globally as of Dec. 12, 2013, cumulatively avoiding almost 10 million metric tons of CO2 Since 2008, the company's total normalized greenhouse gas emissions fell by 47 percent as measured by metric tons of CO2 per megawatt produced

4:25 pm Xilinx beats by $0.07, reports revs in-line; guides Q3 revs ~in-line -- midpoint just below consensus (XLNX) : Reports Q2 (Sep) earnings of $0.62 per share, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.55; revenues rose 0.9% year/year to $604.3 mln vs the $601.85 mln consensus.

Co issues guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs flat to +4% QoQ to ~$604-628.5 mln vs. $623.52 mln Capital IQ Consensus; sees Q3 gross margin ~69% vs. 71.9% in Q2.


Guidance appears to be better than feared."September quarter sales were in line with our guidance, but our profitability surpassed our expectations. Operating margin was 33% in the September quarter, up from 27% in the same quarter a year ago. For the December quarter, we are forecasting a strong recovery in 28nm sales driven by a broad base of applications. We continue to target ~$600 million in 28nm sales for fiscal year 2015, up nearly 60% from the prior fiscal year."

4:19 pm Advanced Micro misses by $0.01, misses on revs; guides Q4 revs below consensus (AMD) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.03 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.04; revenues fell 2.2% year/year to $1.43 bln vs the $1.47 bln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs -16 to -10% QoQ to ~$1.20-1.286 vs. $1.48 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment results were strong; however, performance in our Computing and Graphics segment was mixed based on challenging market conditions that require us to take further steps to evolve and strengthen the financial performance of this business."

4:19 pm QLogic beats by $0.03, beats on revs; announces approval of a $100 mln stock repurchase program (QLGC) : Reports Q2 (Sep) earnings of $0.25 per share, ex-items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.22; revenues rose 13.2% year/year to $127.5 mln vs the $124.39 mln consensus.

The growth of its net revenue in the second quarter was driven by a sequential increase in revenue from Fibre Channel adapters of more than 5% and a sequential increase in revenue from Ethernet products of ~$5 million.

4:11 pm Google misses by $0.15, reports revs in-line (GOOG) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $6.35 per share, $0.15 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $6.50; revenues rose 10.8% year/year to $16.5 bln vs the $16.59 bln consensus.

Revenues and other information


Sites Revenues - Sites generated revenues of $11.25 billion, or 68% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2014. This represents a 20% increase over third quarter of 2013 sites revenues of $9.38 billion.Network Revenues - Partner sites generated revenues of $3.43 billion, or 21% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2014. This represents a 9% increase over third quarter of 2013 network revenues of $3.15 billion.Other Revenues - Other revenues were $1.84 billion, or 11% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2014. This represents a 50% increase over third quarter of 2013 other revenues of $1.23 billion. Paid Clicks and Cost per Clicks
Paid Clicks - Increased approximately 17% y/y and increased approximately 2% q/q.Cost-Per-Click - Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of Network members, decreased approximately 2% y/y and remained constantq/q. Cost-per-click for Google sites decreased approximately 4% y/y and decreased approximately 1% q/q. Network cost-per-click decreased approximately 4% y/y and increased approximately 2% q/q.

4:09 pm SanDisk beats by $0.10, misses on revs (SNDK) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $1.45 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $1.35; revenues rose 7.4% year/year to $1.75 bln vs the $1.76 bln consensus.

non-GAAP gross margin 49% vs. 47-49% guidance. "Demand for NAND flash continues to be strong across mobile, client and enterprise, where SanDisk's innovations are creating significant opportunities."

2:19 pm Apple confirms Mac mini update and introduces a 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display (AAPL) :

The co today unveiled the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display, featuring the world's highest resolution display with 14.7 million pixels. With the latest quad-core processors, high-performance graphics, Fusion Drive and Thunderbolt 2, iMac with Retina 5K display is the most powerful iMac ever made-it's the ultimate display combined with the ultimate all-in-one.
Co also updated Mac mini with the latest technologies and a new lower starting price, making Apple's most affordable Mac an even better value. Mac mini now features fourth generation Intel Core processors, integrated graphics that are up to 90 percent faster, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt 2 and is still the world's most energy efficient desktop.

2:07 pm Apple confirmed that customers can start making payments Monday, October 20 with Apple Pay (AAPL) :

2:05 pm Apple confirms iPad Air 2-the thinnest iPad ever (AAPL) :

Co introduced iPad Air 2. Now just 6.1 mm thin and weighing less than a pound, iPad Air 2 features an improved Retina display for enhanced contrast and richer, more vibrant colors, and better cameras for taking stunning photos and videos. Available in gold, silver and space gray, the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 offer Touch ID so users can unlock their iPad with just the touch of a finger and make purchases easily and securely within apps using Apple Pay.

12:34 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

CHK (20.61 +15.98%): Announced sale of Southern Marcellus and Utica Shale assets for proceeds of $5.375 bln.
TSM (20.86 +3.94%): Beat by NT$0.12, reported revs in-line; guided Q4 revs above consensus.
ADS (249.29 +4.45%): Beat by $0.16, reported revs in-line; reaffirmed FY14 EPS below consensus, revs in-line; guided FY15 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus.

Large Cap Losers

NFLX (351.6 -21.62%): Beat earnings by $0.05, missed on revs; guided Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus, co reported disappointing net subscription; Downgraded at CRT Capital, others.
BHI (49.95 -6.86%): Missed Q3 EPS by $0.11, reported revs in-line.
EBAY (47.2 -6.05%): Beat by $0.01, reported revs in-line; guided Q4 below consensus; Non-GAAP operating margin 23.7% vs 24.0% street consensus; Downgraded at RBC, Credit Agricole, others.

Mid Cap Gainers

ICPT (215.05 +8.57%): Defended at Oppenheimer, firm believes recent weakness is unjustified, Reiterates Outperform and $499 tgt.
FEYE (28.76 +7.31%): Upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan, co also announced it was joining forces with
MobileIron (MOBL) to proactively secure mobile devices against emerging threats and malicious apps.
URI (99.98 +7.01%): Beat by $0.08, beat on revs; reaffirmed FY14 revs guidance.

Mid Cap Losers

SVU (8.14 -4.8%): Missed Q3 EPS by $0.01, beat on revs.
TX (19.55 -4.03%): Downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan.
AKAM (52.77 -3.4%): Downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

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

UK's FTSE:-0.3%Germany's DAX:+0.1%France's CAC:-0.5%Spain's IBEX:-1.5%Portugal's PSI:-3.2%Italy's MIB Index:-1.2%Irish Ovrl Index:-0.8%Greece ASE General Index: -2.2%1

1:51 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New lows (218) outpacing new highs (22) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AHS, ARC, CNSL, CUBE, CUNB, DLHC, DTSI, EDE, EGLE, ENVE, FFG, FORR, GBLI, LARK, LPDX, OSUR, QTS, SAFT, STRP, TREE, USPH, VSR

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ABB, ACPW, ACUR, ADGE, AEG, AFL, AIMC, ALEX, ALU, AMD, ANSS, ASNA, ATOS, ATTO, AU, AVL, AWX, AZPN, BBVA, BCS, BEL, BGMD, BH, BHI, BKH, BKU, BLIN, BNK, BOH, BORN, BP, BSX, BT, BXE, CA, CBF, CBNJ, CBT, CCE, CCJ, CCO, CCU, CDK, CDNA, CECE, CEL, CG, CGG, CJES, CNA, CORI, CPA, CPHI, CRH, CS, CTG, CVE, CYAN, DB, DCI, DCTH, DGSE, DNN, DVR, DWCH, DXPE, E, EARS, EBAY, ELSE, EPRS, ERIC, ESCR, ESSX, EVV, EWBC, EXTR, FCS, FCX, FFIN, FITB, FLO, FNFG, FOR, FRAN, FRC, FULL, GGB, GPS, GRAM, GRO, GRVY, GSIT, GSK, GTE, GVP, GWW, HCAP, HCBK, HIIQ, HMC, ICD, IIJI, IMGN, INBK, ISCA, JE, KEG, KGC, KYO, LMAT, LPG, LTRPA, LYG, MAN, MAT, MBT, MCD, MCGC, MCHP, MDWD, MFC, MFG, MGI, MORN, MSA, MT, MTU, MVO, MXT, NCQ, NES, NMIH, NMR, NR, NWSA, OAK, OCLS, OFS, OGEN, OIBR, OIBR.C, ORBT, ORIG, ORPN, OVRL, PACD, PBFX, PCMI, PED, PFE, PHG, PLPM, PRGN, PRQR, PRSS, PSIX, PT, PULS, REPH, RFIL, RRST, RSTI, SAN, SAP, SAR, SIX, SLF, SLH, SLRC, SMFG, SON, SQBK, SSE, STM, STO, SUNS, SWM, SWN, SYT, TBIO, TCB, TCK, TEF, TERP, TEX, TGA, TOT, TRUP, TRVN, TS, TSE, TU, TVPT, TWI, TX, TZOO, UAMY, UAN, UBS, UGP, ULBI, UMBF, USAT, UVV, VCYT, VIAB, VIP, VLTC, VOD, VRTS, WBS, WGO, WSH, WTFC, YUMA, ZHNE, ZION

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: none

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: AFK, BNO, CUT, DBC, DJP, EFA, EWG, EWI, EWJ, EWK, EWN, EWO, EWP, EWQ, EWU, EWY, EZU, FXC, GSG, IOO, KBE, KRE, OIL, SLX, USCI, USO, VGK

10:07 am SolarCity and Direct Energy to provide solar electricity and solar energy storage systems at two BJ's Wholesale Club locations (SCTY) : Two BJ's Wholesale Club sites in Framingham and Dedham, Mass. are early adopters of DemandLogic, SolarCity's smart energy storage system for businesses and commercial users. These are the first BJ's Clubs to install solar energy coupled with storage and will be the first two sites on the East Coast to utilize SolarCity's DemandLogic platform. SolarCity, Direct Energy Business, and BJ's have already installed one solar system together at a North Brunswick, N.J. site and BJ's boasts nearly 20 solar projects total across the United States. All three BJ's projects announced today were made possible by a dedicated investment fund created by Direct Energy and SolarCity in 2013 to finance up to $124 million in solar projects.

8:30 am GT Advanced Tech. announces that NASDAQ will suspend trading in company's common stock at open of market on October 16th; New symbol is GTATQ (GTAT) : Co announced that it will not pursue an appeal of the determination by The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC to suspend trading in the Company's common stock based on the Company's voluntary petition for reorganization relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The Company has been informed that NASDAQ will suspend trading in the Company's common stock effective at the opening of the market on October 16, 2014. The Company will trade under the symbol, GTATQ. For quotes or further information on OTC Markets and the OTC Pink Marketplace.

8:01 am Cypress Semi reports EPS in-line, revs in-line (CY) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.16 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.16; revenues fell 0.6% year/year to $187.5 mln vs the $188.26 mln consensus.

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM 20.37, +0.30): +1.5% after beating earnings estimates and guiding ahead of analyst expectations.

6:56 am Taiwan Semi beats by NT$0.12, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 revs above consensus (TSM) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of NT$2.94 per share, $0.12 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of NT$2.82; revenues rose 28.6% year/year to NT$209.05 bln vs the NT$208.23 bln consensus; gross margin 50.5% vs. 58.5-50.5% guidance.

Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of NT$217-220 mln vs. NT$212.76 bln Capital IQ Consensus; sees gross margin 48-50%

7:38 am Fairchild Semi beats by $0.07, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 revs below consensus (FCS) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.28 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.21; revenues rose 4.5% year/year to $381.1 mln vs the $378.03 mln consensus.

Fairchild reported third quarter adjusted gross margin of 35.3 percent, up 190 basis points from the prior quarter and 320 basis points higher than the third quarter of 2013.Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $340-360 mln vs. $367.54 mln Capital IQ Consensus.
"We expect adjusted gross margin to be 33.0 to 34.0 percent due primarily to lower sales and the impact of reduced factory loadings in the prior quarter... Looking forward to the fourth quarter, our guidance reflects the impact of lower demand from two large customers as well as some latitude to adjust shipments to keep distribution channel inventory flat in dollars exiting this year," said Thompson. "One large mobile and consumer-products customer is reducing demand again to exit the year with lower inventories. Another large consumer-products customer is significantly decreasing demand for a game platform now that they have the components they need for holiday builds. The impact of these two customers accounts for roughly half of the sequential sales decline we are guiding."

7:31 am SunEdison signs JV agreement with JIC Capital to penetrate the chinese solar market (SUNE) : Co announced today a joint venture agreement with JIC Capital, to facilitate nonrecourse financing and develop, construct and own up to 1 GW of utility-scale solar photovoltaic projects in China over the next 3 years.

The joint venture is currently exploring and evaluating several large-scale projects and expects to start construction in early 2015.

7:01 am JinkoSolar Holding signs 200 MW PV project development agreement with Government of Shicheng County in Jiangxi Province (JKS) :

Co announced that JinkoSolar Power, a subsidiary of the Company has signed a PV project development agreement with the government of Shicheng County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province to develop 200MW PV power plant. Tech Stocks from Briefing.comIs it over yet? That's probably a question more than a few market participants are asking right now after another wild day of trading. The short answer is "no." It's not over yet. There is still another day of trading before this tumultuous week comes to a close.

Similar to Wednesday, Thursday's trading action featured an early rout that eventually got stamped out by renewed buying interest that was punctuated with another day of outperformance for the Russell 2000 (+1.5%), the Dow Jones Transportation Average (+1.1%), and the S&P 500 energy sector (+1.7%).

We point that out because those areas had been among the hardest-hit areas during the sell-off. Their continued relative strength might be construed as a signal that the recent selling interest is at, or near, an exhaustion point. Accordingly, the question, "Is it over yet?" carries some added meaning.

The selling wasn't over Wednesday for the S&P 500 information technology sector. It declined 0.6% on Thursday and underperformed the broader market.

Looking inside the sector it was easy to see why.

Apple (AAPL 96.26, -1.28), eBay (EBAY), EMC Corp. (EMC 26.89, -0.38), Google (GOOG 524.51, -5.52), Intel (INTC 30.85, -0.42), IBM (IBM 179.84, -1.91), Microsoft (MSFT 42.74, -0.48), and Oracle (ORCL 37.56, -0.74) all declined more than 1.0%.

Apple and eBay were in the news throughout the day. The former held its iPad event, but apparently didn't move the "ooh and ahh" dial enough with its product announcement to excite its shareholder base. eBay, meanwhile, experienced some disenchantment among its shareholder base in the wake of its third quarter earnings report and disappointing fourth quarter guidance.

The sector's biggest upside mover was Alliance Data Systems (ADS 252.15, +13.47). It gained 5.6% after beating analysts' third quarter EPS estimates by a comfortable margin and reaffirming its FY14 outlook.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 34.00, +1.20) was another big mover, adding 3.7% with Brean Capital speaking favorably of the company's plan to split into two, publicly-traded companies.

eBay was the sector's biggest laggard with a 4.7% decline. Akamai Technologies (AKAM 53.53, -1.10) was on its heels, having gotten clipped by a Wells Fargo downgrade to Market Perform from Outperform.

The semiconductor group stayed hot, evidenced by the 1.5% gain in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

Microchip Technology (MCHP 39.19, +1.46), which led the sector into a tailspin last Friday, jumped 3.9% on Thursday on bargain hunting efforts that also carried over to the likes of Micron (MU 28.30, +0.76), Texas Instruments (TXN 43.59, +0.83), and Applied Materials (AMAT 19.87, +0.44). A favorable response to earnings results and/or guidance from Taiwan Semi (TSM 20.72, +0.65), Cypress Semiconductor (CY 8.99, +0.32), and Fairchild Semiconductor (FCS 13.46, +0.87) provided the semiconductor group with an added measure of support.

Elsewhere, Baidu (BIDU 211.16, +5.49), which was upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer, led an otherwise strong group of Chinese technology plays that included Alibaba Group (BABA 88.85, +3.25), YY, Inc. (YY 76.37, +3.97), Dangdang (DANG 11.46, +0.55), and Weibo (WB 18.21, +0.33).

Postscript: After the close, Google (GOOG 524.51, -5.52) reported third quarter earnings of $6.35 per share, which came up shy of analysts' expectations, on a 10.8% increase in revenue to $16.5 billion.

Shares of GOOG were trading 3.0% lower in after-hours action as of this posting.