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From Briefing.com: The buy-the-dip crowd showed up early, but then went away, paving the way for renewed selling interest that left the major indices in negative territory by the closing bell.

Small-cap and mid-cap stocks fared better than their large-cap counterparts, evidenced by the outperformance of the Russell 2000 (+0.4%) and S&P Midcap 400 Index (+0.7%).

Once again, the dollar's performance -- or really the euro's performance -- took center stage. The latter dropped another 1.6% to 1.0542 against the dollar. That move, and further weakness in the yen, drove the U.S. Dollar Index up 1.2% to 99.75 and contributed to growing concerns about the negative impact of a stronger dollar on U.S. multinational companies.

For the second session in a row, the S&P 500 information technology sector (-0.7%) was among the biggest laggards and underperformed the broader market with losses in Apple (AAPL 122.26, -2.25, -1.8%), Cisco (CSCO 28.26, -0.40, -1.4%), EMC Corp (EMC 25.72, -1.23, -4.6%), MasterCard (MA 86.97, -1.87, -2.1%), and Qualcomm (QCOM 70.28, -1.61, -2.2%) weighing on matters.

Notable news items from sector components included the following:

Altera Corporation (ALTR 35.01, -0.10, -0.3%): Announced it is adding a 30-amp PowerSoC DC-DC step-down converter to its portfolio of Enpirion power solutions for FPGAs. The 30-amp EM1130 is the first in a family of integrated digital DC-DC step-down converters that will provide power management for Altera's Generation 10 FPGAs.

Apple (AAPL 122.26, -2.25, -1.8%): Company's App store experienced an outage

Broadcom Corporation (BRCM 43.79, +0.06, +0.1%): Announced it is powering the first Ultra High Definition (Ultra HD) Android TV set-top box

Cisco (CSCO 28.26, -0.40, -1.4%): Announced an extension of its cloud and data center relationship with Microsoft (MSFT 41.98, -0.05, -0.1%) to include a new technology platform designed to accelerate service delivery and streamline the journey to the Intercloud for cloud providers. Additionally, 14 cloud providers announced they plan to join Cisco's Intercloud partner ecosystem, bringing the number of Intercloud providers to more than 60 with a footprint of more than 350 data centers across 50 countries.

Fiserv (FISV 76.95, +0.22, +0.3%): Announced the availability of Mobiliti Business, a comprehensive, secure and easy-to-use mobile banking solution designed to meet the unique needs of business banking users.

Google (GOOG 551.19, -3.82, -0.7%): Discloses that on March 4, 2015, CFO Patrick Pichette informed of his intent to retire. The effective date of his retirement has not yet been determined. Pichette indicated that he intends to assist in the search for a new CFO and ensure an orderly transition, which the company expects will occur within the next six months.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 32.61, -0.06, -0.2%): Announced the authorization of HP Fortify on Demand by the Joint Authorization Board of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. Company noted that it is the first Security Software-as-a-Service offering to achieve a FedRAMP authorization.

Intel (INTC 32.34, +0.64, +2.0%): VentureBeat, citing two sources with knowledge of the companies' plans, reported that Intel's 7360 chip will ship inside a special version of the iPhone marketed in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America

Micron (MU 27.89, +0.27, +1.0%): Digitimes details news that Micron plans to expand its NAND flash memory fabrication facility in Singapore. Initial manufacturing output is expected to occur in fiscal 2017.
Elsewhere in the technology space:

Alibaba (BABA 81.99, -0.98, -1.2%): Company confirmed the upcoming expiration of the 180-day lock-up period in March 2015 in connection with its initial public offering completed in September 2014. In light of press stories containing different expiration dates that have recently come to Alibaba Group's attention regarding the lock-up period ending in March 2015, Alibaba Group confirms that, approximately 437 million ordinary shares (including approximately 8 million restricted share units and share options that vested after the IPO) subject to the 180-day lock-up period described in Alibaba Group's IPO prospectus will be available for sale to the public commencing March 18, 2015. Of these ordinary shares that will no longer be subject to the 180-day lock-up starting from March 18, 2015, approximately 100 million shares will nevertheless remain subject to Alibaba Group's employee trading restrictions until after the announcement in May 2015 of its earnings results for the quarter and fiscal year ending March 31, 2015.

Dangdang (DANG 8.14, -0.74, -8.2%): Rescheduled Q4 earnings release, citing a scheduling issue. Says the report, originally scheduled for March 12, is expected to occur 'later this month.'

MicroStrategy (MSTR 160.38, -0.66, -0.4%): Announced that the Toronto Transit Commission has selected the MicroStrategy Analytics Platform as its enterprise analytics standard.

Qlik Technologies (QLIK 30.78, -0.63, -2.1%): Announced that VWR (VWR 24.48, +0.68, +2.6%) has deployed QlikView worldwide to perform complex analysis of more than eight terabytes of data.

SINA (SINA 35.01, -1.19, -3.3%): Reported Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.24 per share, which was ahead of analysts' average expectation. Revenues rose 5.8% year/year to $208.5 mln. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2014 was 65%, compared to 64% for the same period last year. For FY15, sees revenues of $800-900 mln. Company states, "In the year 2015, the company will continue to execute a number of major initiatives to renovate its portal business in order to build a solid foundation for long term growth. Many of these transformative endeavors may take time to become meaningful revenue contributors, making it difficult for Management to predict the inflection point for a sustainable growth. As a result, the Company believes that an estimated range of annual revenue targets would be more reliable than quarterly revenue guidance."

Weibo (WB 15.00, +0.12, +0.8%): Reported Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.04 per share, in-line with estimates. Revenues rose 47.3% year/year to $105.2 mln, which was slightly ahead of expectations. For Q1, sees revenues of $93-96 mln, which is in-line with estimates

.Analyst Action:

EMC (EMC 25.72, -1.23, -4.4%): downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo

SanDisk (SNDK 82.73, +2.57, +3.2%): target raised to $106 from $100 at Goldman Sachs -- Added to Conviction Buy List

Seagate Technology (STX 54.36, -0.05, -0.1%): downgraded to Hold from Buy at Craig Hallum; target lowered to $56 from $69

SINA (SINA 35.01, -1.19, -3.1%): target lowered to $50 from $58 at Brean Capital; Buy

Western Digital (WDC 97.89, -1.50, -1.4%): downgraded to Hold from Buy at Craig Hallum; target lowered to $93 from $118

4:10 pm : The Dow (-0.2%), Nasdaq (-0.2%), and S&P 500 (-0.2%) registered modest losses on Wednesday while the Russell 2000 (+0.6%) outperformed. The small-cap index climbed steadily throughout the afternoon while the S&P 500 spent the day in an 11-point range near its flat line before settling just below its 100-day moving average (2,042).

Yesterday's sharp slide was paced by the two largest sectors by weight, but technology (-0.7%) and financials (+0.6%) spent today on opposite sides of their unchanged levels, which contributed to the sideways action.

The financial sector settled in the lead ahead of this evening's release of the complete results of the stress test administered by the Federal Reserve. Citigroup (C 52.33, +1.10) was the top performer among the majors, climbing 2.2%.

Meanwhile, the technology sector struggled throughout the session, sliding to lows during the final hour of action. Shares of Apple (AAPL 122.24, -2.27) fell 1.8%, keeping the sector under pressure while chipmakers displayed relative strength. Intel (INTC 32.34, +0.64) and SanDisk (SNDK 82.73, +2.56) posted respective gains of 2.0% and 3.2% while the PHLX Semiconductor Index rose 0.3%. Intel rallied after VentureBeat reported that the company's processors will be used in Apple iPhones in 2016 while SanDisk was added to Goldman's Conviction Buy List.

Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, the discretionary space (-0.5%) lagged while the energy sector (+0.2%) ended among the leaders even though crude oil settled lower by 0.4% at $48.21/bbl after testing the $47.40/bbl level intraday. The dollar-denominated energy component had to contend with another uptick in the greenback that pushed the Dollar Index (99.76, +1.15) higher by 1.2%. The dollar enjoyed another day of broad strength, pressuring the euro to 1.0540.

Over on the countercyclical side, consumer staples (-0.8%) and utilities (-0.7%) underperformed throughout the day while health care ended flat after showing intraday strength. The sector saw little reaction to news indicating Endo International (ENDP 87.76, -1.24) offered to buy Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP 168.60, +10.95) for $175/share.

Treasuries rallied following today's solid 10-yr auction, sending the benchmark 10-yr yield lower by three basis points to 2.11%.

Today's participation was in-line with recent averages as roughly 760 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data released today was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which fell 1.3% to follow last week's 0.1% uptick.

Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 306K), February Retail Sales (consensus 0.4%), and February Import/Export Prices will be released at 8:30 ET while the Business Inventories report for January (consensus 0.1%) will cross the wires at 10:00 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the 14:00 ET release of the Treasury Budget for February (consensus -$192 billion), which was pushed back from today.

Nasdaq Composite +2.4% YTD
Russell 2000 +0.9% YTD
S&P 500 -0.9% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.1% YTD

DJ30 -27.55 NASDAQ -9.85 SP500 -3.92 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1576/1.68 bln/1227 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1774/760.9 mln/1285 3:35 pm :

WTI crude oil was rather volatile again, following some industry data
Apr crude popped higher, but reversed following yesterday's API data
Today, crude fell following the EIA data to today's low, well below $48/barrel.
Apr crude recovered back above $48 in floor trading, but closed $0.19 lower still at $48.21/barrel
Natural gas rallied today and held its gains. Apr nat gas closed $0.10 higher at $2.83/MMBtu
Gold and silver climbed higher following its morning low, but still closed in the red
Apr gold closed $9.50 lower at $1150.60/oz, while May silver closed $0.26 lower at $15.38/oz

1:06 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

MYL (57.99 +4.85%): Speculation that Mylan may be an M&A target.
SNDK (83.5 +4.16%): Price target raised to $106 from $100 at Goldman -- Added to Conviction Buy List.
AEG (7.96 +4.19%): Added to Europe focus list at Citigroup.

Large Cap Losers

TSN (37.98 -4.52%): Poultry names underperforming on reports of Avian influenza in Arkansas poultry (HRL also lower).
EMC (26 -3.53%): Downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.
WHR (197.9 -2.3%): Weaker following cautious commentary from analyst.

Mid Cap Gainers

IPXL (42.13 +9.54%): Upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
GSAT (3.15 +7.14%): Announced it has completed a successful TLPS demonstration at the FCC.
TRN (31.15 +4.57%): Ruling out from the Federal Highway Administration on TRN'sguard-rail terminals, says end terminals crash tested are representative of the devices installed.

Mid Cap Losers

MRD (17.59 -14.24%): Reported Q4 revs of $103.8 mln vs $115 mln Capital IQ consensus vs $60.2 mln last year; downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.
NBG (1.22 -9.33%): Announced Finansbank's intention to launch an offering of its ordinary shares through the Borsa Istanbul.
SXL (40.09 -7.12%): Priced its public offering of 13.5 mln units at $41.76.

11:55 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New lows (186) outpacing new highs (63) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ACHC, AEO, ALOG, ALR, AMAG, ANAC, AXTA, BBNK, BBP, BBY, BFAM, BFR, BLJ, BLUE, BURL, CBMG, CFI, COO, CRL, CVTI, DD, DNBF, DVA, DXGE, ENDP, ESLT, GBNK, GTT, GY, HASI, HPTX, HZNP, INFN, INGN, IPXL, LJPC, MEI, MGLN, MLVF, MYL, NSP, NVDA, OCUL, OTIC, PNK, PTX, QURE, RCKY, RCPT, RHP, RLGT, SLGN, SMG, SSP, SURG, SWKS, TGS, TSRO, URBN, USCR, UTHR, VVR, WETF

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: AAU, ACRX, ACTG, AETI, AGNC, AHC, AKO.B, AMCF, ANAT, ANDE, AOI, ARCO, AUQ, AUY, AVAL, AXPW, AXU, AXX, BAK, BBD, BIOS, BPI, BPT, BSBR, BTG, BTU, CAE, CARV, CBD, CECE, CHNR, CIG, CLD, CLF, CMLS, CMO, CNP, CNX, CPAC, CPL, CTRL, CUO, DAEG, DAR, DBVT, DRQ, DSCI, DXM, EBR, ECA, EDD, EGI, EGP, EJ, ELON, EMIF, EMR, ERA, ETAK, EURN, EXK, FCO, FHCO, FMY, FTEK, FTGC, FUEL, FULL, GAS, GEF, GEOS, GOL, GPL, GPRK, GSOL, GSV, GUID, HDP, HGT, HLX, HMIN, HSBC, HTHT, HTS, HWCC, ICLD, IGOV, IPI, ISHG, JMI, JMT, JONE, JOY, KEYW, KOF, KT, LAQ, LAS, LAYN, LFL, LFVN, LMIA, LOR, MAT, MDU, MDW, MLHR, MPO, MRVC, MSM, MTLS, NAO, NE, NFG, NGG, NLY, NWPX, OB, OESX, OGE, ONVO, OPXA, ORIG, P, PAAS, PBR, PGN, PKY, PLTM, PM, PN, POWL, PPL, PPP, PQ, PVH, RAVN, RCI, RDS.A, RDS.B, RIG, RL, RLJE, ROYL, RSO, RUSHA, SB, SBLK, SEED, SFUN, SGF, SINA, SJR, SMTX, SSE, SVLC, SWN, TAHO, TC, TDW, TENX, TGD, TKC, TKF, TLF, TMST, TRP, TSU, TU, ULTR, UNT, UUUU, VALE, VALE.P, VBLT, VIV, VNCE, VRA, WLT, WYNN, XCO, XNET, XOM, YNDX, ZHNE, ZU

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: UUP

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: BJK, BWX, DBA, EPU, EWZ, FUD, FXA, FXB, FXE, FXS, ILF, KOL, NLR, PPLT, SIL, SLV, USCI, XME

SanDisk (SNDK) announced contributions to the open source Ceph object, block, and file storage platform that empower customers to take advantage of the full benefits of flash. With these contributions, SanDisk solidifies its commitment to being an open source contributor in order to deliver more open, easy-to-integrate and cost-effective solutions to customers.Violin Memory (VMEM) announced the launch of its Global Partner Program and a new easy-to-use online portal. Following the launch of the Violin Flash Storage Platform, the expanded Violin Global Partner Program establishes new incentives and business models that will enable partners to achieve success through simplified partner programs, more predictable performance rewards, and innovative tools to deliver consistency in partner engagement.

7:30 am Vishay Precision increase preliminary pre-tax, non-cash impairment charge for 4Q14 to $5.4 mln from $3.3 mln (VPG) : Co stated:

"While there is no change to the non-GAAP results reported in the press release dated February 11, 2015, the additional impairment charge results in a final generally accepted accounting principles net loss attributable to VPG stockholders for the fourth quarter of 2014 in the amount of $(4.4) million, or $(0.32) per diluted share, and net earnings attributable to VPG stockholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 in the amount $3.9 million, or $0.28 per diluted share."