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From Briefing.com: There wasn't a new 52-wk closing high for the Nasdaq on Thursday as the Composite took a nose-dive along with the broader market. Selling activity was widespread with decliners outpacing advancers at the Nasdaq by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. Down volume, meanwhile, eclipsed up volume by a 3-to-1 margin. Total volume of 1.96 bln shares was heavy, but it wasn't heavy enough to suggest a full-scale exodus. All told, we'll call it an overdue day of profit taking.

There were some interesting undercurrents, however, that suggested a shift in sentiment may be at hand (or very close at hand). In particular, the Nasdaq Composite closed below 1653. As indicated in Briefing.com's Technical Levels Stock Brief, a violation of that floor on a closing basis raises the prospect of more significant consolidation.

It was also noteworthy that the tech sector rolled over despite an article by The Washington Post's dialed-in Fed follower, John Berry, that called for a rate cut of 50 basis points at next week's FOMC meeting. A few weeks ago, the tech sector, and the market, was ignited by the possibility that a rate cut of that magnitude would help fend off deflation and, in turn, spur capital spending. Today, the talk of a likely 50 basis point rate cut had little impact in terms of feeding buy interest.

The same can be said for the Initial Claims, Philadelphia Fed Index, and Leading Indicators reports which, for all intents and purposes, were decent and would have been greeted favorably by tech investors just a short time ago. The lackluster response to that batch of data, highlighted by concerns that the Philadelphia Fed Index was only in-line with expectations, served as another red flag that bullish momentum may be subsiding. The loss of leadership from the biotech sector is another issue of note. Since its close on Tuesday, the BTK index is down 8.2%.

Tomorrow, look for volume to be on the heavy side as we experience a quadruple witching options expiration day. The Nasdaq 100 futures, at 1225, are currently signalling a modestly weaker start as they are 4 points below fair value.-- Patrick J. O'Hare, Briefing.com

5:19PM ON Semiconductor cuts Q2 rev guidance (ONNN) 2.38 +0.18: Company now sees Q2 revenues declining by 3-5% (to approx $253.2-258.5 mln) as compared to Q103 revs of $266.5 mln "based upon upon end-market weakness in the automotive and wireless markets." Reuters Research consensus is $265.8 mln.

4:41PM NVIDIA downgraded to Equal Weight at Pacific Growth (NVDA) 23.93 -1.55: --Update-- We now have confirmation on the 15:42 comment concerning talk of an NVDA downgrade. Pacific Growth lowered its rating on the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight. According to firm, at the Thomas Weisel growth conference today, co indicated that transition to .13µ has been more challenging than expected, yields are not where the company thought and cycle times are being pushed out. Additionally, Pacific Growth's channel checks have shown that game console sales are slower than firm had been expecting as console prices have not come down as much as was anticipated. Firm now looking for NVDA to see FY04 and FY05 Xbox revs of $279.6 mln and $230 mln vs firm's previous estimates of $314.6 mln and $345.1 mln.

4:30PM Solectron appoints GE exec to EVP post (SLR) 29.86 -0.87: --Update-- In association with Q3 earnings, co announces that it has hired Marc Onetto as its vice president of worldwide operations. Mr. Onetto spent 15 years at GE, most recently serving as vice president of GE's European operations.

4:13PM Solectron misses bottom line estimates; beats on topline -- updates Q4 guidance (SLR) 4.32 +0.08: Reports Q3 (May) loss of $0.10 per share, $0.07 worse than the Reuters Research consensus of ($0.03); revenues fell 0.1% year/year to $2.82 bln vs the $2.68 bln consensus. Company sees Q4 EPS loss of $0.02-0.06 vs R.R. consensus loss of $0.01, revs $2.6-3.0 bln vs est of $2.8 bln.

4:20PM Ultratech Stepper: immediate visibility a 'bit murky' (UTEK) 18.51 -0.17: In an 8-K filing, co says that immediate visibility is a bit murky as a few systems are in various stages of installation and test at customer sites. Depending on the amount of time it takes to complete these efforts, acceptance and revenue could occur either this quarter or next. However, co says the most likely expectations at this time are that the results for the current qtr will still tend to reinforce the comments made in the 1Q earnings call and last month's CFO update. Co also notes that visibility into the second half of the year has improved to a point that annual revenue growth could achieve greater than 30%-35% compared with 2002.

5:15PM Thursday After Hours Price levels are as of 4 pm EST: It was a down day, as investors sold stocks in front of the first quad-witching day, which will see four types of contracts come to a close. Traders are expecting stocks to stay in a right range tomorrow, as the arbitrage players will keep stocks close to exercise prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9179.53, off by 114.27 points. S&P 500 futures were at 993, in line with fair value. NASDAQ 100 futures were down four points from fair value at 1229.

Solectron (SLR 3.90 -0.49) disappointed Wall Street by reporting Q3 (May) loss of $0.10 per share, $0.07 worse than the Reuters Research consensus of ($0.03). Revenues for the provider of integrated supply chain solutions fell 0.1% yr/yr to $2.82 bln vs the $2.68 bln consensus. The Company sees Q4 EPS loss of $0.02 - $0.06 vs R.R. consensus loss of $0.01, revs $2.6 - $3.0 bln vs the current estimate of $2.8 bln.

Close Dow -114.27 at 9179.53, S&P -15.39 at 994.70, Nasdaq -28.49 at 1648.65: The stock market started the session modestly higher, but a rush of selling activity wiped out the indices' gains for the day - as well as week... As a result, the S&P 500 finished below the key 1,000 mark in a foretelling sign that the market's recent upside momentum has cooled... Traders have engaged in increasing levels of profit-taking and have kept the major indices range-bound over the past two weeks in light of the onset of the June quarter warnings season, and concerns surrounding the heightened prices of stocks...
To that end, a number of influential names were downgraded for valuation reasons... Schering-Plough (SGP 19.72 -0.75) was downgraded by Morgan Stanley to Equal-weight from Overweight, and Morgan Stanley (MWD 43.88 -3.01) was downgraded by JP Morgan to Underweight from Neutral... Consequently, the drug and brokerage sectors exhibited weakness in the early action, and their influential leadership to the downside incited a broad-based market pullback... Technology, transportation, retail, and biotech all reversed course and sent the indices to progressively lower levels...

Not surprisingly, the equity market was not able to capitalize off a batch of generally reassuring economic reports due to the market's preoccupation with valuation concerns... Jobless claims for the week of June 13 dropped 13K to 421K (consensus of 425K) and represented the second week of improvement for the still weak labor market... May Leading Indicators rose to 1.0% (consensus of 0.7%) for their strongest gain since December of 2001 as the money supply rose and stock prices jumped... Finally, the June Philadelphia Fed Index increased to 4.0 (consensus of 4.1) from -4.8 ...

However, not all market participants took comfort from the improvement as many had expected a stronger gain following Monday's surge in the Empire State Index... Additionally, the key new orders and shipments portions of the Philly Index remained negative, and the prices and employment components registered declines...NYSE Adv/Dec 1100/2177, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1079/2065

3:50PM Motorola shows relative strength intraday (MOT) 9.55 +0.27: We're hearing that Lehman is highlighting stock as trading opportunity. In an afternoon note, firm apparently raises its near-term view on stock to Overweight and increases target to $11.50 from $9.00

12:28PM Technical Levels: Exactly two weeks ago, in the June 5th review, we had identified this broader level of potential resistance in the vicinity of 1652. Now at the time, the index was heading off into 'uncharted territory' and we were staking out an area of interest assuming a somewhat broader time frame.

Recall that June 5th review concluded as follows: "To the upside, the index now faces initial overhead in the range of 1630 to 1632, followed by additional resistance around 1638. While we'll track trading levels along the lines of that 1638 area, note the first 'stronger' resistance to the upside currently appears to rest in the vicinity of 1652."

So that was two weeks ago -- as the technical picture evolved, the 'real' technical level was actually ratcheted up one point to 1653. The rationale for this slight adjustment tied into the June 12th session. Recall the Nasdaq traded a somewhat unusual session June 12th, in which its opening and closing levels were very close to the same -- 1653.0 and 1653.6 respectively. Now that 'sameness' between an index' opening and closing levels is known as a 'doji' in candlestick terminology, and is conventionally interpreted to signal broader market indecision.

Also note that June 12th session marked a temporary top in the Nasdaq which preceded relatively pronounced sell pressure on June 13th. So that initial interpretation of 1652 as the first 'real' resistance came through very close to the mark.

Now coming into this week -- on Monday, June 16th -- the Nasdaq managed its first definitive close above 1653. As a consequence, this area subsequently shifted to become a notable support point, that served as the basis for our Tuesday review. Again, the relevant passages from that Tuesday review follow: "Be aware we would begin to reconsider the bullish immediate bias on a violation of support at 1653.... To the downside, look for initial support in the range of 1658 to 1660, followed closely by that more important floor around 1653."

So with the preceding as an admittedly lengthy backdrop, yesterday marked the second instance in which our attention to this level paid off. The chart above is an intraday chart of the Nasdaq in which each bar on the chart represents the opening and closing levels for each five-minute time frame.

As we pointed out yesterday, you can see when and where the index lifted from an intraday low precisely on our final support point -- at 1653.2 to be specific. The subsequent response was a truly unusual intraday lift of 32 points, or 1.9%, in a matter of just two hours.

To read the remainder of this review -- which addresses an interesting approach to this intraday sell pressure -- please see the Stock Brief page-- Mike Ashbaugh, Briefing.com

Entegris (ENTG) 12.98 -0.43: Reported Q3 (May) earnings of $0.05 per share, $0.02 better than the Reuters Research consensus of $0.03; revenues rose 17.2% year/year to $70.0 mln vs the $67.3 mln consensus. Company sees Q4 sales "about even" with $70 mln Q3 number, Reuters Research consensus is $70 mln.

8:58AM LSI Logic upgraded at Lehman (LSI) 7.64: -- Update -- Lehman upgrades to Equal-Weight from Underweight and raises their target to $8 from $6 based on their belief that business may have finally bottomed; firm also cites their expectations for a solid June and Sept, strength in storage and stability in communications and consumer, compelling valuation, and low expectations for a rev decline of 7% for CY03.

8:55AM Fairchild Semi downgraded at Lehman (FCS) 13.21: Lehman downgrades to Equal-Weight from Overweight due to heightened risk to their EPS ests and relatively high valuation; based in part on yesterday's analyst day, firm thinks orders will be soft this summer, particularly in Asia (75% of sales) as a result of SARS and excess inventories, and that gross margin will remain under pressure. Target is $13

8:08AM Micron upgraded to Neutral at UBS; target $12 (MU) 13.08: UBS upgrades to Neutral from Reduce and raises their target to $12 from $8 following last night's results; firm expects the stock to remain range-bound from $10-$14 until the co can demonstrate a clear path to profitability, and given the prospect of continued losses for the next 5 qtrs, firm thinks the stock is richly valued at $13.50; at the same time, the prospect of stable to rising DRAM ASPs will likely support the stock above the $10 level.

6:41AM European Summary : European stocks reversed soon after a strong open continuing their sideways move from yesterday. Finnish handset giant Nokia (NOK) rose after the chief financial officer of RF Micro Devices (RFMD) said he is optimistic that cellphone sales will pick up later this year. The dollar rose to its highest level in more than a month against the euro in London trading before a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia that is likely to add to evidence that U.S. economic growth is accelerating... UK -0.16%, France -0.23%, Germany -0.27%.

8:56AM General Electric: Merrill Lynch lowering full yr estimates (GE) 30.73: --Update-- Merrill Lynch reducing FY03 est to $1.59 from $1.61 (consensus $1.61) due to lackluster short-cycle order trends. Firm's 2004 est goes to $1.72 from $1.75 (consensus $1.76). Believes co could use tomorrow's Analyst Meeting as an opportunity to narrow current full- year guidance to the low end of the previous $1.55-$1.70 EPS guidance range.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^SOXX+ALTR+AMAT+AMD+BRCM+ENTG+FCS+GE+INTC+KLAC+LLTC+LSCC+LSI+MOT+MU+MXI...

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