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From Briefing.com: The broader market closed Thursday action with all three major US indices in negative territory. The S&P 500 was the worst laggard, shedding 2.34 points (-0.11%) to close 2081.24. The Nasdaq Composite closed slightly lower today, down 1.56 points (-0.03%) to 5073.64. Rounding out the bunch, the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted the most tame of losses, down 4.41 points (-0.02%) at the close to 17732.75.

Market data today came in the form of Initial Claims, Philadelphia Fed Survey and Leading Indicators. The latest initial claims report for the week ending November 14 fell by 5,000 to 271,000. Manufacturing conditions in the Philadelphia Fed region improved in November as the General Business Activity Index rose to 1.9 from -4.5 in October. Also, the leading indicators report for October was up 0.6%.

In Technology (XLK 43.88, +0.20 +0.46%), trading took the sector into positive territory. Component Salesforce.com (CRM 80.61, +3.26 +4.21%) led the way higher as it reported a solid Q3 print. The company also issued upside guidance for the coming period, and and as a result shares saw increased buying. Other sectors closed Thursday as follows XLU +1.08%, XLI +0.44%, XLP +0.26%, XLF +0.16%, XLY +0.12%, IYZ +0.00%, XLB -0.11%, XLE -1.34%, XLV -1.68%.

For back-to-back sessions, Semiconductor (SOX 663.63, +1.48 +0.22%) names have been in play. Today, component Intel (INTC 34.30, +1.14 +3.44%) took the sector higher as the company issued guidance and increased its dividend at an Investor Day. Other components which finished higher included MRVL +3.42%, ON +2.12%, MU +1.67%, CREE +1.42%, ARMH +1.31%, QCOM +0.81%.

For its part, the S&P 500 Information Technology sector closed the session with modest gains. Despite the sector ending the day in positive territory, component Yahoo! (YHOO 32.62, -0.35 -1.08%) closed in the red as the company received a letter from Starboard Value which stated the firm thought the spin-off of Aabaco Holdings was not the best alternative. Other components which closed negative in spite of the sector strength were WDC -3.47%, FB -1.40%, XRX -1.04%, QRVO -1.01%, BRCM -0.88%, FFIV -0.63%, ACN -0.56%, SNDK -0.45%.

Other notable news items among sector components:

Fiserv (FISV 96.66, +0.64 +0.67%) announced its Board of Directors has authorized it to repurchase an additional 15 million shares of the company's common stock.

Motorola Solutions (MSI 72.45, +0.47 +0.65%) announced it plans to voluntarily withdraw the listing of its common stock from the Chicago Stock Exchange, and will continue to be listed on the NYSE.

Western Union (WU 19.08, -0.42 -2.15%) confirmed it has submitted a non-binding, indicative proposal to potentially acquire online payments services provider OzForex Group Limited, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Yahoo! (YHOO) was sent a letter from Starboard Value. Among other items, Starboard noted, 'The proposed spin-off of Aabaco Holdings is not Yahoo's best alternative.'

Intel (INTC) made comments at an Investor Meeting. The company provided 2016 guidance to the tune of growth in the mid-single digit range. The company also expects gross margins of 62%, plus or minus a couple of percentage points and capital spending of $10 billion. Also, announced an increase to the annual dividend to $1.04 from $0.96 per share beginning in Q1.

Elsewhere in the technology space:

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) Match Group (MTCH 14.75, +2.75 +22.92%) and Square (SQ 13.07, +4.07 +45.22%) made their initial opening public trades today.

Limelight Networks' (LLNW 1.65, +0.02 +1.23%) CFO Pete Perrone to resign effective December 4.

InterCloud Systems (ICLD 1.38, +0.25 +22.12%) announced it was awarded net contracts valued at more than $2.3 million. The company also issued senior convertible notes for gross proceeds of $500,000. The company also entered into an exchange agreement with GPB Life Science Holdings wherein the company would exchange a portion of certain senior notes on Dec. 3.

Equinix (EQIX 286.11, -6.98 -2.38%) priced an offering of 2,604,167 shares of common stock at $288.00 per share. The company also announced a $1 billion offering of Senior Notes Due 2026.

Vodafone (VOD 33.71, +0.13 +0.39%) announced its intention to raise around 500 million of new debt issuance of non-dilutive equity-linked bonds due 2020.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Lionsgate (LGF 36.22, -1.55 -4.10%) both each made an equity investment into Tubi TV, provider of free movies and TV shows.

In reaction to quarterly results:

Salesforce.com (CRM) reported Q3 EPS which was better than expected at $0.21 per share on revenues which were mostly in-line at $1.71 billion. The company also issued upside guidance for the Q4 period of EPS in the range of $0.18-0.19 on revenues of $1.782-1.792 billion. For the FY17 period, revenues are expected to be in the range of $8.0-8.1 billion.

NetApp (NTAP 30.97, -0.07 -0.23%) reported Q2 EPS which was better than expected at $0.61 on revenues which fell 6.4% YoY to $1.45 billion. NTAP also issued in-line guidance for Q3 in the range of $0.66-0.71 and revenues in the range of $1.40-1.50 billion.

Liquidity Services (LQDT 6.80, -1.08 -13.71%) reported a mixed Q4 with better than anticipated EPS of $0.07 and worse than expected revenues of $79.3 million. The company also issued downside guidance for the Q1 period, calling for EPS in the range of ($0.09)-0.00.

Analyst actions:

STX was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Craig Hallum,
ON was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup,
FCS was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse;
FCS was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup,
LEJU was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Macquarie

4:10 pm Agilent increases its quarterly cash dividend $0.015/share from $0.10/share to $0.115/share (A) :

4:09 pm Intuit beats by $0.13, beats on revs; guides Q2 above consensus; raises FY16 EPS guidance (INTU) :

Reports Q1 (Oct) earnings of $0.09 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.13 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.04); revenues rose 16.5% year/year to $713 mln vs the $670.88 mln Capital IQ Consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.17-0.20, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.05 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $880-900 mln vs. $826.69 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co issues upside guidance for FY16, sees EPS of $3.45-3.50 from $3.40-3.45, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $3.43 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:05 pm : The stock market ended the Thursday session on a flat note after spinning its wheels throughout the day. The S&P 500 shed 0.1% after spending the day in an eight-point range while the Nasdaq Composite (unch) outperformed slightly. Despite today's sluggish performance, the S&P 500 is set to enter Friday with a solid week-to-date gain of 2.9%.

Equities began the trading day just below their flat lines due to daylong weakness in two relatively large sectors. To that point, health care (-1.6%) and energy (-1.3%) struggled from the start with the health care space responding to a 5.7% dive in the shares of UnitedHealth (UNH 110.57, -6.68) after the insurer lowered its guidance, citing exposure to public exchanges. To be fair, UNH was not the only soft spot as biotech names also lagged with iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 333.42, -5.32) ending lower by 1.6%.

For its part, the energy sector struggled throughout the day, ending well behind the broader market despite an afternoon rebound in crude oil, which narrowed its loss to 0.5%, ending the pit session at $40.54/bbl.

Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, the discretionary space ended just above its flat line, which masked a 2.1% slide in the shares of Best Buy (BBY 30.66, -0.67) after the electronics retailer issued cautious guidance. Speaking of guidance, chipmaker heavyweight, Intel (INTC 34.30, +1.14), surged 3.4% after guiding in-line and boosting its annual dividend by eight cents to $1.04. Intel's outperformance contributed to a 0.4% gain in the top-weighted technology sector while the PHLX Semiconductor Index added 0.2%. The chipmaker index was held back from registering a larger gain due to a 12.0% plunge in SunEdison (SUNE 2.86, -0.39) after Blackstone denied having interest in backstopping SUNE.

Similar to technology, the industrial sector (+0.4%) ended well ahead of the broader market. Transport stocks contributed to the relative strength, evidenced by a 1.0% gain in the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

Moving back to the countercyclical side, consumer staples (+0.3%), telecom services (+0.5%), and utilities (+1.0%) held gains throughout the day, ending near their highs.

Unlike stocks, Treasuries climbed into the afternoon before surrendering about a third of their gains. That being said, the 10-yr note settled comfortably in the green with its yield slipping three basis points to 2.24%.

Today's participation was below recent averages as fewer than 800 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data reported today included Initial Claims, Philadelphia Fed Survey, and Leading Indicators:

The latest initial claims report didn't provide any real surprises as initial claims for the week ending November 14 fell by 5,000 to 271,000 (Briefing.com consensus 272,000) without any special factors driving the slight improvement
Continuing claims for the week ending November 7, meanwhile, dipped by 2,000 to 2.175 million (Briefing.com consensus 2.164 million)
The four-week moving average for initial claims bumped up to 271,000 from 268,000
Manufacturing conditions in the Philadelphia Fed region improved in November, evidenced by the General Business Activity Index rising to 1.9 from -4.5 in October while the Briefing.com consensus estimate called for a reading of -1.0
This was the first positive reading in three months
The dividing line between expansion and contraction for this particular survey is 0.0, so it can be said manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia Fed region is back in expansion territory, albeit only slightly
The Leading Indicators report for October was up 0.6%, which is what the Briefing.com consensus expected

Investors will not receive any economic data tomorrow.

Nasdaq Composite +7.1% YTD
S&P 500 +1.1% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -0.5% YTD
Russell 2000 -3.0% YTD

DJ30 -4.47 NASDAQ -1.56 SP500 -2.34 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1264/1.65 bln/1576 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1585/790.7 mln/1478

3:10 pm :

The dollar trended lower all session, being particularly pressured in early trade by the release of US unemployment data
Initial unemployment claims were in-line with estimates (271K vs. 272K est.), while continuing claims were slightly high (2.18 mln vs. 2.16 consensus)
The index modestly regained some of its early losses this afternoon, but is still down at -0.6% to 99.04
Oil traded positive overnight, before seeing a steep sell-off in early trading on yesterday's EIA inventory data figure (a 252K build) and a bearish stance reiteration from Goldman Sachs. The January contract traded in a relatively narrow range into the close, finishing -0.4% to $41.78/barrel
Natural gas trended near the flat-line going into this morning's data, and saw muted initial reaction upon EIA reports of a 15 bcf build (lower than the 49 bcf 4 wk avg)
Negative sentiment weighed more heavily as the session progressed however, with natural gas closing strongly lower at -3.4% to $2.27/MMBtu
Precious metals saw strong gains on the US employment data, most of which were held throughout the session. Gold closed +0.9% to $1078.1/oz and silver closed +0.9% to $14.95/oz. Copper closed near-flat at $2.07/lb

11:39 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New lows (138) outpacing new highs (95) (SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ADBE, AFL, AIZ, ANGI, AOS, AVY, AYI, BANC, BCOM, BDGE, BHBK, BOCH, BRKR, BT, CASY, CBAN, CBOE, CLI, CMN, COST, CRM, CSFL, CTRP, CWST, DHR, DMND, DSGX, EBS, EDU, EDUC, EXTR, FBHS, FLIC, GDEN, GOOG, GPN, GT, GWB, HD, HPY, HRL, HSIC, IDTI, IM, IMPV, JKHY, KITE, LION, LMT, LNCE, LYTS, MAA, MAS, MBWM, MITK, MKL, MORE, MPV, MPWR, MSI, MYOK, NBIX, NOW, NTES, OC, OMI, PAC, PACB, PARR, PAYX, PCBK, PCL, PCTY, PFPT, PRTA, PSCF, RENX, RNG, ROP, RTN, SJM, SNPS, SPKE, STBZ, STL, TRV, UBOH, UHAL, UVSP, V, VC, VMC, VYGR, WDFC, ZIXI

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ACTG, ADK, AEHR, AEZS, AFT, AMAG, AMID, ARCI, ASNA, ASTC, AZUR, BBW, BEBE, BGI, BGX, BIOD, BKE, BONT, CETC, CGG, CHCI, CHK, CIX, CKH, CLVS, CNAT, CNIT, COYN, CPRX, CRDC, CREG, CUBA, DCO, DEST, DGLY, DRWI, DSX, DWRE, DXI, EAT, EBIO, ECC, EFF, ENI, ENPH, ENVA, ESCA, EVAR, EVEP, FREE, FSAM, FTSL, FULL, GASS, GDP, GEOS, GLRE, GRAM, GROW, HERO, HNW, HOS, HSGX, IMMY, INVE, JCS, KED, KIN, KIRK, KMF, KYE, KYN, LEU, LIFE, LLNW, LQDT, LTRX, MEMP, MESO, MICT, NAO, NBG, NML, NMM, NRG, NRP, NRT, NSPH, NSPR, OIIM, ONTX, OPGN, PAA, PACEU, PDII, PDVW, PMTS, PQ, PRGN, PW, QKLS, RACE, RBCN, RMGN, ROYL, RRGB, RTK, SB, SFXE, SGNT, SJT, SMRT, SMT, SPDC, SPTN, SPU, SRF, SRG, SSH, SSI, SWN, SXCP, SXE, TCS, TDW, TGA, TIME, TLN, TLYS, TOO, TPLM, TTP, TWI, UUUU, WLB, WRN, WTT, ZX

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: none

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: DDB, JJC

8:41 am Atmel: Dialog Semi (DLGNF) shareholders approve acquisition of Atmel, transaction expected to close in Q1 of 2016 (ATML) : The transaction remains subject to approval of Atmel's stockholders and other customary conditions.