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From Briefing.com: 4:37 pm Photronics beats by $0.07, beats on revs (PLAB) :

Reports Q4 (Oct) earnings of $0.25 per share, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.18; revenues rose 14.0% year/year to $141.7 mln vs the $133.85 mln Capital IQ Consensus. Gross margin of 31.5% and operating margin of 19.2%, driven by high incremental margins. EBITDA of $50 million, up 54% from Q414.

4:07 pm Violin Memory misses by $0.01, misses on revs; announces exploration of strategic alternatives (VMEM) :

Reports Q3 (Oct) loss of $0.19 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.18); revenues fell 42.4% year/year to $12.5 mln vs the $17.23 mln Capital IQ Consensus.Third quarter fiscal 2016 non-GAAP gross margin was 56% compared to 47% reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 and compared to 54% reported in the third quarter of fiscal year 2015. Cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments totaled $95.9 million as of October 31, 2015.The company also announced today that its Board of Directors has authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value and has retained the services of an investment banking firm to assist with the evaluation process.Co states: "Our stock price remains at a level that we do not believe reflects the true value of our business and developed technology. As a management team, we are committed to act in the best interests of our shareholders, including considering alternate methods of enhancing shareholder value."

4:05 pm Avago Tech beats by $0.13, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 revs in-line (AVGO) :

Reports Q4 (Oct) earnings of $2.51 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.13 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $2.38; revenues rose 15.1% year/year to $1.85 bln vs the $1.85 bln Capital IQ Consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $1.76-1.81 bln vs. $1.81 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.Co finished fiscal 2015 on a very strong note, delivering record levels of revenue and profitability in its recently completed fourth quarterThe LSI acquisition and the synergies we have been able to realize through its integration, as well as strong year on year growth in wireless revenues were significant contributors to our 2015 results

4:10 pm : The stock market ended the midweek session on a broadly lower note with the S&P 500 sliding 1.1% while the Nasdaq (-0.6%) settled a bit ahead.

Equity indices spent the first 90 minutes of the session near their flat lines, but the energy sector (-3.1%) struggled from the start and accelerated its retreat into the afternoon, which dragged down the entire market. Meanwhile, the remaining groups held up relatively well at the start, but they could not resist the pressure, which intensified as the session wore on.

Today's plunge in the energy sector followed similar action in the oil market with WTI crude showing late morning volatility in reaction to conflicting headlines concerning this Friday's OPEC meeting in Vienna. Specifically, crude oil, and the energy sector, spiked off its morning low following reports that majority of OPEC members have agreed on an output cut; however, oil and the energy sector dove to new lows after subsequent reports indicated that Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations do not support lowering their production output. Crude oil settled lower by 4.4% at $41.78/bbl after marking a low at $39.86/bbl.

Interestingly, the selling in the market accelerated shortly after Fed Chair Janet Yellen concluded her speech at the Economic Club of Washington with the remarks being perceived as a sign that the Fed is ready to raise rates at the December policy meeting. The Dollar Index (100.00, +0.20) set a new 2015 high at 100.51 immediately after Chair Yellen's speech was released while Treasuries notched new lows for the day. The 10-yr note ended in the lower half of today's trading range, pushing its yield up four basis points to 2.18%.

In addition to the aforementioned energy sector, three other groups-financials (-1.2%), materials (-1.3%), and utilities (-2.2%)-lost more than 1.1% apiece while the remaining sectors posted slimmer losses. For instance, the industrial sector (-1.1%) ended in line with the market even though transport stocks underperformed following cautious guidance from CSX (CSX 27.53, -1.07) and KC Southern (KSU 85.12, -6.51). The two names posted respective losses of 3.7% and 7.1% while the broader Dow Jones Transportation Average fell 2.1%.

Elsewhere, the top-weighted technology sector (-0.6%) could not stay out of the red, but the group finished ahead of its peers thanks to a 5.2% jump in the shares of Qualcomm (QCOM 51.85, +2.55) after the company licensed its 3G and 4G technology to Xiaomi.

Today's participation was a bit ahead of average as roughly 930 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data released this morning included ADP Employment and Q3 Productivity/Unit Labor Cost Data:

The ADP National Employment Report revealed that employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose by 217,000 in November while the Briefing.com consensus expected a reading of 185,000
The October reading was revised up to 196,000 from 182,000
Third quarter productivity was revised up to 2.2% (Briefing.com consensus 2.2%) from 1.6% in the preliminary estimate while unit labor costs were revised up to 1.8% (Briefing.com consensus 1.2%) from 1.4% in the preliminary estimate
The change in productivity flowed from a 1.8% increase in output and a 0.3% decrease in hours worked. That was the first decline in hours worked since the third quarter of 2009
The change in unit labor costs reflected a 4.0% increase in hourly compensation and a 2.2% increase in productivity

Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 267K) will be reported at 8:30 ET while October Factory Orders (consensus +1.1%) and November ISM Services (consensus 58.3) will both be released at 10:00 ET.

Nasdaq Composite +8.2% YTD
S&P 500 +1.0% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -0.5% YTD
Russell 2000 -0.9% YTD

DJ30 -158.67 NASDAQ -33.08 SP500 -23.12 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 953/1.90 bln/1927 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 648/929.8 mln/2429

3:40 pm :

Strength in the dollar index weighed on commodities today, including oil, natural gas and metals
WTI crude oil sold off today ahead of Friday's OPEC meeting and following today's weekly EIA storage data
Jan crude finished the day -4.4% at $39.94/barrel.
Jan nat gas lost $0.06 to finish at $2.17/MMBtu
Metals ended today's session in the red with Feb gold losing -0.9% at $1053.90/oz and Mar silver -0.4% at $14.01/oz
Mar copper dropped 1% to $2.05/lb in floor trading

12:49 pm First Solar to host its 2016 guidance call after the market closes on Wednesday, December 9 at 4:30 PM EST (FSLR) :


11:34 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (124) outpacing new lows (121) (SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: ADBE, AFL, AHL, ALK, AMWD, AMZN, AOSL, ATVI, BABY, BKMU, BWXT, CACB, CASY, CINF, CLX, CMN, CNO, CPS, CRAY, CTMX, CWAY, CYT, CYTK, DHI, DHIL, DMTX, DPS, EBF, EDU, EDUC, EGOV, EIG, EMCI, EME, EMKR, ERIE, EXR, EXTR, FBC, FBIZ, FBNC, FCVA, FDEF, FMBI, FXCB, GCBC, GDEN, GERN, GFF, GOOG, GOOGL, GT, GVA, GWB, GWRE, HOFT, HSII, HUB.A, IBCP, JBT, JKHY, KFY, LDOS, LGIH, LIQT, LKFN, LUV, MAA, MANH, MBVT, MCBC, MCRI, MDRX, MG, MGPI, MPWR, MSFT, MXL, NAII, NBBC, NCIT, NEN, NFBK, NFLX, NOW, NSA, NTGR, NUAN, NUTR, NVDA, NWL, OCLR, OSHC, OSIS, OVTI, PBY, PGI, PLAB, PNQI, PROV, PSA, PSTB, PULB, QQQ, RECN, RENX, RNR, SBCF, SFBS, SKYY, SNA, STBZ, STL, TLMR, TSN, UBFO, USLB, WINS, WSFS, XLNX, XUE, Y, YDKN, ZEN

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ADK, APU, AR, ARCB, ARP, ATLS, AUMAW, AZUR, BBEP, BDCV, BNTC, BOBE, CAR, CCO, CDRB, CEN, CEQP, CIB, CLUB, CMO, CNP, COG, CPST, CVGI, CVM, CYD, DCIX, DMLP, DRAM, DSE, DSX, DYN, EC, ELP, EMITF, EMMS, EMO, ENBL, ENI, ENLK, EPIX, EQGP, EQT, ESEA, ESNC, ESSX, ETP, EVEP, FEN, FIF, FMO, FPL, FWM, GDP, GER, GLBL, GMLP, GSI, HRT, HTLD, I, ICA, JGW, KED, KMF, KYN, LGCY, LINE, LLEX, LNCO, LUK, MEMP, MHGC, MIXT, MT, NCQ, NGLS, NMM, NS, NVS, OCIP, OHAI, OIBR, OKE, ORIG, PCO, PDII, PLTM, PQ, RBY, RICE, ROYT, SDLP, SEMG, SFY, SPEX, SPH, SQQQ, SRF, SSH, SVVC, SWN, SXC, SXE, TAC, TGP, TK, TLP, TOO, TPLM, TRGP, TYG, UNIS, UPL, VALE, VALE.P, VKTX, WLB, WPZ, WRES, ZFGN

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: FDN, IGV, KIE, PSK, QQQ, SKYY

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: EPOL, GSG, IAU, UHN, UNG

7:30 am Qualcomm and Xiaomi sign a 3G/4G license agreement (QCOM) : Co and Xiaomi enter into a new 3G and 4G China patent license agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Qualcomm has granted Xiaomi a royalty-bearing patent license to develop, manufacture and sell 3G and 4G, including 3-mode, complete devices.

7:00 am Ingram Micro agrees to acquire the Parallels Odin Service Automation platform from Parallels Holdings; terms not disclosed (IM) : The co announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire certain assets from Parallels Holdings Ltd, a provider of commercial cloud management platform technologies, connectors, billing systems and professional services. Under the terms of the transaction, Ingram Micro will acquire the Parallels Odin Service Automation platform along with associated cloud management technologies, intellectual property and the Odin brand.

Rudolph Technologies (RTEC) announces today that an outsourced assembly and test facility has placed a repeat order for the JetStep W Series Lithography system, which it will use for both fan-out and fan-in packaging approaches. Additionally, Rudolph received an order from a flat panel display manufacturer in China for its JetStep G Series Lithography system, which will be used for the development of next-generation processes for high-resolution mobile displays. The JetStep W System will ship in the 4Q15 and the JetStep G System will ship in 2Q16.

6:50 am SunEdison, TerraForm Global (GLBL), and Renova Energia terminate previously announced transactions (SUNE) :

The co announced it terminated the securities purchase agreement with Light S.A. to acquire an ~16 % stake in Renova for $250 million. In addition, the agreement among SunEdison and TerraForm Global (GLBL) and Renova Energia, which provided for the acquisition of certain development-stage projects that were intended for a subsequent sale by SunEdison to TerraForm Global as call rights projects under the sponsor support agreement was also terminated .

The previously announced fifty-fifty joint venture between Renova and SunEdison to develop, own, and operate 1 gigawatt of utility scale solar photovoltaic projects to supply the Brazilian Regulated Electricity Market remains."While it is disappointing that the agreement was terminated, we remain committed to Brazil. In addition, Renova remains a valued partner and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them on our solar development joint venture."The projects were intended for a subsequent sale by SunEdison to TerraForm Global, Inc. as call rights projects. On December 1, 2015, the Backlog Agreement was terminated, and TerraForm Global's call rights list has been decreased by 2.7 gigawatts of projects as a result.

6:02 am Ascent Solar confirms it was awarded a Schedule 56 contract, beginning December 15th, 2015, by the General Services Administration (ASTI) : The contract enables Federal customers, including all four branches of the U.S. Military, Federal Agencies and others, to easily purchase a range of Ascent Solar products including: the MilPak E and EnerPlex products such as the Kickr IV and Kickr II.

Geomerics, an ARM (ARMH) company, announced that leading Chinese gaming company Perfect World has licensed Enlighten, the advanced global illumination technology, to deliver richer graphics in its highly anticipated mobile titles.

3:50 am Nokia converts EUR750 mln convertible bond into Nokia shares (NOK) :

A total of 10,502,091 new Nokia shares have today been registered with the Trade Register.

The shares were subscribed for by using the conversion right pertaining to Nokia's EUR750 mln convertible bond.

3:46 am Mattson to be acquired by E-Town Dragon for $3.80 per Share (MTSN) :

Mattson Technology and Beijing E-Town Dragon Semiconductor Industry Investment Center jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which E-Town Dragon will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Mattson for $3.80 per share in cash.

The transaction price represents a 23% premium to Mattson's closing stock price on December 1, 2015, and values Mattson's equity at approximately $300 million on a fully diluted basis.The transaction is subject to approval by Mattson's stockholders, as well as antitrust and other regulatory approvals