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From Briefing.com: The broader market ended Thursday in a rapid sell-off. The S&P 500 closed with the worst losses today, shedding 4 points at the close to end down 31.18 points (-1.50%) to 2041.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 30 points as the bell rang to end down 253.25 points (-1.43%) to 17495.84. The Nasdaq Composite ended Thursday with the shallowest of losses, ending down 68.58 points (-1.35%) to 5002.55.

Market data today came in the form of weekly initial claims which declined by 11,000 to 271,000. Philadelphia Fed's Manufacturing Index slipped back into negative territory in December with a reading of -5.9 versus -1.9 in November. The current account deficit for the third quarter totaled $124.10 billion. The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index increased 0.4% in November on top of an unrevised 0.6% increase in October.

Among other sectors, Technology (XLK 43.22, -0.69 -1.57%) ended the session at the lows of the day. Component Accenture (ACN103.26, -5.82 -5.34% ) traded lower today following the company's mixed Q1 results. ACN reported a top line beat and a bottom line miss for the period, and guided for Q2 revenues and FY16 EPS. Other sectors ended Thursday action XLU +0.21%, XLV -1.07%, XLP -1.29%, IYZ -1.31%, XLF -1.43%, XLY -1.65%, XLI -1.66%, XLB -2.00%, XLE -2.46% with only Utilities escaping with gains.

The S&P 500 Information Technology sector (724.96, -11.86 -1.61%) also closed at session lows as the broader market sold off into the close. Component Apple (AAPL 108.98, -2.36 -2.12%) today announced the appointment of Jeff Williams as COO. Other components in play today included HPQ -2.94%, TXN -2.65%, WDC -2.56%, STX -2.47%, ADI -2.45%, AVGO -2.36%, GLW -2.32%, NTAP -2.21%.

Other notable news items among sector components:

Apple (AAPL) announced executive changes, including the naming of Jeff Williams as Chief Operating Officer.

The Oracle (ORCL 36.93, -1.98 -5.09%) Board of Directors announced it has unanimously elected Rene James to the company's Board of Directors. The election is effective as of December 16, 2015 and increases the size of the Board to 13 directors.

Microsoft (MSFT 55.70, -0.43 -0.77%) detailed plans to launch Windows 10 for public sector customers in China.

Harris (HRS 83.12, -0.44 -0.53%) received a three-year, $54 million ceiling, single-award IDIQ contract from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to provide electronic warfare technology and engineering services for the Advanced Decoy Architecture Project. Contract was awarded during 1Q16. Harris will provide ADAP payloads designed to lure missiles away from their intended targets with advanced electronic techniques and research engineering services

Fiserv (FISV 92.91, -0.73 -0.78%) announced that Utah Community Credit Union has extended its relationship with FISV by selecting the DNA account processing platform and several integrated solutions from the company to position the credit union for future growth.

FIS (FIS 59.91, -2.12 -3.42%) announced the collaboration with The Venture Center to launch the FinTech Accelerator.

Teradata (TDC 26.82, -0.75 -2.70%) announced that a large, diverse ecosystem of alliance partners have tested their solutions for compatibility and will support Teradata Database 15.10.

Elsewhere in the technology space:

Trina Solar Limited (TSL 10.59, -0.44 -4.03%) announced the restructuring in its system business unit. The change is designed to reflect the company's strategy and ambitions to become a first-tier global player in the downstream business. The company's SBU will be split into two separate units: a China SBU and an international SBU.

Intelsat S.A. (I 3.79, flat) reported the appointment of its Chief Executive Officer and Board member, Stephen Spengler, as Acting Chief Financial Officer effective December 16, 2015, the effective date of resignation of Michael McDonnell, its former Chief Financial Officer.

IMS Health Holdings (IMS 25.51, -0.20 -0.78%) announced a $250 million share repurchase authorization.

AVG Tech (AVG 20.10, +0.14 +0.70%) amended its 1.6 million share repurchase program to cover obligations under its employee stock options incentive and restricted share units plans.

Elephant Talk (ETAK 0.28, +0.04 +19.15%) appointed Gary Brandt as Chief Restructuring Officer and Dr. Armin Hessler as Chief Operating Officer.

Tremor Video (TRMR 2.01, flat) announced the partnership with Moat that enables Tremor Video clients to optimize campaigns with MRC-accredited metrics powered by Moat.

Cinedigm Digital Cinema (CIDM 0.27, -0.02 -6.73%) received a letter from Nasdaq regarding the failure to regain compliance with the $1 minimum bid rule. The company intends to file a request for a hearing.

Hutchinson Tech. (HTCH 3.56, -0.12 -3.26%) disclosed it received request for further information from the FTC in connection with the review of the merger transactions.

In reaction to quarterly results:

Oracle (ORCL) reported Q2 EPS which beat expectations at $0.63 on revenues which were mostly in-line with expectations yet fell 6.4% year-over-year to $8.99 billion. The company also guided Q3 non-GAAP EPS in constant currency in the range of $0.63-0.66 with Q4 total revenues in the range of +1% to +3%.

Accenture (ACN) reported Q1 EPS which missed anticipations at $1.28 on revenues which beat and rose 1.4% year-over-year to $8.01 billion. The company also guided Q2 revenues in the range of $7.50-7.75 billion. ACN also reaffirmed FY16 EPS in the range of $5.09-5.24.

Jabil Circuit (JBL 23.64, -0.27 -1.13%) reported Q1 EPS which beat expectations at $0.85 on revenues which were mostly in-line with what was expected and rose 14.4% year-over-year to $5.21 billion. The company also guided Q2 EPS of $0.54-0.70 and Q2 revenues of $4.4-4.7 billion. Looking further ahead, JBL sees FY16 EPS of $2.65 with revenues of about $20 billion.

Analyst actions:

QCOM, ADTN, COMM were upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan,
AMX was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan,
MU, WB were upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley,
TER was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Evercore ISI,
CACI was upgraded to Buy from Hold at BB&T Capital Mkts;
RNG, BCE, RCI were downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley,
STWRY was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley,
TU was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital Mkts,
GLW was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan,
HOLI was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman

4:18 pm Marvell receives supplemental notice from NASDAQ for failure to file its Form 10-Q, requests that it submit an update to its compliance plan (MRVL) :

The co announced that, as a result of its previously announced delayed filing of its Form 10-Q for the third quarter of fiscal 2016, in accordance with the rules of The NASDAQ Stock Market, on December 14, 2015, it received a supplemental notice from NASDAQ that the Company does not comply with NASDAQ's listing rules for continued listing. In its supplemental notice, NASDAQ requested that the Company submit an update to its compliance plan previously filed with NASDAQ by January 13, 2016.

The Company intends to comply with this request and intends to take all necessary steps to achieve compliance with the NASDAQ continued listing requirements as soon as practicable

4:15 pm AT&T and IBM (IBM) announce an extension of their relationship, whereby AT&T will transition its managed application and managed hosting services unit to IBM (T) : Cos announced they are expanding their long-term strategic relationship to bring businesses a full suite of advanced networking, application and hosting services. Under the agreement, AT&T will transition its managed application and managed hosting services unit to IBM (IBM). IBM will then align these managed service capabilities with the IBM Cloud portfolio. IBM will also acquire equipment and access to floor space in AT&T data centers currently supporting the applications and managed hosting operations.

4:10 pm : The stock market stumbled on Thursday, erasing its entire post-Fed advance. The S&P 500 lost 1.5%, falling below its 50- and 200-day moving averages (2,062), while the Nasdaq Composite (-1.4%) settled just a step ahead.

Equity indices held slim gains at the open after the overnight session saw a broad rally in Japan (+1.6%), France (+1.1%), and Germany (+2.6%); however, that bullish sentiment faded in a flash, pulling stocks lower through the first two hours of the session. The key indices ranged near their morning lows into the late afternoon, hitting new lows into the close.

The Thursday retreat was not a huge surprise considering a higher fed funds rate will translate into increased borrowing costs. Furthermore, the resulting dollar strength is expected to be a negative for U.S.-based companies that conduct a large portion of their activities overseas.

Fittingly, the greenback was on the rise today, climbing 0.7% against the euro (1.0808) while the yen (122.50) resisted some of the pressure, but still slid 0.4% against the dollar. As a result, the Dollar Index (99.23, +0.65) gained 0.7%, returning into the neighborhood of this year's high (100.51).

Today's dollar strength did no favors to crude oil as the energy component fell 1.7% to $34.95/bbl. The settlement price masked the fact that oil was down more than 2.8%, marking a session low ($34.64/bbl) just above its worst level from Monday ($34.53/bbl). Accordingly, the energy sector (-2.5%) paced today's retreat.

However, energy was not the only weak spot as every other cyclical sector settled behind the broader market. The top-weighted technology space (-1.6%) had to contend with relative weakness in Apple (AAPL 108.98, -2.36) as the largest stock by market cap fell 2.1% and returned into the neighborhood of yesterday's session low. Meanwhile, another large tech component-Oracle (ORCL 36.93, -1.98)-surrendered 5.1% after the company's sluggish revenue growth overshadowed a bottom-line beat.

Staying on the earnings front, FedEx (FDX 151.84, +3.01) spiked 2.0% after reporting better than expected earnings and reaffirming its guidance. It is worth noting that the company voiced some concern about the domestic economy, lowering its 2015 GDP growth forecast to 2.4% from 2.5%. FedEx represented a bright spot in the Dow Jones Transportation Average (-2.0%), but heavy losses in other index components caused the bellwether complex to widen its December loss to 7.0%.

Things looked a bit better on the countercyclical side where consumer staples (-1.3%), telecom services (-1.0%), and health care (-1.1%) registered slimmer losses than the broader market while the utilities sector (+0.1%) outperformed thanks to lower yields.

Interestingly, Treasuries spent the day in the green, hitting their highs just ahead of the close. The 10-yr note ended near its best level of the session, sending the benchmark yield lower by six basis points to 2.24%. Investors will keep a close watch on the bond market going forward, considering prolonged strength in Treasuries would be indicative of bond traders doubting the Fed's ability to continue raising rates.

Today's participation was above average as more than 920 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data included Initial Claims, Philadelphia Fed Survey, Current Account balance, and Leading Indicators:

Weekly Initial claims declined by 11,000 to 271,000 (Briefing.com consensus 276,000), remaining bounded in the 250,000 to 300,000 range where they have been since July 2014
Continuing claims for the week ending December 5 decreased by 7,000 to 2.238 million (Briefing.com consensus 2.211 million)
The Philadelphia Fed's Manufacturing Index slipped back into negative territory in December with a reading of -5.9 (Briefing.com consensus 2.0) versus 1.9 in November. A number below zero denotes contraction
This was the third negative reading in the diffusion index for current activity in the last four months, reflecting weaker manufacturing conditions in the region
The diffusion index for future general activity is still positive, yet it showed a huge drop from 43.4 in November to 23.0 in December, representing the lowest reading since November 2012
The current account deficit for the third quarter totaled $124.10 billion while the Briefing.com consensus expected the deficit to hit $114.20 billion
The second quarter deficit was revised to $111.10 billion from $109.70 billion
The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI) increased 0.4% in November on top of an unrevised 0.6% increase in October (Briefing.com consensus +0.1%)
The difference between the expected number and the actual number can be traced back directly to the contribution from building permits, considering they were much stronger than expected in November, running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.289 million versus the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 1.150 million

Investors will not receive any economic data tomorrow.

Nasdaq Composite +5.6% YTD
S&P 500 -0.8% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.8% YTD
Russell 2000 -5.4% YTD

DJ30 -253.25 NASDAQ -68.58 SP500 -31.18 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 978/1.73 bln/1942 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1047/932.1 mln/2006

3:35 pm :

The dollar traded at gains all session following yesterday's FOMC rate hike, extending overnight gains in late afternoon trade and putting pressure on the metals complex.
Notably, the morning release of US unemployment data (lower initial claims than expected at 271K vs. 276K est, and relatively weak continuing claims) gave peripheral support to the index's direction, and the dollar is now +0.9% to 99.29
Crude traded modestly negative early this session (on momentum from a larger than expected EIA build yesterday), but saw more focused selling pressure as the day progressed. February WTI closed just above its LoD at -1.3% to $36.29/barrel.
Precious metals sold-off heavily on the dollar's strength, seeing no significant relief from open to close. Gold closed -2.5% to $1049.50/oz and silver finished -3.8% to $13.70/oz
Natural gas closed at strong losses of -1.7% to $1.76/MMBtu, following a smaller than expected build in inventories (at 34 bcf vs. 42 bcf est. via the EIA).
Copper closed at -1.9% to $2.04/lb

10:02 am Apple announces executive changes, names Jeff Williams as Chief Operating Officer (AAPL) : Williams joined Apple in 1998 as head of worldwide procurement and since 2010 has overseen Apple's entire supply chain, service and support, and the social responsibility initiatives which protect more than one million workers worldwide. In addition, the co announced that Johny Srouji is joining Apple's executive team as senior vice president for Hardware Technologies. Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, will expand his role to include leadership of the revolutionary App Store across all Apple platforms. Apple also announced that Tor Myhren will join Apple in the first calendar quarter of 2016 as vice president of Marketing Communications