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From Briefing.com: 4:11 pm Sigma Designs beats by $0.07, reports revs in-line (SIGM) :

Reports Q4 (Jan) earnings of $0.02 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.05); revenues fell 6.0% year/year to $51.5 mln vs the $51.27 mln Capital IQ ConsensusNon-GAAP gross margin in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 was 49.6%. This compares with a non-GAAP gross margin of 51.7% in the previous quarter, and non-GAAP gross margin of 50.8% for the same period in fiscal 2015.

4:03 pm Microsemi confirms sale of 'non-strategic component of a board level systems and packaging business' to Mercury Systems (MRCY), reaffirms Q2 guidance (MSCC) :

Q2 guidance: EPS of $0.62-0.68 vs $0.65 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; revs $435-455 mln vs $444.71 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate

4:10 pm : The stock market spent the Wednesday session under selling pressure as a tumble in crude oil fueled a retreat in the broader market. Meanwhile, hawkish commentary from St. Louis Fed President Bullard (FOMC voting member), the underperformance of the heavyweight financial sector (-0.8%), and some below-consensus earnings results led the averages to their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq Composite (-1.1%) ended the Wednesday affair behind both the S&P 500 (-0.6%) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.5%).

Before the opening bell, crude oil abandoned the $41.00/bbl price level after the API weekly inventory report showed a larger-than-expected build. Later, the energy component and the major averages carved out fresh session lows following the release of the Department of Energy's more influential stockpile data. The report showed that crude oil levels increased by 9.35 million barrels (consensus 3.09 million barrel) over the last week. By the end of its pit session, oil had surrendered 4.3% ($39.79/bbl).

Separately, hawkish commentary from St. Louis Fed President Bullard added to uncertainty in the broader market. President Bullard argued that rising inflation expectations would call for more rate hikes and that an April hike is not off the table. President Bullard's hawkish note raised speculation that there may be growing dissent on the FOMC with regards to the direction of the fed funds rate.

Heavily-weighted technology (-0.6%), consumer discretionary (-0.6%), health care (-0.6%), and financials (-0.8%) all joined energy (-2.1%) on the bottom of the leaderboard. Conversely, countercyclical utilities (+0.7%) and consumer staples (UNCH) ended above their flat lines.

Commodity-sensitive energy (-2.1%) displayed broad weakness as independent oil and gas names, refiners, and pipeline companies all showed steep losses. The broader sector has tumbled 2.9% thus far this week, but remains higher by 8.5% in the month of March. On a month-to-date basis WTI crude remains up 17.4%.

In the heavyweight technology space (-0.6%), data storage names displayed relative weakness as Western Digital (WDC 48.72, -2.62) and Seagate Technology (STX 34.80, -2.24) plummeted 5.1% and 6.1%, respectively. Additionally, the high-beta chipmakers underperformed, evidenced by the 1.3% decline in the PHLX Semiconductor Index.

The health care space (-0.6%) fell as biotechnology retraced yesterday's rebound effort. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 254.26, -8.68) surrendered all of its gain from yesterday and trimmed its week-to-date gain to 1.5%. Separately, health care provider and Dow component UnitedHealth (UNH 129.79, +1.77) ended at the top of the price-weighted index.

Meanwhile, Nike (NKE62.44, -2.46) had the worst showing in the Dow. The consumer discretionary name (-0.6%) fell after reporting disappointing top-line results for the third quarter. Elsewhere in the group, media name Time Warner (TWX 70.69, 2.13) plunged 2.9%.

The Treasury complex ended its day broadly higher as the group gained amid the downturn in equities. The yield on the 10-yr note ended its day lower by five basis points at 1.88%.

Today's participation was once again on the lighter side, with fewer than 839 million shares changing hands on the NYSE floor.

Today's economic data was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index and the February New Homes Sales Report:

The weekly MBA Mortgage Index showed a seasonally adjusted downtick of 3.3%, compared to last week's 3.3% decline.
New home sales, which are counted when a contract is signed, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000 in February, up 2.0% from an upwardly revised level of 502,000 (from 494,000) for January. The February number was nearly spot-on with the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 511,000.
As expected, sales in the West saw a huge reversal from the weakness in January, surging 38.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 151,000. January sales, which fell 32.7%, were reportedly impeded by abnormally wet weather.
Notwithstanding the big uptick in the West, total new home sales growth was still only modest due to a 4.1% decline in sales in the South, which is the biggest region for new home sales, accounting for 55% of new home sales in February. On a year-over-year basis, new home sales in the South are down 14.3%.
The Northeast saw the biggest drop in February, with sales declining 24.2%, and was followed by the Midwest, which saw sales slump 17.9% from January. Those downturns are apt to be blamed on inclement winter weather conditions. The March report will reveal if that in fact was the case.
The median sales price of new houses sold in February was $301,400, up 6.2% from January and up 2.6% from the same period a year ago.
At the current sales pace, there is a 5.6-month supply of new homes for sale, which is unchanged from January.

Tomorrow's economic data will include weekly initial claims (Briefing.com consensus 268k) and Durable Goods Orders for February (Briefing.com consensus -2.9%), which will both cross the wires at 8:30 ET. DJ30 -79.98 NASDAQ -52.80 SP500 -13.09 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 584/1.587 bln/2323 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 778/838.3 mln/2259

3:35 pm :

The dollar index experienced a steady and unidirectional climb all day, weighing heavily on commodities.
WTI Crude Oil futures fell sharply lower and closed near the low of the day below $40/bbl
Natural gas futures fell 4%, giving back all of yesterday's gains to finish notably lower at $1.79/MMBtu
Gold staged a modest recovery today off yesterday's lows
Silver fell in morning trading and consolidated to end the day near its lows around $15.27/oz
Copper closed 2% lower at $2.24/lb

Today, the three major US indices traded entirely in the red. The negative action was led by the Nasdaq Composite, which shed 52.80 points (-1.10%) today to close 4768.86 as healthcare names VRTX -7.6%, GILD -3.9%, REGN -3.4% and CELG -2.7% weighed on the index. The S&P 500 was also weak today, down 13.09 points (-0.64%) to close 2036.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted the most tame losses today, yet still lost 79.98 points (-0.45%) to end Wednesday 17502.59.

The major averages were pressured all session as crude oil broke down, as May Crude Oil futures fell $1.78 (-4.3%) to $39.79/barrel. Hawkish commentary from Fed President and FOMC voting member James Bullard and some disappointing earnings results have also kept pressure on equities. On the market data front, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index showed a seasonally adjusted down-tick of 3.3% compared to last week's 3.3% decline. Also, new home sales, which are counted when a contract is signed, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000 in February.

Action in Technology (XLK 43.50, -0.29 -0.66%) was entirely in the red on Wednesday as component Red Hat (RHT 72.55, -3.16 -4.17%) displayed relative weakness following the company's better than expected Q4 print; what dragged the stock down today might have been the Q4 billings, which came in worse than Street expectations at $764 million. Other sectors managed to finish XLU +0.74%, XLP +0.02%, XLI -0.65%, XLY -0.71%, XLV -0.71%, XLF -0.75%, IYZ -1.24%, XLB -1.24%, XLE -2.19% with Utilities leading the advance and Energy lagging on the aforementioned weakness in oil.

In the S&P 500 Information Technology sector (722.80, -4.38 -0.60%), trading was strikingly similar to that of the overall market as the session began with modest losses which eventually expanded and held until the bell. Component NVIDIA (NVDA 34.43, +0.58 +1.71%) bucked the broader market trend, edging higher as the company entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement with Barclays Bank. Other sector names which under-performed today included MU -6.91%, STX -6.05%, WDC -5.10%, QRVO -4.31%, FSLR -4.29%, TDC -3.14%, AKAM -2.86%, NTAP -2.84%, AMAT -2.41%, QCOM -1.98%.

Other notable news items among sector components:

According to a Bloomberg report, Oracle (ORCL 40.75, -0.63 -1.52%) sued Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE 17.46, -0.05 -0.29%) alleging copyright infringement.

NVIDIA (NVDA) entered an accelerated share repurchase agreement with Barclays Bank.
According to a NYTimes report, Square (SQ 12.59, -0.47 -3.60%) and Facebook (FB 112.54, +0.29 +0.26%) plan to partner regarding targeted advertising.

Shares of Nuance Communications (NUAN 17.95, -1.20 -6.27%) displayed weakness following a

TechCrunch article stating Alphabet's (GOOG 738.06, -2.69 -0.36%) Google will open access to competitive voice recognition service.

Elsewhere in the tech space:

SolarCity (SCTY 22.36, -2.41 -9.73%) closed a new tax equity fund to finance over $131 million in residential, commercial and military solar projects. The financing partner was not disclosed.

CenturyLink (CTL 31.02, -0.60 -1.90%) to sell $1 billion of newly-issued unsecured eight-year senior notes.

In reaction to quarterly results:

Red Hat (RHT) reported better than expected Q4 EPS and revenues of $0.52 and $544 million, respectively. For Q4, RHT reported Billings of $764 million, slightly below Street expectations. Additionally, RHT guided for Q1 EPS of $0.50 on revenues of $558-566 million. For the FY17 period, RHT sees better than expected EPS and revenues of $2.22-2.26 and $2.38-2.42 billion, respectively.

On Track Innovations (OTIV 0.95, +0.03 +3.26%) reported a better than expected Q4 adjusted loss per share of ($0.03) on revenues which rose +3.6% versus last year and came in better than expectations at $5.7 million.

HealthEquity (HQY 24.36, +1.91 +8.51%) reported better than expected Q4 EPS and revenues of $0.07 and $35.89 million, respectively. For the FY17 period, HQY expects in-line EPS and revenues of $0.45-0.47 and $170-174 million, respectively.

Analyst actions:

IPHI was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank;
ORBK was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Standpoint Research,
TU was downgraded to Hold from Buy at TD Securities,
FICO was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Sidoti;
SQ was initiated with an Outperform at Credit Agricole

SUNE -16.8% (following 25% decline on Tuesday, also target lowered to Street-low $0.22 from $0.39 at Axiom Capital ),

7:42 am Vishay Precision to close its facility in Alajuela, Costa Rica; will result in annual savings of $1.2 mln, with a charge of ~$600k in the current quarter (VPG) :