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From Briefing.com: 4:06 pm Cree lowers Q3 guidance due to lower lighting product revenue -- stock is halted and will resume trade at 16:25 (CREE) : Cree lowers Q3 adj. EPS to $0.13-0.15 from $0.22-0.29 vs $0.24 Capital IQ Consensus; revs $367 mln from $400-430 mln vs $414.80 mln Capital IQ Consensus.

Lighting Products revenue is estimated to be ~$187 million, lower than previously targeted due primarily to lower commercial orders driven by three main factors: customer service disruptions related to our ERP system conversion, new product delays, and a slower than forecast calendar Q1. LED Products revenue is estimated to be in-line with the expectations for this segment in the Company's previously announced revenue targets at ~$151 million. GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are estimated to be below the Company's previously announced targets at ~29.7% and 30.5%, respectively. "I believe we've addressed the root causes that led to our recent business challenges. While it's premature to provide specific targets at this time, the order rate in commercial lighting improved in March, and we're optimistic that this, combined with demand for new products, will begin to drive growth in fiscal Q4."

4:10 pm : The stock market ended the Tuesday affair on a lower note as global growth concerns and new rules regarding tax inversion mergers dominated today's trade. Additionally, fluctuating oil price and the underperformance of the heavily-weighted financial (-1.4%) and health care (-1.2%) spaces provided for some continued weakness in the broader market. The S&P 500 (-1.0%) finished its day behind both the Nasdaq Composite (-1.0%) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.8%).

Equity indices opened their day sharply lower after global bourses struck a risk-off posture in response to a weak showing from Japan's Nikkei (-2.4%) and some below-consensus economic data out of Europe. Predominantly, disappointing German Factory Orders for February (-1.2%; expected +0.5%) and a weaker than expected reading of the March Markit Composite PMI (53.1; expected 53.7) for the eurozone dampened investor sentiment.

Furthermore, the U.S. Treasury Department surprised investors after yesterday's close, announcing new regulations regarding inversion mergers. The new provisions aim to make it more difficult for companies to complete corporate tax inversions through mergers by targeting serial inverters and the potential tax advantages of "earnings stripping." The news struck a chord with Allergan (AGN 236.55, -41.00), which is attempting to merge with Pfizer (PFE 31.36, +0.64) in an inversion-type deal.

A positive reading of the March ISM Index (54.5; Briefing.com consensus 54.0) helped offer a momentary reprieve from selling pressure, but the averages were unable to extend their rebound effort. A leg lower in crude oil and relative weakness from the financial (-1.4%) and health care (-1.2%) sectors brought the averages back towards their lows by the afternoon.

All ten sectors finished the day in the red with utilities (-1.9%), financials (-1.4%), and health care (-1.2%) rounding out the leader board.

In the heavyweight health care space (-1.2%), health care plan names and generic drug manufactures displayed relative weakness. The generic drug manufacturer sub-group traded lower in sympathy with Allergan after its merger with Pfizer was put in jeopardy. Meanwhile, health care plan companies underperformed after yesterday's release of the latest policy and payment updates for Medicare Health and Drug Plans.

The financial sector (-1.4%) demonstrated broad-based weakness as the group extended its 2016 decline to 6.7%. Wells Fargo (WFC 47.51, -0.99) and Bank of America (BAC 13.19, -0.32) outpaced the losses in the broader sector while Morgan Stanley (MS 24.38, -0.66) extended its weekly loss to 4.5%.

On the flipside, industrials (-0.6%), consumer staples (-0.7%), and materials (-0.7%) finished with the slimmest losses.

The commodity-sensitive energy sector (-0.8%) recovered from a 1.1% decline as the group tracked the trajectory of crude oil. On that note, WTI crude ended its day higher by 0.6% at $35.94/bbl ahead of tonight's stockpile data from the American Petroleum Institute. Separately, Baker Hughes (BHI 39.36, -2.11) saw increased pressure after reports indicated that the Department of Justice may file an antitrust suit in order to block the company's merger with Halliburton (HAL 34.40, +0.40).

The U.S. Dollar Index (94.63, +0.12) recovered from its worst level of the day as the greenback gained against the euro and trimmed its loss against the yen. The euro/dollar pair slipped 0.1% to 1.1383 while the dollar lost 0.9% against the yen (110.35).

The Treasury complex ended its day near its high with the yield on the 10-yr note dropping four basis points to 1.72%.

Today's participation was above the recent average as more than 1.04 billion shares changed hands on the NYSE floor.

Today's economic data included February Trade Balance, ISM Service Index for March, and February JOLTs:

The latest trade data showed the U.S. trade deficit widened to $47.1 billion in February (Briefing.com consensus -$46.2 bln) from $45.9 billion in January.
That was due to imports increasing by $3.0 billion from January and exports increasing by only $1.8 billion.
On the surface, it sounds good to say that both exports and imports increased, yet there wasn't necessarily the strongest of demand accompanying those figures.
The uptick in exports was driven primarily by a $1.1 billion increase in consumer goods, almost all of which stemmed from exports of gem diamonds ($0.6 bln), pharmaceutical preparations ($0.3 bln), and artwork ($0.2 bln).
Similarly, the uptick in imports was driven by a $3.6 billion increase in consumer goods, more than half of which was owed to pharmaceutical preparations ($1.3 bln) and toys, games, and sporting goods ($0.6 bln).
The real trade deficit widened to $63.3 billion from $61.8 billion. The first quarter average of $62.6 billion is above the fourth quarter average of $60.1 billion, which is a negative factor for GDP computations.
The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index edged up to 54.5 in March from 53.4 in February. The March reading was above the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 54.0 and is the highest reading this year; however, the index stood at 56.9 in the same period a year ago.
The Non-Manufacturing Index report follows on the heels of the ISM Manufacturing Index, which also surprised to the upside.
The faster pace of growth in March should temper some of the festering concerns about a potential spillover effect from the slowdown on the manufacturing side of the economy, which had been building with five straight sub-50 readings for the ISM Manufacturing Index and a slower pace of growth for the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index over the same period. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0.
The improvement in March for the Non-Manufacturing Index was aided by upticks in several component indexes, namely new orders (from 55.5 to 56.7), employment (from 49.7 to 50.3), prices (from 45.5 to 49.1), and new export orders (from 58.5 to 53.5).
The import index (from 55.5 to 53.0) was the only index to turn down from February. The indexes for inventories and the backlog of orders were both unchanged at 52.5 and 52.0, respectively.
March marked the 74th straight month of expansion for the non-manufacturing sector.
The February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that job openings decreased to 5.445 million from a revised 5.604 million (revised from 5.541 million) in February.

Tomorrow's economic data will include the weekly MBA Mortgage Index and the release of the Federal Open Market Committee's latest Minutes, which will cross the wires at 7:00 ET and 14:00 ET, respectively.

Russell 2000 -3.4% YTD
Nasdaq Composite -3.3% YTD
S&P 500 +0.1% YTD
Dow Jones +1.0% YTD

DJ30 -133.68 NASDAQ -47.86 SP500 -20.96 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 821/1.560 bln/1985 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 883/1.048 bln/2127

3:30 pm :

The dollar index sees a steep decline off its morning highs, bouncing off the low of the day
Commodities, as measured by the Bloomberg Commodity index, are down -0.3% at 76.97
Crude oil consolidated and traded around yesterday's close nearly all day before experiencing an abrupt and notable spike right before the close
Crude oil may have spiked at the end of the day on headlines that there was an explosion at an oil well located in Northern Iraq
May crude oil futures closed up $0.22 (+0.6%) at $35.94/barrel
EIA petroleum inventory data is scheduled to be released tomorrow at 10:30 am ET
Natural gas was downtrending all day, bouncing off its lows around $1.93/MMBtu to close slightly above the low for the day
May natural gas futures closed down $0.05 (-2.5%) at $1.95/MMBtu
In precious metals, gold dropped slightly in the morning and consolidated around this area the rest of the trading day above yesterday's close
May gold futures closed up $10.50 (+0.9%) at $1229.90/oz
Silver drifted lower slightly with little notable movement in afternoon trade
May silver futures closed up $0.17 (+1.1%) at $15.11/oz
Base metal copper dropped lower in the morning but spiked back to break-even at close
May copper futures closed flat at $2.14/lb


Trading today left certain of the three major US indices with their worst losses in more than a month. Ending at session lows, the S&P 500 lost 20.96 points (-1.01%) to close 2045.17. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished close behind, shedding 47.68 points (-0.98%) to end 4843.93. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 133.68 points (-0.75%) today to end 17603.32. Volume was tepid, but only just so as 1,048 million shares exchanged hands on the NYSE floor versus an average of 1,066 million. Comparatively, on the NASDAQ floor about 1,560 million shares were traded compared to the average near 1,821 million.

The latest economic data showed the US trade deficit widened to $47.1 billion in February from $45.9 billion in January. The ISM non-manufacturing index edged up to 54.5 in March from 53.4 in February. Also, the February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that job openings declined to 5.445 million from a revised 5.604 million in February. All three indices revisited their session lows as President Obama endorsed the Treasury Department's policy change regarding tax-inversions. The new regulations seek to make it more difficult for companies to invert through mergers and will target serial inverters and the potential tax advantages of earnings stripping.

Technology (XLK 44.07, -0.46 -1.03%) sector action was no different as component Cisco (CSCO 27.58, -0.56 -1.99%) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill and subsequently displayed relative weakness. Other sectors ended Tuesday XLU -1.87%, XLF -1.42%, IYZ -1.31%, XLV -1.30%, XLY -0.85%, XLE -0.68%, XLP -0.67%, XLB -0.63%, XLI -0.62% as Utilities and Financials lagged the rest, and Industrials posted the most shallow losses.

In the S&P 500 Information Technology (731.80, -7.86 -1.06%) sector, component First Solar (FSLR 62.42, -4.82 -7.17%) performed the worst as the company entered into a framework agreement for 231.6 megawatts DC of FSLR's thin film modules. Other names in the space which were pressured today included WDC -4.63%, AKAM -3.96%, MU -3.70%, HRS -2.51%, ADS -2.19%, STX -2.06%, ADSK -1.86%, YHOO -1.65%.

Other notable news items among sector components:

Microchip (MCHP 48.65, +0.27 +0.56%) completed the Atmel (ATML) acquisition. In addition, the company provided updated Q4 guidance with sales between the mid-point and high end of guidance and EPS to be near the high end of guidance.

Accenture (ACN 114.13, -1.33 -1.15%) to acquire a majority stake in IMJ Corporation, a full-service digital agency.

Fiserv (FISV 100.97, -1.45 -1.42%) announced that Cuscal Limited, a leading provider of end-to-end payments solutions in Australia, has chosen Integrated Currency Manager, Device Manager and Terminal Connect from FISV.

Salesforce (CRM 74.58, -1.11 -1.47%) along with NEC Corporation (NIPNY 2.42, flat) announced CRM has signed an agreement to establish a second data center in the Kansai region of Japan, selecting NEC as its service provider.

Avnet (AVT 43.59, -0.48 -1.09%) expanded its distribution agreement with Red Hat (RHT 74.06, -1.18 -1.57%) to include Brazil. Avnet began distributing Red Hat in 2007, and has helped the company expand its market presence in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.K.

Intel (INTC 31.90, -0.10 -0.31%) acquired YOGITECH S.p.A. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Elsewhere in the tech space:

Marvell's (MRVL 10.88, +1.26 +13.10%) CEO Sehat Sutardja and President Weili Dai to depart from their management positions effective immediately.

First Solar (FSLR) and a subsidiary of Silicon Ranch Corporation have entered into a framework agreement for 231.6 Megawatts (MW) DC of FSLR's advanced technology thin film modules for use in Silicon Ranch projects to be constructed in 2017 and early 2018.

Ingram Micro (IM 35.43, -0.28 -0.78%) to acquire Ensim for undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close in the next 30 days.

Comcast (CMCSA 61.13, -0.30 -0.49%) expanded its digital store offering in a content licensing agreement with Walt Disney's (DIS 97.00, -1.68 -1.70%) The Walt Disney Studios.

Telus (TU 31.96, -0.24 -0.75%) to invest $4.5 billion through 2019 to extend advanced communications infrastructure across British Columbia.

Ku6 Media (KUTV 0.97, +0.10 +11.56%) to be acquired by Shanda Investment Holdings in a going-private transaction valued at $1.08 per ADR cash.

TubeMogul (TUBE 13.25, +0.26 +2.00%) hired Robert Gatto as COO effective Mar 30. The company also appointed Keith Eadie to Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer.

ServiceNow (NOW 63.65, -0.63 -0.98%) to acquire ITapp in an all-cash transaction expected to close this month.

TerraForm Global (GLBL 2.24, +0.06 +2.75%) filed a complaint asserting claims against SunEdison (SUNE 0.32, +0.11 +54.64%), Ahmad Chatila, Martin Truong and Brian Wuebbels.

A Bloomberg article was out this morning suggesting Twitter (TWTR 17.05, -0.05 -0.26%) won a deal with the NFL to live stream ten Thursday Night Football games. The article was later confirmed on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's Twitter page.

Verizon (VZ 54.09, -0.33 -0.61%) redeemed about $2.2 billion debt securities.

GoDaddy (GDDY 30.10, -2.36 -7.27%) announced a proposed follow-on class A common stock offering of 16.5 million shares by selling stockholders.

Analyst actions:

MRVL was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Brean Capital;
RKUS was downgraded at Dougherty & Co, Needham, Stifel, Macquarie and RBC Capital Mkts,
CSCO was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill,
TEF was downgraded to Reduce from Neutral at Nomura;
TRUE was initiated with a Hold at Topeka Capital Mkts,
LOGI and NTGR were initiated with a Neutral at Sterne Agee CRT,
MOBL was initiated with a Buy at Sterne Agee CRT,
RUBI was initiated with a Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald,
T and S were initiated with an Outperform at Macquarie,
VZ, TMUS and SHEN were initiated with a Neutral at Macquarie

9:03 am STMicroelectronics surpasses 2 bln unit sales of its STM8 microcontrollers, less than two years after reaching one bln unit sales, noting particularly strong success in China (STM) :

Aided by accelerating STM8 sales, ST's share of the general-purpose microcontroller market has grown to 12.7% in 2015 from 8.2% in 2013, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics."The STM8 has become one of the world's most popular microcontrollers, and is a sturdy pillar of our strategy," said Daniel Colonna, Microcontrollers Marketing Director, STMicroelectronics. "As with all of our MCUs, we are committed to supporting STM8 for the long term, and we'll continue to strengthen our market position."

8:31 am Marvell CEO Sehat Sutardja and President Weili Dai to depart from their management positions, effective immediately (MRVL) :

Sutardja and Dai will remain on the Board of Directors, with Dr. Sutardja continuing as Chairman. The Board, in conjunction with a leading executive search firm, will conduct a search for a new CEO and President.

The Board has formed an Interim Office of the Chief Executive to oversee day-to-day leadership of the Company's operations. The Interim Office of the Chief Executive will be headed by Maya Strelar-Migotti, Executive Vice President, Smart Networked Devices and Solutions Business Group and Dr. Pantelis Alexopoulos, Executive Vice President of the Storage Business Group, as Interim Co-Chief Executive Officers. Each has the authority to exercise all powers of the Chief Executive Officer. As previously announced, on February 22, the Audit Committee approved the engagement of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the Company's new independent public accounting firm. On March 1, the Company reported the results of the Audit Committee's independent investigation of certain accounting and internal control matters. With these two key matters completed, the Company says it is working diligently to complete the preparation and filing of its Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2016 and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the second and third quarters of fiscal 2016 as soon as practicableMicrosemi (MSCC) and D-Link, which specializes in the design, development, and manufacture of networking and connectivity products for mass consumers, small to medium business and enterprise market segments worldwide; announced their collaboration to develop D-Link's mydlink Smart Alarm Detector. The Wi-Fi based detector monitors and identifies the sounds of standard UL-certified smoke or carbon monoxide alarms using Microsemi's ZL38062 sound classifier audio processor as the primary integrated circuit of the device