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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Stocks got crushed Thursday, plunging right out of the gate; and every attempt to buy on the day's dips was met with even stronger waves of selling pressure.

Renewed fears about credit risk, this time from across the pond, prompted investors to take a deeper look at the severity of the ongoing subprime problem and the difficulties that diminishing liquidity is having on banks and brokers to accurately value assets. Such worries led us to downgrade the Financial sector to Underweight back in mid April.

The latest shoe to drop came from BNP Paribas. The French bank halted withdrawals from three of its funds as a lack of liquidity left it unable to fairly value their holdings on account of the turmoil in the U.S. credit market. Also discouraging was the fact that the company's CEO reportedly said just last week that the bank's exposure to U.S. subprime was "absolutely negligible."

The news out of Europe prompted a 50-basis point jump in Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) to its highest level in six years and prompted the ECB to inject nearly 95 bln euros ($130 bln) into money markets. The Fed also chimed in by adding $24 bln in banking reserves. Such attempts to temporarily ease the pain of a possible credit crunch, however, were viewed with a glass half empty and merely exacerbated the worst of liquidity fears.

Not surprising, given its substantial exposure to mortgage lending and widening credit spreads, the Financial sector (-3.8%) got hammered, slipped further into negative territory for the year. With the most influential sector also the day's weakest link, it was not surprising to see the S&P 500 outpace the Dow and Nasdaq to the downside.

The broader market posted its worst one-day decline (-3.1%) since March 2003. All 10 economic sectors closed sharply lower, plunging 2.9% on average. Of the 147 S&P industry groups, only 10 posted gains.

Retailers were another blemish and were looking weak before the market even opened, as the bulk of July same-store sales figures missed forecasts.

Home Depot (HD 35.79 -2.01) later saying it may need to reduce the price of the pending $10.3 bln sale of its supply business, and lowering the price of its modified Dutch tender offer, lent further credence to the view that the housing correction and tighter credit conditions are weighing on more than the consumer. The stock's 5.3% drubbing contributed to the Dow's second worst performance (-2.9%) this year.

On the NYSE, where trading curbs went into effect an hour before the close, decliners outpaced advancers by a nearly 4-to-1 margin while above average volume showed added conviction on the part of sellers.

A 22% surge on the VIX (CBOE Volatility Index) to its highest level in four years further underscored the lack of enthusiasm to own equities and the bear's belief that stocks have further to fall. BTK -1.2% DJ30 -387.18 DJTA -2.1% DJUA -2.7% DOT -2.3% NASDAQ -56.49 NQ100 -2.6% R2K -1.4% SOX -0.7% SP400 -2.3% SP500 -44.40 XOI -3.4% NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1999/1081/3.57 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 2621/706/2.40 bln

4:43PM NVIDIA announces 3-for-2 stock split (NVDA) 46.13 +0.54 :

4:38PM NVIDIA beats on EPS, revs (NVDA) 46.13 +0.54 : Reports Q2 (Jul) GAAP earnings of $0.43 per share, $0.09 better than the GAAP Reuters Estimates consensus of $0.34; reports non-GAAP earnings of $0.51 per share, excluding stock based compensation and the associated tax impact, $0.08 better than the non-GAAP First Call consensus of $0.43; revenues rose 36.0% year/year to $935.3 mln vs the $859.8 mln consensus. Co reports non-GAAP gross margins 45.6% vs 45.5% street expectation.

3:59PM Market View: Steady afternoon slump follows gap down start (TECHX) : The market was up aggressively the previous three sessions (S&P and Nasdaq Comp more 5%) but stalled in the vicinity of resistances on Wednesday Rumors swirling about subprime issues triggered the late Wednesday pullback which was extended off the open today amid additional subprime worries out of Europe. The indices began to bounce 10 minutes into the day with the decent rebound (+1.1% to 1.8% for the three majors) taking a breather near midday. The sideways drift gave way in the afternoon as once again subprime (and hedge fund) talk made the rounds with a steady slide noted into late session action. A modest pullback after a strong run to resistance is constructive as long as the pattern is overlapping with retracement levels holding. Thus far the Russell 2000 has held near the 38% level of the recent recovery, Nasdaq Comp 50% and S&P 400/500 near 62%. However, the 387 point slump in the Dow cleared these levels and unless the it can avoid any further subprime worries and begin to stabilize/rotate higher over the very near term (needs to clear 13420/13430) the door is open back to the Aug lows.

9:15AM KLA-Tencor announces an additional 10 mln share repurchase program (KLAC) 58.71 :

8:02AM Pixelplus obtains a completely favorable ruling from the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Korea Intellectual Property Office (PXPL) 1.06 : Co announces it obtained a completely favorable ruling from the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Korea Intellectual Property Office on the non-infringement of item 12 of the disputed sensor patent claimed by MagnaChip Semiconductor. Specifically, the ruling from the Intellectual Property Tribunal at KIPO confirmed that the co's sensor patent does not infringe item 12 of the disputed sensor patent claimed by MagnaChip.

09:34 am Methode Electronics: Robert W. Baird upgrades Underperform to Neutral. Target $13. Baird upgraded METH to Neutral from Underperform and maintained their $13 tgt after yesterday's 15% price decline. Firm is not aware of incremental news to account for the decline, and say it could be related to variety of trading strategies. Firm says long-term investors could accumulate stock around this level, they are looking to become more aggressive near $11.