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From Briefing.com: 4:56PM Stocks Slip After Climbing to Gain : Stocks climbed from a loss of nearly 2% to a gain of roughly 0.6% before slipping back into the red to finish the session 1% lower. The relatively modest loss follow's the prior session's 5% surge, suggesting many investors may becoming more willing to ride their gains... Trading came without concerted leadership... Technology, which accounts for the largest weighting in the S&P 500 at roughly 15%, finished 1.7% lower. Its weakness stemmed from large-cap tech names, such as Apple (AAPL 89.16, -6.27). Apple sagged following reports that the company must end its exclusive deal with a French network operator, and that its CEO will discontinue attending a popular conference... Financials (-1.3%) were up 1.7% at their session high, but were unable to lock in gains. Morgan Stanley (MS 16.63, +0.50) posted a larger-than-expected loss for the latest quarter, but traded with strength alongside Goldman Sachs (GS 78.78, +2.78) as investors being to look past the firms' massive losses... Citigroup (C 7.83, -0.40) was a laggard in the financial sector, though. It displayed weakness after an article from The Wall Street Journal indicated regulators are increasing their oversight of Citi due to increased concern regarding the firm's financial status... 2008 has been a dry year for deal making, but Constellation Energy (CEG 23.00, -5.74) and Electricite de France announced a definitive agreement in which EDF will pay $4.5 billion for almost half of Constellation's nuclear operations. The agreement comes despite MidAmerican Energy's offer to pay $4.7 billion for all of Constellation, and makes it unlikely a new suitor or sweetened offer will surface. Shares of CEG plummeted 20% this session... Government debt, which is considered a defensive investment, closed higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Note remains at historic lows. The 10-year Note is currently yielding 2.16% after advancing 27 ticks. It was up 50 ticks in the early going... Gold, another safe haven, climbed more than $26 to hit $868.00 per ounce. Meanwhile, March silver added $0.72 to close trading at $11.425 per ounce... Other commodities traded in mixed fashion. March corn slipped, but wheat advanced. January soybeans were also up... Oil prices fell as much as 8.5% before settling $3.36 lower at $40.23 per barrel. The intraday drop took oil prices to a low of $39.88 per barrel. Oil's slide comes after the Department of Energy reported a build of 525,000 barrels for the week ending Dec. 12, though a build of 600,000 barrels was expected, and OPEC stated it is now targeting daily production of 24.85 million barrels, which is down 2.46 million barrels from the current production target level and down 4.2 million barrels from actual September production. The cut from current production targets is essentially in-line with the cut of 2 million barrels per day that was widely expected... Oil's drop came even though the U.S. dollar extended its recent downturn. The dollar fell 2.2%, limiting its year-to-date advance to just 2.9%... Converse to the weakened dollar are stronger foreign currencies, which make the prices of imports more expensive. That played into Honda Motor's (HMC 21.22, -1.63) to reduce its profit forecast and cut its dividend in half... Still, Asian markets concluded their latest session with gains. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index advanced 2.7% to hit a five-week high. Japan's Nikkei finished 0.5% higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 2.2%... In European markets, London's FTSE locked in a 0.4% advance, reversing early gains. However, Germany's DAX ended 0.5% lower and France's CAC closed with a 0.3% loss... Dow -1.1%... Nasdaq -0.7%... S&P 500 -1.0%... Nasdaq 100 -1.4%... S&P Midcap 400 +1.0%... Russell 2000 +0.8%.

4:38PM MEMC Elec sees Q4 revs of $400-425 mln vs $493.00 mln First Call consensus (WFR) 16.66 +0.84 : The co comments on market conditions impacting its business and provids an update to its fourth quarter financial targets. Over the last few weeks, end demand for many industries, including semiconductor and solar, has continued to decline as a result of the global economic slowdown. In addition, the solar market has been impacted by the reduced availability of credit, which has limited the purchasing ability of some solar customers. Given these factors, combined with the continuing inventory reduction efforts by semiconductor device makers, the company has revised its fourth quarter outlook. The company now anticipates that revenue for the 2008 fourth quarter will be approximately $400 to 425 million, with gross margin of approximately 46%, plus or minus one percentage point. This compares to the company's previously announced targets of $500 million in revenue, plus or minus $25 million, with gross margin of 48% plus or minus two percentage points. Expectations for operating expenses remain unchanged at approximately $27 million.

4:36PM FormFactor lowers Q4 revs guidance below consensus (FORM) 15.11 +0.88 : Co lowers guidance for Q4, sees revs of $37-41 mln vs $52.53 mln First Call consensus, lower than the previous expectation of $48-55 mln, and earnings per share, operating expenses and gross margins to be below the guidance previously communicated. The lower than expected results are due primarily to increased weakness among memory customers. This weakness has resulted in a decrease in design activity and a delay in technology transitions, which are negatively impacting FormFactor's revenue and profitability.

4:31PM LogicVision: Virage Logic revokes proposal to acquire LogicVision (LGVN) 0.81 0.00 : Virage Logic Corporation (VIRL) announces that it sent a letter to the Board of Directors of LogicVision to inform them that Virage Logic is revoking its proposal to acquire the company for $1.05 per share in cash. The proposal, made public on December 3, 2008, offered a premium of 114% to LogicVision's closing price of $0.49 on December 1, 2008, and valued LogicVision at approximately $10.0 million.

4:31PM Cymer Appoints Paul Bowman as interim Chief Financial Officer; announce departure of Nancy Baker (CYMI) 23.30 +0.85 : The co announces that the company's Board of Directors has appointed Paul Bowman as interim Chief Financial Officer. Nancy Baker has tendered her resignation as Chief Financial Officer, effective December 19, 2008, to pursue other opportunities. Mr. Bowman has served as Cymer's Vice President of Investor Relations since May 2008.

4:15PM Integrated Silicon lowers Q4 rev guidance below consensus (ISSI) 1.57 +0.02 : Co issues downside guidance, sees Q4 revs of $33-$36 mln vs $48.11 mln First Call consensus and vs prior guidance of $45-$53 mln. Co states, "Customer orders have slowed considerably since the beginning of November. The worldwide economic slowdown has significantly impacted all of our products and markets. We are taking actions to realign our business with the current economic environment, including company-wide salary reductions, eliminating positions, and additional spending constraints."

9:18AM Motorola announces cost reduction actions (MOT) 4.41 : Co announces additional actions to further reduce costs amid continuing global economic challenges. These measures include changes to employee compensation and benefit programs as well as changes to executive compensation. Effective March 1, 2009, to better align with industry norms, Motorola will permanently freeze its U.S. pension plans, preserving vested benefits accrued by employees and retirees but eliminating future benefit accruals. Motorola intends to continue to provide funding to meet its pension obligations to present and future retirees. Effective January 1, 2009, Motorola also will temporarily suspend all company matching contributions to the Motorola 401(k) Plan. U.S. employees may continue to contribute to the 401(k) plan but will not receive matching contributions from Motorola. The company also announced today that employees in many of the markets in which it operates will not receive a salary increase in 2009. In addition, Motorola co-chief executive officers, Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha will voluntarily take a 25 percent decrease in base salary in 2009. Greg Brown will voluntarily forgo any 2008 cash bonus earned under the Motorola incentive plan. Sanjay Jha's employment contract provides for a guaranteed cash bonus for 2008. His bonus will also be voluntarily reduced by an amount equal to Greg Brown's forfeited bonus and the remainder will be taken in the form of restricted stock units. These actions are expected to lead to cost savings in addition to the $800 million that was previously announced on October 30, 2008.

Micron Technology (MU) announces it has worked with Sun Microsystems to develop a new single-level cell enterprise NAND technology that dramatically extends the lifespan of flash-based storage for enterprise applications...

8:01AM RF Micro Device announces actions to reduce manufacturing costs and increase cash flow; approx 5% of workforce will be affected by actions (RFMD) 0.86 : Co announces actions intended to streamline operations and reduce GaAs semiconductor manufacturing costs. RFMD expects the actions will begin to take effect in the March 2009 quarter and will positively impact cash flow in RFMD's fiscal 2010, beginning March 29, 2009. At RFMD's Greensboro, NC campus, all GaAs manufacturing will be transitioned to the co's 6-inch wafer fabrication facility. The co's 4-inch manufacturing facility will be idled and kept in a clean environment. Prior to this decision, RFMD's 4-inch manufacturing facility accounted for less than 10% of the co's total GaAs manufacturing capacity. As a result, the co anticipates significantly lower direct material costs and higher utilization rates, resulting in lower total manufacturing costs.

7:31AM Western Digital announces steps to realign its cost structure; lowers Dec quarter revenue guidance below consensus (WDC) 12.50 : Co issues downside guidance, sees Q2 revs of $1.7-$1.8 bln vs $1.98 bln First Call consensus and vs prior guidance of $2.025-$2.150 bln. Co says demand for hard drives in the Dec qtr is significantly below the expectations outlined in the co's original revenue guidance. The company has taken action throughout the quarter to adjust supply to industry demand and is taking further action to align inventories with anticipated short-term demand by temporarily halting the majority of its manufacturing operations from Dec 20 through Jan 1, 2009, inclusive. Specifically, these additional actions include: Reductions in compensation of the co's executive officers, board of directors, and senior mgmt; A reduction in worldwide headcount of approx 2,500 people or 5% of the total workforce; A reduction in manufacturing work hours of approximately 20 percent from reduced use of temporary workers, reduced shift overtime and employee attrition; Closure of one of the co's three hard drive manufacturing facilities in Thailand; Closure or disposal of one of the co's two media substrate manufacturing facilities in Malaysia; and a reduction in capital spending for FY09 from $750 mln to approx $500 mln.

09:23 am Cadence Design upgraded to Buy at Needham; tgt $5: . Needham upgrades CDNS to Buy from Hold and sets target price at $5 saying they have thought CDNS shares looked cheap for a while now but have been wary of further shoes dropping as the company dealt with its litany of issues. The firm notes on its 3Q08 call, CDNS cleared up its recent restatement issue and provided guidance, that while disappointing appears achievable even in a tough environment. Firm says while general visibility into 2010 and beyond isn't great, a strong case can be made that CDNS should see solid growth in ‘10/'11 even in a flat spending environment.

08:11 am Adobe Systems (ADBE)

Adobe Systems (ADBE 22.32) reported fourth quarter earnings that topped expectations, but the San Jose-based software firm fell short on revenue.

For the fourth quarter, Adobe posted earnings of $0.60 per share, excluding nonrecurring items. The First Call consensus called for earnings of $0.58 per share. The upside beat comes as a surprise in light of the fact that Adobe revised their earnings guidance to between $0.54 and $0.56 just two weeks ago on Dec. 3.

Revenues rose 0.4% year-over-year to $915.30 million, shy of the consensus estimate of $918.3 million.

Adobe indicated that weaker-than-expected demand for its new Creative Suite 4 family of products was responsible for the shortfall in fourth quarter revenue. The new product cycle is up against strong headwinds as customers on tight budgets are less likely to upgrade to Adobe's latest offerings.

Looking ahead, Adobe reaffirms in-line guidance for its first quarter, projecting earnings between $0.43 and $0.47, excluding nonrecurring items, on revenue between $800 million and $850 million. The current consensus calls for earnings of $0.45 per share on revenue of $842.38 million.