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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Participants sold the news of a better-than-expected batch of economic reports and handed stocks their first loss in four sessions. Losses were rather contained, though, as stocks are still up more than 2% week-to-date.

Despite stumbling a bit in the moments following the opening bell, stocks looked as if they were going to extend their recent gains. That is until the Philadelphia Fed Index for September showed that it hit a two-year high of 14.1, which was better than expected. Rather than provide fodder for further buying, the data prompted selling pressure as participants looked to lock in profits after they had watched stocks advance in eight of the previous nine sessions.

The better-than-expected Philly Fed Index complemented several other upbeat economic reports, including housing starts and building permits data for August. Housing starts hit an annualized rate of 598,000, which was spot on with the consensus forecast. More impressive was that the August rate marked the best pace since November 2008. Building permits came in at an annualized rate of 579,000, which is just below the rate of 583,000 that was widely expected, but it still marked the best pace this year.

In other economic news, initial jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 12 totaled 545,000. Though that marks an uncomfortable level of claims, it wasn't as bad as the 557,000 initial claims that were expected. It also marked a drop of 12,000 from the previous week. Meanwhile, continuing claims climbed to 6.23 million from 6.10 million, even in the face of expiring jobless benefits. According to a Reuters report, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said that unemployment in the U.S. will peak in early 2011 because of a slow and painful recovery from the global economic crisis.

With most participants partial to selling, the stock market wasn't able to sustain a couple of bounces in the first half of the session. In turn, stocks spent the second half of the session chopping along in negative territory.

There wasn't a single major sector that was able to post a gain. Telecom fell 1.3% to log the weakest performance for the second straight session. Health care finished flat; it was the best performing sector.

Tech giant Oracle (ORCL 21.52, -0.61) was among the most active names by trading volume this session. The company posted in-line earnings results and issued an in-line earnings forecast last evening. However, shareholders were displeased with the company's top line since it suggested that demand remains relatively weak.

Global delivery outfit FedEx (FDX 76.46, -1.74) was also out with its latest earnings results, but the numbers didn't cause any surprise since the company had already made an announcement last week.

Overall trading volume came on the NYSE came in near 1.5 billion shares for the third straight session. The high volume comes ahead of tomorrow's quadruple witching and quarterly S&P rebalance. Those events could induce added volatility. DJ30 -4.79 NASDAQ -6.40 NQ100 -0.2% R2K -0.3% SP400 -0.6% SP500 -3.27 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1324/2.64 bln/1366 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1338/1.52 bln/1704

4:30PM Texas Instruments increases quarterly dividend by $0.01 to $0.12 (TXN) 23.60 -0.53 :

4:14PM Palm beats by $0.15, beats on revs; guides Q2 (Nov) revs below consensus; guides FY10 (May) revs above consensus; announces 16 mln share stock offering (PALM) 14.44 -0.22 : Reports Q1 (Aug) loss of $0.10 per share, $0.15 better than the First Call consensus of ($0.25); revs declined 1.6% YoY to $360.7 mln vs $290.70 mln First Call consensus. Palm prelim reports Q1 gross margin 27.9% vs 25.6% consensus. Co issues downside rev guidance for Q2 (Nov), sees Q2 (Nov) revs of $240-270 mln vs. $346.8 mln consensus. Co issues upside rev guidance for FY10 (May), sees FY10 (May) revs of $1.6-1.8 bln vs. $1.57 bln consensus. The company shipped a total of 823,000 smartphone units during the quarter, representing a 134% increase from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 and a year-over-year decrease of 30%. Smartphone sell-through for the quarter was 810,000 units, up 76% from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 and down 21 percent year-over-year. Palm's quarterly operating results are, and will continue to be, significantly impacted by the timing and size of product launches. The company's non-GAAP first quarter results reflected the scale of the launch of Palm Pre with Sprint at the beginning of the quarter and the subsequent launch of Palm Pre with Bell Mobility in Canada. Due to the timing and scale of expected product launches in Palm's second fiscal quarter compared to those which took place in Palm's first fiscal quarter, and due to lower anticipated demand for legacy products, the company expects non-GAAP Adjusted Revenues for its second quarter of fiscal year 2010 to be between $240-270 million... The company's planned product launches with additional carriers in the second half of its fiscal year, together with continuing sales from products launched in the first half of its fiscal year, are expected to yield stronger operating performance... We're launching more great Palm webOS products with more carriers, and turning our sights toward growth..." Separately, co announced that it intends to offer approx 16 mln shares of common stock.

2:44PM Emcore enters into a long term supply agreement for space solar cells with Northrop Grumman (EMKR) 1.45 +0.18 : Co announces that Northrop Grumman (NOC) Aerospace Systems Sector has entered into a long term supply agreement with EMCORE's Solar Photovoltaics Division to manufacture and deliver high-efficiency, multi-junction solar cells for Northrop Grumman's satellite programs. EMCORE solar cells will help provide power for Northrop Grumman's space-based global climate monitoring capabilities and other satellite missions. The period of performance for the supply agreement is 2009 through 2012, with a potential value of more than $17 million.

8:58AM Solarfun Power provides updated 3Q 2009 business outlook; says total module shipments will exceed 100 MW (SOLF) 6.20 : Co announces an update on its outlook for the third quarter of 2009. For the third quarter of 2009, Solarfun estimates: 1) total module shipments will exceed 100 MW; 2) total revenues will be between RMB918 million and RMB984 million; and 3) gross margin will be approximately 17%.

8:32AM O2Micro settles ITC case with BenQ and LG (OIIM) 5.20 : Co announces that it has settled a dispute before the U.S. International Trade Commission relating to BenQ Corporation, BenQ America Corporation, LG Electronics and LG Electronics U.S.A. LG Electronics and BenQ now license certain O2Micro patents relating to inverter technology.

8:00AM First Solar to supply 27 megawatts of solar modules to Juwi for U.S. utility installations (FSLR) 146.99 : Co announces that it has been selected by Colorado-based developer and EPC contractor juwi solar, a subsidiary of juwi Holding A.G., to supply solar modules for two U.S. projects. These projects represent new supply orders and do not fall within the existing long-term framework agreement between First Solar and juwi solar GmbH. The projects include a 15 megawatt installation for the Jacksonville Electric Authority, the eighth largest community-owned electric utility in the U.S. First Solar will also supply another 12MW for juwi solar's project with American Electric Power in Ohio. The two installations are expected to begin construction in the fourth quarter of 2009 and to be completed before the end of 2010.

7:08AM Tessera Tech raises Q3 revenue guidance above consensus (TSRA) 27.95 : Co raises guidance for Q3 (Sep), sees Q3 (Sep) revs of $65-66 mln vs. $62.09 mln First Call consensus, prior guidance $60-62 mln. The company now has greater visibility into its Imaging & Optics business, and as a result, is raising its third quarter 2009 Imaging & Optics Total Revenue to be approximately $7.0 mln, of which approximately $4 mln will be Royalties and License Fees. Prior guidance, given on Aug. 4, 2009, was Imaging & Optics Total Revenue of $6.0 mln, of which approximately $3.0 mln was Royalties and License Fees. Tessera also announced that today it will file a Petition for Review of the Initial Determination issued on Aug. 28, 2009 by the Administrative Law Judge in the International Trade Commission Investigation No. 337-TA-630 brought by Tessera against certain DRAM manufacturers and sellers.

09:29 am Advanced Micro estimates and tgt raised to $7 at FBR Capital after PC checks: . FBR Capital raises their FY09 and FY10 EPS ests to ($1.85) and ($0.20) from ($1.95) and ($0.40) (consensus ($1.93) and ($0.99)) as recent checks into 3Q PC builds with the top five notebook ODMs and top four desktop motherboard makers are again better than the firm's month-ago checks. In addition, the firm raises their AMD tgt to $7 from $5.25. Overall, the firm forecast 3Q PC builds to grow +22% QOQ, better than their month-ago forecast of +18% QOQ. The firm's contacts now expect notebook units to grow +25% QOQ (up from +21% growth one month ago), while desktop builds are forecast to grow +17% QOQ (up from +13% QOQ one quarter ago). The firm believes that stronger 3Q notebook builds are due to demand momentum for consumer ultra-low-voltage models, new netbook launches, and some upcoming Windows 7 related stimulative impacts. While stronger 3Q desktop builds, are due to better demand from Europe thus far in September.

08:26 am Oracle (ORCL)

Shares of Oracle (ORCL 22.13) are under pressure in Thursday's premarket trading after the company reported disappointing sales figures in its latest quarterly report.

Oracle reported fiscal first quarter earnings of $0.30 per share, in-line with the First Call consensus of $0.30. Non-GAAP net income was flat at $1.5 billion compared to the same quarter last year.

Revenues fell 5.2% year-over-year to $5.05 billion, falling shy of the $5.25 billion consensus.

The most troubling aspect of Oracle's report for investors was the 17% decline in new software license revenues, a steeper decline than the company had forecast.

The company was able to grow operating margins by 570 basis points to 46%. ""By substantially improving operating margins we were able to increase Q1 earnings per share even though revenues decreased slightly," said Safra Catz, Oracle's president.

On the company's conference call, Oracle said it expects fiscal second quarter revenue to range from down 1% to an increase of 2%, which equates to approximately $5.55 billion to $5.72 billion; the First Call consensus currently stands at $5.72 billion.

The company said it sees fiscal second quarter earnings of $0.35 to $0.36 per share; the First Call consensus stands at $0.36.

Shares of ORCL are about 2.7% lower an hour ahead of Thursday's opening bell.