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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stiff selling on heavy volume came as the greenback spiked against foreign currencies and financials faltered. Stocks now head into Friday with a week-to-date loss of nearly 1%.

The dollar made its way to a 1.1% gain against competing currencies after Standard & Poor's downgraded Greece's debt rating. It was the second reduction of its kind this week. Support for the greenback had the Dollar Index up as much as 1.4%, which put it at a new three-month high.

That proved to be a headwind for both stocks and commodities, which put materials stocks under the most pressure this session. The materials sector settled with a loss of 2.3%.

However, it was weakness in the financial sector that hampered the broader market. Financials, which make up 14% of the stock market's weight, fell 1.8%.

Pressure against financials followed several headlines, which began with news that Citigroup (C 3.20, -0.25) priced shares in its previously announced common stock offering at $3.15 each, a near 9% discount to the previous session's closing price. The low price tag even kept the Treasury from unloading its $5 billion of shares in the company.

Shares of investment banks and brokerages were sent to a 2.8% loss after highly regarded analyst Meredith Whitney lowered her earnings estimates for Morgan Stanley (MS 29.12, -1.22) and Goldman Sachs (GS 160.93, -4.06).

Meanwhile, consumer finance stocks dropped 3.3% in the wake of the latest quarterly report from Discover Financial (DFS 14.92, -1.50). The company posted earnings of $0.63 per share, including certain items, but saw an increase in its managed net charge off rate to 8.43%. It failed to win support, though, when it stated during its conference call that it feels much more confident that its TARP repayment will be sooner than later and implied that a capital raise would not be necessary.

FedEx (FDX 84.47, -5.48) also failed to inspire with its latest quarterly results. The global shipment company brought in earnings of $1.10 per share, which matched its preannouncement, but topped the consensus of $1.06 per share. However, FedEx expects third quarter earnings to range from $0.50 to $0.70 per share, which is shy of the current consensus of $0.84 per share. It also stated it expects earnings for fiscal 2010 to range from $3.45 to $3.75 per share, which brackets the current consensus of $3.46 per share.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending December 12 totaled 480,000, which is up 7,000 from the previous week and more than the 465,000 initial claims that had been widely expected. Continuing claims climbed 5,000 from the previous week to roughly 5.19 million, which is more than the 5.17 million that had been forecast by economists.

Selling pressure took a temporary reprieve with the midmorning release of the November Philadelphia Fed Index, which hit 20.4. The consensus had called for a reading of 16.0.

Leading indicators for November increased 0.9%, which is stronger than the 0.7% increase that had been expected.

By eclipsing 1.7 billion shares, trading volume on the NYSE hit its highest level in nearly three months this session. The heavy volume suggests that there was conviction behind this session's selling effort, though it comes one day ahead of tomorrow's quadruple witching options expiration. Nonetheless, selling culminated with stocks near their session lows and declining issues outnumbering advancers by more than 4-to-1.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Materials (-2.3%), Financials (-1.8%), Consumer Staples (-1.3%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.3%), Tech (-1.2%), Industrials (-1.0%), Health Care (-0.9%), Telecom (-0.8%), Energy (-0.7%), Utilities (-0.6%)DJ30 -132.86 NASDAQ -26.86 NQ100 -1.3% R2K -1.1% SP400 -1.1% SP500 -13.10 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 717/1.93 bln/1966 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 845/1.72 bln/2203

4:11PM Oracle beats by $0.03, beats on revs (ORCL) 23.98 : Reports Q2 (Nov) earnings of $0.39 per share, $0.03 better than the First Call consensus of $0.36; revenues rose 3% year/year to $5.87 bln vs the $5.69 bln consensus. "We delivered results which were substantially better than we expected on both the top and bottom line, growing non-GAAP operating margins by 280 basis points to 49%, the highest Q2 non-GAAP operating margin in our history... Our solid top line growth, coupled with disciplined expense management, was key in generating $8.4 billion of free cash flow over the last twelve months... For the fourth consecutive quarter, Oracle took market share from SAP in every region around the world... In constant currency, our applications business grew 1% in the Americas and 2% in Asia Pacific versus a negative 35% and negative 34% respectively for SAP."

4:11PM Palm misses by $0.05, beats on revs (PALM) 11.72 +0.11 : Reports Q2 (Nov) loss of $0.37 per share, $0.05 worse than the First Call consensus of ($0.32); revenues rose 57.6% year/year to $302 mln vs the $266.2 mln consensus. Gross margin was 25.6% vs. 20.1% year ago. The company shipped a total of 783,000 smartphone units during the quarter, representing a 5 percent decrease from the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 and a year-over-year increase of 41 percent compared to the second quarter of fiscal year 2009. Smartphone sell-through for the second quarter was 573,000 units, down 29 percent from the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 and down 4 percent year-over-year.

4:10PM Research In Motion beats by $0.06, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (RIMM) 63.46 -1.21 : Reports Q3 (Nov) earnings of $1.10 per share, $0.06 better than the First Call consensus of $1.04; revenues rose 11.2% year/year to $3.92 bln vs the $3.78 bln consensus. Q3 Net Subscribers 4.4 mln, Guidance 4.0-4.3 mln. Q3 Device Shipments 10.1 10 mln, Guidance 9.2-9.9 mln. Q3 Gross Margins 42.7%, Guidance 43%. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 82% for devices, 14% for service, 2% for software and 2% for other revenue. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $1.23-1.31 vs. $1.12 consensus; sees Q4 revs of $4.2-4.4 bln vs. $4.11 bln consensus. Gross margin for Q4 is expected to be approximately 43.5%. Net subscriber account additions in the fourth quarter are expected to be in the range of 4.4-4.7 million. "RIM is experiencing a great start to the holiday buying season and the strong Q3 results and Q4 outlook clearly reflect the strength of our diversified product portfolio as well as the success of our efforts to expand into broader customer segments and new geographies while maintaining our strong position in North America."

9:17AM LDK Solar announces signing of an indicative term sheet for a minority stake in its polysilicon production plants (LDK) 9.20 : Co announces it signed an indicative term sheet with VMS Investment Group and its affiliates pursuant to which the Investors have agreed to subscribe between $50-$80 mln aggregate amount of redeemable and convertible preference shares of the Cayman Islands subsidiary, which is to be created to hold and operate LDK Solar's polysilicon business, valuing the entity at $1.30-$1.65 bln. The transaction will require a reorganization of LDK Solar's polysilicon business through which the assets and liabilities relating to the polysilicon business would be assumed by the newly created subsidiary, which will be wholly owned by LDK Solar. The terms of the securities have a two year maturity and are convertible at the option of the holders at a conversion ratio that includes an investment internal rate of return. The investment is expected to close by the end of March 2010.

9:16AM Nanometrics prices a 2.025 mln share common stock offering at $11/share (NANO) 12.44 : The co's founder is also selling 675,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $11.00 per share as part of the same offering.

11:17 am Philadelphia Fed Index Details Manufacturing Expansion

The Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook rose to 20.4 in December from 16.7 in November. The median economic forecast predicted the index would increase to 17.5.

The index has remained positive for five consecutive months and signals continued growth in the manufacturing sector.

The increase in the index came in spite of a slowdown in new orders. The new orders index, while still showing positive growth, fell from 14.8 to 6.5. Shipment growth remained stable.

The biggest surprise from the details came from the labor sector.

For the first time since the end of 2007, the number of employees index broke through the zero threshold as the index settled at 6.3. While growth prospects in manufacturing labor look anemic (77.3% of companies reported no change in their labor demand), it is very encouraging to see more firms reporting an increase in hiring than firms reporting layoffs.

Further, the growth rate in the employee workweek is on the rise as the index increased from 2.0 to 6.4.

In other good news, the inventory situation is getting better.

While the index is still below zero, the index rose from -17.3 to -7.4. We expect inventories to begin posting positive growth within the next three months.

The situation for prices remains potentially problematic.

The prices paid index increased from 14.9 to 33.8 as 38.7% of firms reported higher prices for their supplies.

Unfortunately, consumer demand remains muted and firms are unable to pass on the higher supply costs. The prices received index fell from -1.5 to -1.8 in November.

Until the relationship reverses for prices, firms will have difficulties maintaining profits.

Please note: the Philly Fed Business Outlook does not provide a strong gauge of national manufacturing activity. In general, all Federal Reserve surveys only provide microeconomic information regarding the region in which the bank is located.

Correlations between regions in close proximity are also low. For example, the New York Fed's Empire State Manufacturing Survey dropped from 23.51 in November to 2.55 in December, which obviously did not play a role in boosting manufacturing in Philadelphia.