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From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : Trade was muddled for most of the session, but weakness among financial stocks and other cyclical plays undercut the broader market for a sizable loss.

Stocks got off to a relatively weak start after news that Spain's central bank took control of regional savings outfit CajaSur served as a very real reminder of the financial uncertainty in Europe. The headline also stirred selling against the euro, which fell 1.6% to 1.2373 per dollar.

While the euro was weak for the entire day, Europe's major bourses were able to stage a rebound. Their upturn helped ease some of the early pressure against domestic stocks, but persistently listless trade limited the broader market's upward moves. As a consequence, the S&P 500 was unable to push past the session highs of this past Friday.

The mixed tape was eventually imbued by financial stocks, which fell to a 2.9% loss -- the worst of any major sector in the S&P 500. Diversified bank stocks (-4.0%) and regional bank stocks (-4.2%) were among the worst performing groups, but Janus Capital (JNS 10.51, -0.85) saw one of the sharpest slides after analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded asset managers.

Energy stocks (-2.2%), materials stocks (-1.7%), and industrial stocks (-1.6%) also came under a stiff bout of selling pressure as market participants turned against cyclical stocks.

Large-cap tech stocks had displayed strength for most of the session, but the group succumbed to selling in the final stretch of trade. The Nasdaq 100 had been up as much as 1.0%, but it finished with a 0.4% loss as it closed at its session low along with the other major averages. Yahoo! (YHOO 15.54, +0.07) was able to hold on to a modest gain, though. Its strength followed news that it will form a strategic alliance with Nokia (NOK 10.02, -0.05).

There weren't any other major news items of note and economic data was limited to April existing home sales, which spiked 7.6% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 5.77 million units. A rate of 5.62 million units had been expected.

The economic calendar for Tuesday features a consumer confidence reading from the Conference Board and housing price data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-2.9%), Energy (-2.2%), Materials (-1.7%), Industrials (-1.6%), Telecom (-1.0%), Utilities (-0.9%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.8%), Consumer Staples (-0.8%), Tech (-0.6%), Health Care (-0.2%) DJ30 -126.82 NASDAQ -15.49 NQ100 -0.4% R2K -1.2% SP400 -1.0% SP500 -14.04 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 935/2.08 bln/1756 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1187/1.31 bln/1912

6:26PM Motorola announces cash tender offers for up to $400 mln of certain of its outstanding debt securities (MOT) 6.73 -0.11 :

5:43PM Rambus: ITC extends target date of final determination in Rambus matter regarding NVIDIA (NVDA) products (RMBS) 24.14 -0.06 :

4:11PM Microchip: Greenliant Systems acquires NANDrive, NAND controller and specialty flash memory assets from Microchip Technology (MCHP) 26.85 -0.51 : Greenliant Systems announces that it has acquired the NANDrive, NAND Controller and Specialty Flash Memory assets of Microchip Technology. The three product lines will form the core of Greenliant's solid-state storage product portfolio for the embedded system, data center and mobile Internet markets.

10:17AM Yahoo! and Nokia (NOK) announce partnership for web services (YHOO) 15.57 +0.10 : Co's announced strategic alliance. As part of the alliance: Nokia will be global provider of Yahoo!'s maps and navigation services, integrating Ovi Maps across Yahoo! properties, branded as "powered by Ovi." Yahoo! will become global provider of Nokia's Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services branded as "Ovi Mail / Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo!" Nokia and Yahoo! plan to work on ID federation between their services. Select, co-branded service offerings are expected to become available from the second half of 2010, with global availability expected in 2011.

8:32AM MEMC Elec to acquire Solaicx; to be accretive to earnings in 2011 (WFR) 11.01 : Co announces it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Solaicx. MEMC will pay to the existing securityholders of Solaicx at closing cash in the amount of $66 million, plus an additional amount in cash equal to amounts which have been recently invested in, or which may be invested prior to closing in Solaicx by its existing securityholders. Co expects acquisition to be accretive to EPS in 2011.

1:26AM On The Wires : TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) announces that it has been awarded a contract by the US Air Force Research Laboratories to develop new Gallium Nitride modules for unmanned aerial vehicles. TriQuint's new GaN devices will extend the range and capabilities of UAVs that are used for reconnaissance missions over Afghanistan, Iraq and other regions...