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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : A positive response to the latest FOMC policy statement brought a bid to the broader market, but stocks still finished with varied losses.

Weakness was widespread in the early going. Participants took their cues from overseas markets, which moved lower in response to disappointing trade data from China overnight. The morning mood was further undermined by news that second quarter nonfarm productivity made a surprise 0.9% decline. News that wholesale inventories had a weaker-than-expected 0.1% increase had no real impact on action.

Uncertainty ahead of the latest FOMC policy statement also prompted participants to pare their positions, but once the announcement hit newswires buyers stepped into the fold.

The FOMC voted to keep the target federal funds rate at 0.00% to 0.25%, as expected. It also repeated recent statements by noting that conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.

However, the Fed surprised many with its plans to keep constant its securities holdings by reinvesting principal payments from agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in Treasuries. That pronouncement drove the benchmark 10-year Note sharply higher, such that its yield dropped to a 14-month low of less than 2.75%.

Given that the Fed will hold its balance sheet constant, the decision to purchase Treasuries is not a means of quantitative easing, but it will likely keep the market thinking the Fed is moving closer to implementing new quantitative easing measures as it looks to support economic growth and price stability.

The dollar was dropped in response to the announcement. It had been up almost 1% at its session high, but finished with just a 0.2% gain.

The market's mood may have improved in the wake of the FOMC statement, but the S&P 500 and Dow both failed to find positive ground. Instead, they chopped into the close to finish with varied losses after each was down more than 1%.

Though the broader market was mired in the red, defensive-oriented stocks were able to muster gains. As such, telecom (+0.4%), utilities (+0.4%), consumer staples (+0.3%), and health care (+0.2%) were the only sectors to settle higher.

Trading volume remained unimpressive in that fewer than 1 billion shares were exchanged on the NYSE this session. That makes for a lackluster follow up to the prior session's paltry count, which came in at its lowest level of the year.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.4%), Consumer Staples (+0.3%), and Health Care (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Tech (-1.2%), Materials (-1.0%), Financials (-1.0%), Industrials (-0.8%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.8%), Energy (-0.8%)DJ30 -54.50 NASDAQ -28.52 NQ100 -0.8% R2K -2.0% SP400 -1.3% SP500 -6.73 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 556/2.05 bln/2088 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 814/980 mln/2218

4:24PM Sunpower beats by $0.05, misses on revs; guides Q3 EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides FY10 EPS in-line, revs in-line (SPWRA) 12.93 -0.55 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.15 per share, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.10; revenues rose 28.4% year/year to $384.2 mln vs the $401.2 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.08-0.15 vs. $0.13 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q3 revs of $450-490 mln vs. $458.12 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co issues upside guidance for FY10, sees EPS of $1.35-1.65 vs. $1.28 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees FY10 revs of $2.0-2.25 bln vs. $2.1 bln Thomson Reuters consensus.

4:07PM LDK Solar beats by $0.14, beats on revs; guides Q3 revs above consensus; guides FY10 revs above consensus (LDK) : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.36 per share, $0.14 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.22; revenues rose 62.6% year/year to $565.3 mln vs the $458.4 mln consensus. Gross margin for the second quarter of fiscal 2010 was 18.0%, compared to 15.7% in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 and negative 90.0% in the second quarter of fiscal 2009. Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of $570-600 mln vs. $422.04 mln Thomson Reuters consensus; wafer shipments between 520 MW and 550 MW, and module shipments between 75 MW and 85 MW. Co issues upside guidance for FY10, sees FY10 revs of $1.95-2.0 bln vs. $1.59 bln Thomson Reuters consensus; wafer shipments between 1.95 GW and 2.0 GW and module shipments between 250 MW and 300 MW.

4:02PM Cree beats by $0.04, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 EPS above consensus, revs below consensus (CREE) 68.96 -2.63 : Reports Q4 (Jun) earnings of $0.55 per share, $0.04 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.51; revenues rose 78.7% year/year to $264.6 mln vs the $264 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.56-0.59 vs. $0.54 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q1 revs of $270-280 mln vs. $283.96 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.

9:01AM IBM acquires Datacap; Financial terms were not disclosed (IBM) 132 : Co announced the acquisition of Datacap, a privately-held company based in Tarrytown, NY. Datacap is a leading provider of software that enables organizations to transform the way they capture, manage and automate the flow of business information to improve business processes, reduce paper costs or manual errors and meet compliance mandates. Financial terms were not disclosed.