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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks fell to a marked loss as the dollar reversed an early loss to stage its third straight advance.

For the first time since August the greenback has gained ground against competing currencies in three straight days of trade. The latest advance, which netted the greenback a 0.9% gain after it had been down as much as 0.4%, has the dollar up 2.8% from the 2010 low that it set just last week.

There were no market moving announcements from any widely-held companies and data for today was of little consequence, so action among stocks remained tethered to that of the dollar. Keeping with their inverse relationship, the stock market moved lower as the dollar extended its climb into the close.

Financials were hit the hardest. The sector dove to a 2.2% loss. Of the sector's 81 members, only Marshal & Isley (MI 5.59, +0.05) and People's United (PBCT 12.56, +0.04) booked gains. Property plays were particularly weak.

Meanwhile, bond insurer Ambac Financial (ABK 0.24, -0.28) saw its share price slashed in half following news that it has filed for bankruptcy.

Materials stocks made up the next worst performing sector. The sector had actually been up as much as 0.9% as it traded with relative strength in the first half of the session, but it settled with a 1.6% loss.

Early buying among basic materials stocks was partly helped by continued strength among commodities. Precious metals were particularly strong as gold gained 0.4% to settle pit trade at $1410.10 per ounce and silver rallied 5.3% to settle at $28.91 per ounce. Prior to the close of pit trade gold hit a new all time high of $1424.30 per ounce and silver set a fresh 30-year high of $29.34 per ounce. Both rolled over in electronic trade, though.

Though precious metals prices were pushed lower after the close of pit trade and the dollar staged a strong rally, the CRB Commodity Index continued its climb with a 1.2% gain to a new two-year high. The CRB has booked nine consecutive gains.

Treasuries failed to attract any support today. In fact, they encountered increased pressure after results from an auction of 10-year Notes were released. The auction drew a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.80 on dollar demand of $67.2 billion and an indirect bidder participation rate of 56.6%. The benchmark 10-year Note fell close to a point while the 30-year Bond dropped two full points. Their yields were last quoted near 2.66% and 4.25%, respectively.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-2.2%), Materials (-1.6%), Industrials (-0.9%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.9%), Utilities (-0.6%), Health Care (-0.5%), Consumer Staples (-0.4%), Tech (-0.3%), Energy (-0.3%), Telecom (-0.1%)DJ30 -60.09 NASDAQ -17.07 NQ100 -0.6% R2K -1.5% SP400 -1.1% SP500 -9.85 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 743/2.19 bln/1904 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 809/1.11 bln/2194

8:34AM Solarfun Power announces $67,843,658 follow-on public offering of ADS (SOLF) 11.47 : Co announces that it intends to offer up to an aggregate sale price of US$67,843,658 of American depositary shares, each representing five ordinary shares of the Company. Solarfun plans to use the net proceeds from the offering for capital expenditures and general working capital purposes.

7:19AM JA Solar beats by $0.13, beats on revs; riases FY10 shipment guidance (JASO) 9.41 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.47 per share, $0.13 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.34; revenues rose 179.9% year/year to $541 mln vs the $453.8 mln consensus. Gross margin percentage in the third quarter was 22.5 percent, exceeding our previous guidance of 20 percent. Compared with second quarter gross margin of 23.1 percent, the slight decrease in gross margin was primarily due to increase in wafer cost which was partially offset by an increase in the average selling price, as well as a change in product mix. Based on strong demand for JA Solar's products, the co is raising its outlook for FY10. The co currently expects shipments to exceed 1.45GW in 2010, compared with prior guidance of 1.35GW. Shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010 are expected to be ~450MW.

Micrel (MCRL) announced the release of SM802xxx, the first products from co's ClockWorks Flex family, the next generation of high performance programmable Clock Synthesizers...The Institute for Medical Microbiology of the University Medical Center Goettingen selects Bruker's (BRKR) MALDI Biotyper for bacterial and fungal identification...Micron Technology (MU) announced a high-density Axcell NOR flash memory device for automotive applications, strengthening its already broad portfolio of leading products and technologies for the automotive market...

09:50 am SOLF Q3 Revs Top Expectations (SOLF)

Solarfun (SOFL 10.65 -0.82) reported third quarter earnings of $0.69 per share, which may not be comparable to the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.49.

Revenues rose 126.0% year-over-year to $326.7 million versus the $287.3 million consensus.

The company said, "ASP excluding PV module processing services to increase slightly from 3Q10. For the full year 2010, the co will also raise the shipment guidance from 750 MW to ~785 MW. For the fourth quarter of 2010, the co expects a slight decline in module shipments compared with the previous quarter. This does not reflect the strength of market demand nor the co's competitive position."