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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Broad-based selling took the stock market roughly 2% lower for its worst performance in two weeks. Only on a few occasions did sellers let up, leaving stocks to settle at or near session lows.

Ripe for profit taking after a 6% weekly climb, stocks endured a steady descent today. The push lower began ahead of the open as early participants watched Europe's major bourses falter. Despite all the recent talk about comprehensive eurozone stability plans and deadlines, nothing of substance has been unveiled. Concern that fiscal and financial problems there could continue caused the region's major bourses to log losses well in excess of 1%. Meanwhile, the euro dropped 1.1% to $1.373.

Europe continues to take precedence over corporate headlines. Even a better-than-expected quarterly report from Citigroup (C 27.93, -0.47) couldn't keep the financial services giant from succumbing to broad market weakness. The stock settled near its session low after it had been up markedly in morning trade. Wells Fargo (WFC 24.42, -2.25) suffered its worst single-session percentage loss in two months, or its second worst in two years, after the lender's earnings came short of the consensus estimate. Concerted selling took financials down 3.3%, which is worse than what any other sector suffered, but marquee investment bank and brokerage outfit Goldman Sachs (GS 96.90, +0.17) managed to remain near the neutral line ahead of its report tomorrow morning.

Shares of Halliburton (HAL 34.48, -2.95) surged this past Friday, but the stock gave it all up as analysts shrugged off an upside earnings surprise to scrutinize the line items on the company's latest quarterly report. Several other oil and gas services stocks traded lower in sympathy.

Broad market weakness couldn't completely detract from the enthusiastic response made for a $38 billion merger between Kinder Morgan (KMI 28.19, +1.30) and El Paso (EP 24.45, +4.86). Shares of EP were able to set a new multi-year high.

Tech stocks failed to offer the same leadership that they have in recent sessions. Imbued by broad market weakness, the sector slid to a 1.8% loss. Heavyweight IBM (IBM 186.59, -3.94) was hit hard ahead of its quarterly report. The stock just set a new record high this past Friday.

Utilities were today's strongest performers. The defensive-oriented sector limited its loss to only 0.3%. Many electric utilities, most of which operate regulated businesses, were even able to produce positive returns today.

Although participants were decidedly pessimistic in their approach today, sending the Volatility Index more than 18% higher as of the close, there wasn't a great deal of share volume behind the effort. In fact, share volume on the NYSE failed to break 1 billion.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Financials -3.3%, Materials -3.1%, Industrials -2.7%, Consumer Discretionary -1.9%, Tech -1.8%, Energy -1.7%, Health Care -1.7%, Consumer Staples -0.9%, Telecom -0.7%, Utilities -0.3% DJ30 -247.49 NASDAQ -52.93 NQ100 -1.6% R2K -3.4% SP400 -2.9% SP500 -23.72 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 463/1.68 bln/2076 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 571/905 mln/2456

5:55PM Sunpower: SolarBridge collaborates with SunPower to deliver AC Panels (SPWRA) 8.81 -0.09 : SolarBridge Technologies announced a strategic relationship with SunPower (SPWRA, SPWRB), to supply the company with SolarBridge PantheonTM microinverters for the SunPower(R) E18 & E19 AC Solar Panel series. The AC Solar Panel provides an ultra high-efficiency, easy-to-install rooftop PV solution.

4:17PM IBM beats by $0.06, reports revs in-line; raises FY11 EPS above consensus (IBM) 186.59 -3.94 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $3.28 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $3.22; revenues rose 7.8% year/year to $26.16 bln vs the $26.25 bln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for FY11, raises EPS to at least $13.35, excluding non-recurring items, from at least $13.25, vs. $13.30 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Gross margin +140 bps YoY to 46.8%. Total Global Services revenues increased 8% (2%, adjusting for currency). Global Technology Services segment revenues increased 9% (3%, adjusting for currency) to $10.3 billion. Global Business Services segment revenues were up 6% (flat, adjusting for currency) at $4.8 billion. Revenues from the Software segment were $5.8 billion, an increase of 13% (8%, adjusting for currency). Software pre-tax income of $2.2 billion was up 12% year over year. Revenues from the Systems and Technology segment totaled $4.5 billion for the quarter, up 4% (1%, adjusting for currency) from the third quarter of 2010. Systems and Technology pre-tax income was $318 million, an increase of 8% year over year. The Americas' third-quarter revenues were $10.9 billion, an increase of 7% (6%, adjusting for currency) from the 2010 period. Revenues from Europe/Middle East/Africa were $8.0 billion, up 9% (flat, adjusting for currency). Asia-Pacific revenues increased 10% (1%, adjusting for currency) to $6.5 billion.

4:01PM Ingram Micro sees Q3 EPS of $0.32-0.34 vs $0.41 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees revs ~$8.9 bln vs $8.91 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate (IM) 18.72 -0.38 : Co said EPS were impacted by the following factors: 1) The market-share recovery in Australia following the implementation of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is progressing at a slower pace than the company anticipated at the start of the third quarter. Efforts to restore revenues are requiring additional marketing costs and competitive pricing actions; 2) In Europe, demand was soft throughout the quarter, particularly in consumer-related segments, which led to a more competitive environment. Co said, "These factors dampened gross margins and operating leverage, which brought earnings per share below the company's expectations for the quarter. Demand in our key customer segment, which serves small and medium businesses, remained relatively solid in most parts of the world. Most areas of our business are performing well, outside of the recovery efforts in Australia and the effects of the European economy. We look forward to providing greater detail on our operations and results during our conference call with investors on October 27."

O2Micro International (OIIM) was issued 5 claims under United States patent number 7,983,301 for its Short Message Service for wireless communications invention.

8:43AM Apple sold over four million of its new iPhone 4S just three days after its launch on October 14 (AAPL) 422.00 : Co announced it sold over four million of its new iPhone 4S after its launch on October 14. In addition, more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5.

8:06AM Chipmos Technology reports Q3 rev -4.5% QoQ, -5.4% YoY to $146.5 mln (no ests) (IMOS) 5.11 : Co reports Q3 (Sept) rev -4.5% QoQ, -5.4% YoY to $146.5 mln (no ests); Sept rev +5.8% MoM to $51.2 mln.

09:52 am Wells Fargo's Third Quarter Results Fall Short of Expectations (WFC)
Wells Fargo (WFC $25.19 -1.48) reported third quarter earnings of $0.72 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.73.

Revenues fell 6.0% year/year to $19.63 billion versus the $20.34 bln consensus. Capital increased with Tier 1 common equity reaching $91.9 billion under Basel I, or 9.35% of risk-weighted assets. Under current Basel III proposals, the Tier 1 common equity ratio was an estimated 7.41%.
"The economic recovery has been more sluggish and uneven than anyone anticipated... We can't change the economic environment, yet we have worked hard to control the variables we can -- making our products and services more relevant to individuals and businesses, focusing on the customer, making as many loans as possible and growing new relationships -- as well as fostering longtime ones. We see the results of this focus in growing cross-sell, deposits, and loans. Customers need a trusted financial partner, especially in challenging economic times.Wells Fargo has proven to be that partner over and over again... This was a strong quarter for Wells Fargo, with solid growth in loans, deposits, investment securities and capital, along with improved credit quality and lower expenses... Credit quality continued to improve in the third quarter, our seventh consecutive quarter of declining loan losses and the fourth consecutive quarter of lower nonperforming assets."

Third quarter net charge-offs were $2.6 billion, or 1.37 percent (annualized) of average loans, down $227 million from second quarter net charge-offs of $2.8 billion (1.52 percent). Return on average assets of 1.26%

09:47 am Citigroup Tops Third Quarter Revenue Expectations (C)
Citigroup (C $28.66 +0.26) reported third quarter earnings of $0.84 per share, excluding benefit from CVA of approx $0.39 per share which may not be comparable to the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.81.

Revenues rose 0.4% year/year to $20.83 billion versus the $19 bln consensus. Third quarter revenues included $1.9 billion of credit valuation adjustment (CVA) reflecting the widening of Citi's credit spreads during the third quarter. Excluding CVA, third quarter 2011 revenues were $18.9 billion, 8% below the prior year period and 8% below the second quarter 2011.

The year-over-year decline in Citigroup revenues, excluding CVA, was driven by lower revenues in both Citicorp and Citi Holdings. Citicorp revenues of $17.7 billion in the third quarter 2011 included $1.9 billion of CVA. Excluding the CVA, Citicorp revenues of $15.8 billion were 2% lower than the third quarter 2010. The decline was largely due to lower revenues in Securities and Banking, which were 12% below the prior year period and more than offset 2% growth in RCB revenues and 7% growth in Transaction Services revenues from the prior year period. Citi Holdings revenues of $2.8 billion were 27% below the prior year period. The decline in Citi Holdings revenues was principally due to the continuing reduction in assets, which fell $132 billion, or 31%, from the prior year period. Citi Holdings assets of $289 billion at the end of the third quarter 2011 represented approximately 15% of total Citigroup assets.

C had a loan loss reserve release of $1.4 Billion in Third Quarter, Down from $2.0 Billion in Each of Second Quarter 2011 and Third Quarter 2010. "In addition, over the past few years we have significantly strengthened our retail partner cards business and it has earned $2.2 billion pre-tax through the first three quarters. After a careful review of the business, which took into account current trends in credit and technology, we have decided that it makes strategic sense to move retail partner cards and a vast majority of its assets from Citi Holdings into Citicorp. The transition will be completed by the end of this year." Citigroup's capital levels and book value continued to increase versus the prior year period.

Book value per share was $60.56 and tangible book value per share4 was $49.50, 8% and 11% increases, respectively, versus the prior year period. Citigroup's Tier 1 Capital Ratio was 13.5% and its Tier 1 Common Ratio was 11.7%.