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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Sellers returned to the fold on Monday to hand stocks sizable losses. Financials led the slide.

Financials fell to a 2.0% loss and were weak since the open of trade, which was relatively rocky. Pressure against the sector was largely rooted in an effort by market participants to pare their positions in bank stocks, given the group's sensitivity to the threats of Europe. Sentiment in Europe seemed to sour during the weekend, resulting in losses for the region's major bourses and a sharply lower day for the euro. Pressure came even though embattled Italy approved new austerity measures and held another successful debt offering.

Tech stocks fought to keep sellers at bay for the first couple of hours, but ultimately succumbed to broad market selling pressure to settle with a 0.6% loss. Even IBM (IBM 187.35, -0.03) surrendered a gain after it had been bid higher on the back of word from billionaire investor Warren Buffett that he has been acquiring shares in the company for the past month.

The economic calendar was entirely empty today and earnings were limited to only a handful of names. Lowe's (LOW 23.50, +0.39) posted an upside earnings surprise and issued mixed guidance, but in-line earnings from J.C. Penney (JCP 32.98, -0.94) were overshadowed by a disappointing forecast.

With so few catalysts for trade today, share volume on the NYSE totaled at paltry 700 million. Over the past 50 days share volume has been closer to 1 billion, on average.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Tech -0.6%, Consumer Staples -0.7%, Consumer Discretionary -0.7%, Health Care -0.7%, Industrials -0.7%, Materials -0.9%, Telecom -1.1%, Utilities -1.2%, Energy -1.2%, Financials -2.0%DJ30 -74.70 NASDAQ -21.53 NQ100 -0.6% R2K -1.6% SP400 -1.1% SP500 -12.07 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 638/1.39 bln/1921 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 720/704 mln/2301

6:03PM ANADIGICS CFO and COO resign (ANAD) 2.55 -0.01 : Co announced that Thomas Shields had resigned from the positions of Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, effective November 14, 2011 in order to pursue career advancement opportunities outside of ANADIGICS. Terrence Gallagher, who had served as Vice President, Finance and Controller, has been promoted to the positions of Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Shields has agreed to provide consulting services to the company for a period of time to ensure an orderly transition of all of his current responsibilities.

9:03AM FEI announced that it has acquired TILL Photonics of Munich, Germany for ~ $20 mln (FEIC) 40.06 : Co announced that it has acquired TILL Photonics of Munich, Germany. TILL provides sophisticated, high resolution, digital light microscopes and high speed imaging systems for live cell fluorescence microscopy. The purchase price for the acquisition is 14.5 mln (~Co announced that it has acquired TILL Photonics of Munich, Germany. TILL provides sophisticated, high resolution, digital light microscopes and high speed imaging systems for live cell fluorescence microscopy. The purchase price for the acquisition is 14.5 mln (~$20 mln), plus an earn-out payable in two years based on attainment of specified milestones. TILL brings great products, a wealth of technology and a skilled and experienced team to FEI, along with revenues of approximately $8 million for calendar year 2011.0 mln), plus an earn-out payable in two years based on attainment of specified milestones. TILL brings great products, a wealth of technology and a skilled and experienced team to FEI, along with revenues of approximately $8 million for calendar year 2011.

FSI International (FSII) announced that several semiconductor producers have placed additional orders for ANTARES Cryokinetic Cleaning Systems

Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) announced that Netezza, an IBM Company and the leader in data warehouse appliances, is using the innovative programmable Lattice Power Manager device, the PAC POWR 1220AT8, to integrate and simplify multiple power management functions in a board design.

IBM (IBM $188.81 +1.43) shares spiked after Warren Buffett announced that he has been buying over the last quarter. Buffett said he bought about $10.7 billion worth of shares (approximately 64 million shares. Buffett said he read the annual report through a different lense.

12:38 pm S&P Tech Sector Trading Modestly Lower (CRM)
The tech sector is trading lower today, but ahead of larger losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness in the tech space, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading 1.0% lower. VECO (-4.4%) is a notable laggard in the chip index. Among other major indices, the S&P 500 is trading 0.8% lower, while the NASDAQ is trading 0.6% lower and the QQQ is trading 0.4% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, GOOG (+1.3%) is showing strength, while AAPL (-1.1%) and VZ (-1.1%) are notable underperformers.

In earnings, CTRP (-13.8%) reported a mixed Q3 and guided lower.

In news this morning, Warren Buffett announced that he bought about $10.7 bln worth of IBM (+0.4%).

Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, CRM (+2.8%) was upgraded to Buy at Citigroup and TWTC (0.0%) was upgraded to Overweight at Morgan Stanley. In downgrades, TEF (-2.5%) was downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan.

There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report results today after the close.