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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks attempted to return to positive territory after a mid-morning reversal took the major equity averages into the red, but resistance at the neutral line invited sellers to redouble their efforts and drop stocks for marked losses.

The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq each traded up to new multi-year highs in the early going, but the move was short lived. Traders turned on stocks when prepared remarks for Fed Chairman Bernanke's semiannual FOMC report to the House Financial Services Committee began to circulate. His comments contained no surprises, but likely disappointed some because they also failed to offer reassurance that the Fed remains committed to an accommodative monetary policy, especially after fourth quarter GDP data was revised upward.

Fourth quarter GDP grew at a clip of 3.0%, which is greater than the 2.8% that had been reported in the advance reading. No revision had been expected.

A stronger economic picture was painted by a Chicago PMI of 64.0 for February. That exceeded the reading of 60.0 that had been broadly expected to follow the prior month reading of 60.2.

Later in the day the Fed's Beige Book reported that overall economic activity continued to increase at a modest to moderate pace in January and early February.

Although the macro picture continues to improve, many market participants are questioning if that is priced into the stock market now that the S&P 500 has climbed about 10% year to date and sits at levels not seen since 2008. The interest in taking some risk off of the table likely played a part in the stock market's intraday pullback and then its inability to return to higher ground.

Financials offered leadership in the early going. The sector ran up to a gain of about 1% before encountering any headwinds. It settled the session with a 0.5% loss.

Materials stocks were among the worst performers. The sector slumped 1.7% as many metals and mining issues took a hit in conjunction with a slump in precious metals prices. Silver settled with a 7.0% loss at $34.58 per ounce while gold prices closed at $1710 per ounce for a 4.4% loss after both had put on impressive performances in the prior session.

Oil managed to score a gain after two days of selling, though. Crude oil futures contract prices climbed 0.5% to close pit trade $107.09 per barrel even after weekly inventory data showed a bigger-than-expected build of more than 4 million barrels.

The Dollar Index set a two-month low yesterday, but it rallied to a 0.7% gain today. Most of that move is owed to weakness in the euro, which tumbled about 1.1% to about $1.33. Earlier today it was learned that the European Central Bank made more than $700 billion available to the continent's banks in the form of three-year loans.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples +0.3%
Declining Sectors: Telecom -0.1%, Utilities -0.1%, Consumer Discretionary -0.1%, Financials -0.5%, Health Care -0.5%, Industrials -0.5%, Tech -0.5%, Energy -1.0%, Materials -1.7%DJ30 -53.05 NASDAQ -19.87 NQ100 -0.4% R2K -1.6% SP400 -0.6% SP500 -6.50 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 656/2.11 bln/1911 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1029/1.11 bln/1979

4:18PM Freescale Semi announced completion of new financing under senior secured credit facilities and redemption of $500 mln principal amount of senior subordinated notes (FSL) 16.14 -0.42 : Co amended its Credit Facility to, among other things, enter into a new senior secured term loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of $500 mln. Borrowings under the new term loan facility bear interest, at a rate equal to for eurocurrency rate loans, LIBOR plus 4.75%.

4:16PM PMC-Sierra announced earlier it has acquired Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM) 12Gb/s SAS expander technology; financial erms not disclosed (PMCS) 6.87 -0.06 :

4:16PM Advanced Micro to acquire SeaMicro for $334 mln, of which $281 mln will be paid in cash (AMD) 7.35 -0.17 : The acquisition does not change AMD's 2012 financial guidance and the transaction is expected to be accretive to earnings after 2012. AMD will fund the cash portion of the acquisition with existing cash reserves. AMD will hold a conference call for the financial community at 4:45 p.m. EST to discuss the announcement.

4:02PM Finisar beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (FNSR) 20.29 -1.50 : Reports Q3 (Jan) earnings of $0.23 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.22; revenues fell 7.6% year/year to $243 mln vs the $244.6 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.18-0.22, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.25 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $235-239 mln vs. $254.29 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM) announced it has made an investment in Scintera Networks.

6:10AM Lattice Semi announced earlier a $20 mln stock repurchase program (LSCC) 6.71 : Co announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program pursuant to which up to $20 million of its outstanding common stock may be repurchased from time to time. The duration of the repurchase program is twelve months.

STEC (STEC $9.34 -0.02) reported a fourth quarter loss of $0.02 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.01), while revenues fell 38.1% year/year to $58.1 million versus the $56.13 mln consensus. The company issued mixed guidance for the first quarter with EPS of ($0.14)-($0.16) versus the ($0.08) consensus and revenues of 49-51 versus the $48.55 million consensus. "We are encouraged by the signs of the market growth for enterprise SSDs and by the specific feedback we are getting from our early customer engagements around our new products... While we acknowledge that competitive challenges persist, we are confident in the robustness of our solutions and in our abilities to innovate to meet our customers' needs. We are still anticipating that many of our customers will complete their qualification of our products by the end of the second quarter of 2012. However, until qualifications are completed, we cannot accurately project what the sell-through of these products will be."

Universal Display (PANL $42.11 -2.93) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.12 per share, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.06, while revenues rose 73.1% year/year to $18.7 million versus the $17.88 mln consensus. "Results continue to reflect increased penetration of our OLED materials and technology into the commercial display market, as well as growth in research and development efforts from a broad cross-section of manufacturers developing new applications for our OLED materials and technology. As revenues scale, our strong gross margins and operating leverage are driving an improved bottom line and delivering value for our shareholders. In addition, with OLEDs having eclipsed the inflection point, our operations are also now generating positive cash flow, which is adding to our overall financial strength. With manufacturers announcing plans to expand OLED productive capacity, to introduce a host of new products featuring OLED displays, and to develop OLED white lighting products, we believe the company is in a strong position to benefit from a market with significant growth opportunities."