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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : For only the second time in 2012 the S&P 500 logged a 1.0% loss. The downturn came in response to some familiar concerns, namely sovereign debt and uncertainty about domestic monetary policy.

Sentiment soured well ahead of the open as trade in Europe was weakened by underwhelming demand for a recent debt offering from Spain. Such an indication that investors remain leery of the country's ability to implement and sustain fiscal reform sent higher bond yields of countries in the eurozone periphery. Although not a profound idea that data will play a part in monetary policy, many market participants continued to dwell on the implications of the hawkish verbiage included in the FOMC meeting minutes that were released yesterday.

Data certainly didn't stir any buying interest. The ADP Employment Change indicated that private payrolls increased by 209,000 during March, but that was slightly less than the increase of 217,000 that many economists had expected. After the open the ISM Services Index for March was released, but its reading of 56.0 was less than the 56.7 that had been broadly expected to follow the 57.3 that had been printed in the prior month. On a more positive note, recent PMI Services readings of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom were all revised higher.

The S&P 500 was down in excess of 1% at its session low, but stocks were able to attract some support during afternoon action. Still, the stock market could not cut its loss to less than 1%.

Tech stocks, which make up the largest sector by market weight, were an especially heavy drag. The sector was down about 2% at its session low, but ended the day with a 1.4% loss. Such weakness caused the Tech-rich Nasdaq to underperform its counterparts.

Financials booked some of the biggest losses of all. The sector fell 1.6% for the day. Diversified financial services players like Citigroup (C 35.04, -1.33) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 44.41, -1.01) grappled with pronounced selling pressure.

Materials stocks suffered a 1.4% loss, collectively, in conjunction with both broad market weakness and a concerted sell-off among commodities. Weakness in the commodity complex dropped the CRB Index for a 1.9% loss, which stands as its worst single-session slide of 2012.

The negative tone surrounding commodities was likely exacerbated by a stronger dollar, which was off of its session high, but still up nearly 0.4% against a basket of major foreign currencies at the closing bell. Most of the greenback's gain came against the euro, which failed to receive help from the European Central Bank following its decision to keep its target interest rate at 1.00%.

Treasuries attracted buyers after sliding sharply in the prior session. That pulled the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note down from a 10-day high near 2.30% to slightly less than 2.25%.

Advancing Sectors: None
Unchanged: Telecom
Declining Sectors: Utilities -0.2%, Consumer Staples -0.3%, Health Care -0.6%, Industrials -0.7%, Consumer Discretionary -1.0%, Energy -1.2%, Materials -1.4%, Tech -1.4%, Financials -1.6%DJ30 -124.80 NASDAQ -45.48 NQ100 -1.4% R2K -1.7% SP400 -1.4% SP500 -14.42 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 481/1.80 bln/2064 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 588/832 mln/2424

SanDisk (SNDK $45.67 -4.39) lowered first quarter revenue guidance due to weaker than expected pricing and demand, the co estimates total revenue to be ~$1.2 billion, down from the previously forecasted revenue range of $1.30-1.35 billion. Total gross margin is also expected to be below the previously guided range of 39% to 42%. SanDisk will release its first-quarter financial results and provide business commentary at its earnings conference call to be held on April 19, 2012.

EMC (EMC $29.43 -0.41) was initiated with a Buy at Mizuho with a target of $34. The firm highlights co has an 80% stake in VMware, which has not only become a standard for virtual environments, but is also becoming a systems management vendor of choice for cloud environments. They feel the secular tailwind combined with strong execution by management, an ongoing product cycle and recent investments in channel development will continue to drive upside to estimates and stock price performance.