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From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : Today's action was focused on the comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. During his press conference, Mr. Draghi failed to announce new measures to help stem the European debt crisis. The S&P 500 quickly dropped to 1,360 and hovered around that level until the final hour of the session. During the final 60 minutes stocks were able to recover a portion of their losses, and the S&P 500 finished down 0.7%.


European indices were considerably higher ahead of the press conference before sharply reversing into negative territory. Spain's IBEX plunged 5.2%, while Italy's MIB tumbled 4.6%. Spain's 10-yr yield was holding at 6.65% ahead of the announcement and rallied to close up 43 basis points at 7.165%.

The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 365,000, which was in-line with the 365,000 that had been expected. The tally is also up from the upwardly revised prior week count of 357,000. As for continuing claims, they fell to about 3.272 million from 3.291 million.

June Factory Orders showed a 0.5% decrease which was worse than the 0.6% increase that had been expected.

Knight Capital Group (KCG 2.58, -4.36) finished near session lows as yesterday's execution glitch is said to have cost the firm $440 million in direct losses. Several firms have indicated that they have used other systems to route their orders. With 155 million shares traded, volume in the stock has been more than 100 times the average daily volume of 1.2 million.

First Solar (FSLR 17.93, +3.13) surged 21% after the company handily beat earnings and revenue estimates. Today's jump lifted the stock past resistance near $16.60 which had held since mid-May.

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF 29.06, -4.96) dropped 14.6% after issuing disappointing guidance. Lower sales expectations spilled over to competitor Aeropostale (ARO 13.08, -6.37) whose shares fell 32.8% on heavy volume.

Gap (GPS 33.17, +3.75) was able to buck the trend. Shares advanced 12.8% after the retailer reported better-than-expected same store sales and improved its second quarter outlook.

Given their European exposure, financial stocks have felt the brunt of today's selling. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 14.48, -0.11) slid 0.8%. Morgan Stanley (MS 13.03, -0.48) was down 3.5%.

European financials were hit especially hard with Deutsche Bank (DB 28.35, -1.45) and Barclays (BCS 10.05, -0.38) lower by 4.9% and 3.6% respectively.

The euro saw volatile trading around the Mario Draghi press conference. The single currency rose to 1.2365 versus the dollar in anticipation of the bank president's comments. The euro tumbled to 1.2210 after Mr. Draghi failed to offer fresh plans to solve the region's debt crisis. Following a brief pause, it fell further, touching 1.2170.

Crude oil brushed a session low of $86.92 per barrel as equity markets opened before recovering some of its losses in morning action. Crude managed to trade up to a session high of $88.48 but was unable to sustain the momentum and eventually settled down 2.0% at $87.20.

More than 100 companies will report their quarterly results after the bell.

Energy components EOG Resources (EOG 96.12, -4.32) and Sunoco (SUN 47.37, -0.81) saw respective losses of 4.3% and 1.7% ahead of their results.

Shares of Kraft Foods (KFT 38.94, -0.45) saw a steady rise but were unable to push through resistance in the $40.00 area. The company's earnings are due out after the bell with Investors expecting $0.66 in earnings on $14.1 billion revenues.

LinkedIn (LNKD 93.51, -2.13) is also scheduled to report today. Estimates call for earnings of $0.16 on revenues of $215.97 million.

Nonfarm payrolls, nonfarm private payrolls, unemployment rate, hourly earnings, and average workweek will be released tomorrow at 8:30 AM ET.DJ30 -92.18 NASDAQ -10.44 SP500 -10.32 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1031/1.79 bln/1418 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1147/826.1 mln/1897

3:30 pm : Crude oil spent its entire pit session in the red as the dollar gained strength on President Draghi's comments that fell short of expectations for further action from the ECB to support Europe's ailing economy. It brushed a session low of $86.92 per barrel as equity markets opened and then attempted to recover some losses in morning action. Crude managed to trade up to a session high of $88.48 per barrel but was unable to sustain momentum and eventually settled the session 2.0% lower at $87.20 per barrel.

Natural gas tanked following weak inventory data that showed a build of 28 bcf when a build of 20 bcf was widely expected. It continued the decline for the remainder of pit trade and closed at $2.92 per MMBtu, just above its session low of $2.91 per MMBtu, for a 7.9% loss. Today's session is the first time that natural gas for September delivery has settled below $3.00 per MMBtu since July 19, 2012.

Gold and silver popped to their respective pit session highs in morning action on ECB's announcement that it is leaving rates unchanged at 0.75% as expected. However, the sentiment wore off quickly and both metals plunged into negative territory following the rally in the dollar. Gold fell to a session low of $1586.30 per ounce and settled slightly higher at $1590.50 per ounce for a loss of 1.0%. Silver's decline was sharper as it slid as low as $26.88 per ounce and closed 1.9% lower at $26.99 per ounce.DJ30 -129.42 NASDAQ -15.64 SP500 -13.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 997/1497.3 mln/1429 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1065/577 mln/1944

4:46PM Sierra Wireless beats by $0.12, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (SWIR) 9.38 -0.14 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.30 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.12 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.18; revenues rose 19.7% year/year to $167.4 mln vs the $158.88 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.14-0.19, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.21 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $157-162 mln vs. $165.65 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Exceptionally strong sales of our 4G Mobile Computing products, combined with steady growth in our Machine-to-Machine business, led to higher than expected revenue and profitability in the second quarter of 2012,"

4:18PM Rubicon Tech beats by $0.06, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (RBCN) 10.70 +0.19 : Reports Q2 (Jun) loss of $0.06 per share, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.12); revenues fell 60.5% year/year to $17 mln vs the $16.14 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of ($0.05)-(0.02) vs. $0.01 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $18-21 mln vs. $22.24 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:11PM Integrated Device: Synaptics (SYNA) acquires Pacinian and the Video Display Operation of IDTI; terms not disclosed (IDTI) 5.12 +0.04 :

4:07PM ON Semiconductor reports EPS in-line, misses on revs; guides Q3 revs below consensus (ONNN) 6.84 -0.07 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.14 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.14; revenues fell 17.8% year/year to $744.8 mln vs the $765.44 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of $725-765 mln vs. $810.32 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Backlog levels for the third quarter of 2012 represent approximately 80 to 85 percent of our anticipated third quarter 2012 revenues. We expect that average selling prices for the third quarter of 2012 will be down approximately one to two percent when compared to the second quarter of 2012. The non-GAAP outlook for the third quarter of 2012 includes stock-based compensation expense of approximately $7 to $9 million."

4:04PM ON Semiconductor announces Chief Financial Officer transition (ONNN) 6.84 -0.07 : Co announced that its Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Donald Colvin, and the company have mutually agreed to Mr. Colvin's resignation as an officer of the company. It is anticipated that Mr. Colvin will continue in his current positions at the company for up to 90 days while the company conducts a search for a replacement chief financial officer. This search process has already been launched by the Board of Directors and is in process

9:01AM LSI Logic's Board of Directors authorizes new $500 mln stock repurchase program (LSI) 6.98 : Co announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $500 million of its common stock, with repurchases to be funded with available cash and short-term investments. This new program is in addition to the $75 million that remained available under the company's existing $750 million authorization as of the end of second quarter.

8:31AM Research In Motion introduces 4G LTE BlackBerry playbook tablet (RIMM) 7.11 : Co launched the new 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with built-in support for cellular networks. The new 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook maintains a sleek and ultra-portable form while delivering overall faster performance over the original BlackBerry PlayBook.

09:48 am First Solar shares spike over 19% following beat on revenues
First Solar (FSLR $17.80 +2.97) reported second quarter earnings of $1.27 per share, may not be comparable to the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.92, while revenues rose 79.5% year/year to $957 million versus the $822.19 million consensus. The second quarter of 2012 was impacted by pre-tax charges of $36 million (reducing EPS by $0.39), relating to restructuring and certain costs in excess of normal warranty. The company issued guidance for fiscal year 2012 with EPS of $4.20-4.70, may not be comparable to $3.88 consensus and revenues of of $3.6-3.9 billion versus the $3.47 billion consensus.