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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Equities spent the majority of the session chopping around the unchanged line. The early morning volatility coincided with a Bloomberg TV report which indicated the European Central Bank bond purchase program is said to pledge unlimited, sterilized buying of bonds. However, the exuberance was short-lived as European Central Bank officials declined to comment, and reports out of Germany suggested Chancellor Angela Merkel would only support the program in the near-term. Afternoon trade was mostly quiet as the S&P 500 remained in a narrow range before closing lower by 0.1%.

The telecom sector got off to a strong start and maintained its gains throughout the day. Sprint (S 4.95, +0.15) advanced 3.1% as it outperformed other holdings within the iShares Dow Jones US Telecom ETF (IYZ 24.39, +0.13).

The Dow Jones Transportation Average continued its recent streak of underperformance; however, individual components within the group showed significant divergence. Shares of major airlines saw a relatively strong bid as United Continental Holdings (UAL 19.07, +0.97) led the major carriers with a 5.4% gain. Delta Air Lines (DAL 8.89, +0.33) added 3.9% after announcing August consolidated passenger unit revenue increased by 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. Meanwhile, companies specializing in logistics slipped after FedEx (FDX 85.80, -1.74) lowered its first quarter guidance, citing weaker global demand. FedEx shed 2.0% while UPS (UPS 71.94, -1.76) slid 2.4% and Con-way (CNW 29.97, -1.21) ended lower by 3.9%.

Financial stocks have traded mostly in-line with the broader market. However, several names diverged from the rest of the group. Goldman Sachs (GS 109.94, +3.53) was the best performer as it ended higher by 3.3%. On the downside, American Express (AXP 57.19, -1.42) dipped 2.2% as it trailed the other majors. Elsewhere, European financials were mostly higher with UBS (UBS 11.38, +0.29) and Credit Suisse (CS 19.24, +0.34) posting gains of 2.6% and 1.8%, respectively.

Restaurant operator Bloomin' Brands (BLMN 13.86, +0.41) advanced 3.1% after delivering its first earnings report as a publically traded company. The quarterly report showed second quarter earnings growth of 23.0% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, two names which began trading within the past twelve months also finished on a positive note. Facebook (FB 18.58, +0.85) closed higher by 4.8% after announcing Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, has no intention to sell any shares for at least twelve months. Meanwhile, Jefferies initiated coverage of the stock with a ‘buy' rating and a $30.00 price target. Zynga (ZNGA 2.92, +0.09) rose by 3.2% as it benefited from the strength in Facebook.

Nokia (NOK 2.38, -0.45) slumped 15.9% after the company unveiled its new Lumia 920 phone which features an improved camera and wireless charging capabilities. The phone is based on the Windows operating system, developed by Microsoft (MSFT 30.39, +0.01).

Productivity data for the second quarter showed an increase of 2.2%, which was an improvement over the 1.6% increase that had been reported in the preliminary reading. It is also better than the 1.8% increase that had been broadly expected. Unit labor costs for the first quarter were revised lower to reflect a 1.5% increase after they had reportedly increased by 1.7% in the preliminary reading. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected that unit labor costs would tick down in the revised reading to reflect an increase of 1.4%.

A handful of economic data points will be released tomorrow. Challenger job cuts will be reported at 7:30 ET. ADP Employment Change is scheduled for an 8:15 ET release, while initial and continuing claims will hit the wires at 8:30 ET. The ISM Services report will top off the day's data at 10 ET.

Also of note, the European Central Bank will announce its interest rate decision at 7:45 ET which will be followed by Mario Draghi's press conference at 8:30 ET. In addition, the Bank of England will opine tomorrow morning at 7:00 ET. The central bank is expected to keep both its benchmark interest rate and its asset purchase program steady at 0.50% and GBP375 billion.DJ30 +11.54 NASDAQ -5.79 SP500 -1.50 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1078/1.42 bln/1381 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1407/675.6 mln/1553

3:30 pm : Crude oil touched a session high of $95.72 per barrel as pit trade opened but plunged into the red and to a session low of $94.26 per barrel moments after trading in the equity markets began. Despite the fall, the energy component erased the losses and climbed back into the black by afternoon action. Crude then chopped around near the unchanged line and settled four cents higher at $95.38 per barrel.

Natural gas trended lower into negative territory after it brushed a pit session high of $2.84 per MMBtu in morning action. It fell as low as $2.78 per MMBtu just before it settled with a 2.1% loss at $2.80 per MMBtu.

Gold see-sawed between positive and negative territory in choppy fashion during today's pit trade. Action came ahead of tomorrow's anticipated ECB meeting. It touched a session low of $1691.50 per ounce and peaked at $1697.60 per ounce. The yellow metal eventually settled slightly lower with a 0.1% loss at $1694.20 per ounce. Silver brushed a session high of $32.43 per ounce in morning action but was unable to stay in positive territory. It spent the remainder of its session trading just below the unchanged level and settled 0.2% lower at $32.33 per ounce.DJ30 +16.02 NASDAQ -4.67 SP500 -0.89 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1124/1.13 bln/1325 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1415/418.2 mln/1526

4:04PM PLX Tech: IDT (IDTI) announces extension of exchange offer expiration date to Oct 4 in PLX Technology transaction (PLXT) 5.68 -0.08 : As previously announced on May 22, 2012, IDT commenced an exchange offer to acquire all outstanding shares of common stock of PLX for (i) $3.50 in cash and (ii) 0.525 shares of IDT common stock for each PLX common share outstanding, without interest and less any applicable withholding taxes. The exchange offer is being made pursuant to a Prospectus/Offer to Purchase, dated May 22, 2012, and in connection with an Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated April 30, 2012, which IDT and PLX previously announced on April 30, 2012.

10:10AM Semiconductor Hldrs ETF extends rebound off support (SMH) 32.46 unch : Early weakness in the SMH held at support at 32.19/32.16 (yesterday's low/50 sma) with the rebound recently reaching back near the flat line (session low 32.49) -- MRVL, NVDA, AMAT, INTC, XLNX, ALTR, SNDK.

9:02AM MEMC Elec announces settlement of TCS supply agreements (WFR will pay EUR 70 mln) (WFR) 2.98 : Co announced that its affiliate, MEMC Electronic Materials, SpA, and Evonik Industries, have agreed to settle and resolve disputes related to two long-term take-or-pay supply agreements for the supply of trichlorosilane (TCS) to MEMC's Merano, Italy polysilicon facility. Pursuant to the settlement agreements, MEMC will pay Evonik a total of 70 million Euro in full settlement of all obligations under the terminated supply agreements, with such payments to be made in installments over the next five quarters, including the payment of 10 million Euro in the current quarter. As part of strategic restructuring initiatives announced in December 2011, MEMC indicated it would idle the Merano facility and would consider closing the facility unless dramatic feedstock, power and other cost reductions were achieved.

RF Micro Devices (RFMD) is enabling Samsung's (SSNLF) next-generation GALAXY Note II with RFMD's PowerSmart Power Platforms.

MicroVision (MVIS) and Intersil (ISIL) announced an agreement to partner on the development of advanced, integrated chipsets for MicroVision's patented high definition PicoP display technology.

Cypress Semiconductor (CY) has shipped over 1 bln capacitive touch units.

STMicroelectronics (STM) introduced a new pressure sensor that allows mobile phones and other portable devices to calculate their vertical elevation relative to sea-level with very high accuracy.

Altera (ALTR) announced it is shipping in production all three of its 28-nm FPGA families, including Stratix V, Arria V and Cyclone V devices. Altera achieves this industry milestone with the latest shipment of the largest Cyclone V FPGA in its low-cost, low-power product family.

1:19AM Oracle to continue building the latest versions of its database and other software to HP (HPQ) Itanium computers (ORCL) 31.57 : Co iisues the following statement: "Previously, Oracle announced that it would stop developing new versions of its software on Itanium microprocessors. For example, that meant version 12c of the Oracle database due out in early 2013 would not be available on Itanium. However, a judge recently ruled that Oracle has a contract to continue porting its software to Itanium computers for as long as HP sells Itanium computers. Therefore, Oracle will continue building the latest versions of its database and other software covered by the judge's ruling to HP Itanium computers. Oracle software on HP's Itanium computers will be released on approximately the same schedule as Oracle software on IBM's Power systems."

Last night after the close, Finisar (FNSR $13.53 +0.01) reported Q1 (July) earnings of $0.12 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ consensus estimate of $0.14. Revenues fell 3.4% year/year to $220.5 million vs. the $226.42 million consensus. The company issued guidance for Q2 with EPS of $0.12-0.16, excluding non-recurring items, vs. the $0.19 Capital IQ consensus and revenues of $225-240 mln vs. the $236.70 mln Capital IQ consensus. The company stated, "As expected, our first quarter of fiscal year 2013 was challenging. This was primarily the result of sluggish macroeconomic conditions, especially in Europe, as well as the slowing of economic growth in China. Generally telecom spending throughout the world has been soft. In addition, we had two fewer shipping days in the first quarter than in the previous quarter. However, I am happy to report that we expect revenue growth to resume in the second quarter. In addition, we expect to hold operating expenses relatively flat, excluding the impact of a full quarter of the RED-C acquisition. Thus, we expect operating income will grow in the second quarter."

11:41 am S&P 500 Info Tech Sector +0.2%
The tech sector is trading just higher today, along with slight gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness with the SOX trading 0.2% lower. Within the chip index, STM (-5.7%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.1% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.2% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.1% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, FB (+4.6%) is showing notable strength, while AAPL (-0.2%) is bucking the trend in the market.

In tech earnings, FNSR (+0.4%) posted a Q1 miss and guided Q2 EPS below consensus. GWRE (+9.2%), on the other hand, reported a Q4 beat.

In news, MOVE (+1.6%) acquired TigerLead and increased its gudiance. Elsewhere, FB () disclosed that CEO Zuckerberg has not adopted a Rule 10b5-1 Plan and has informed FB that he has no intention to conduct any sale transactions in FB securities for at least 12 months.

In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, BT (+0.5%) was upgraded to Overweight at JP Morgan and QLIK (+6.4%) was upgraded to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Among downgrades, PT (-3.4%) was downgraded to Underweight at JP Morgan, STM (-5.7%) and AMD (-2.8%) were downgraded to Neutral at UBS, and DMD (-1.8%) was downgraded to Hold at Jefferies.

PAY (+0.4%) and VRNT (-1.3%) are the notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.