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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : Stocks began today's session on a negative note after the September Empire Manufacturing Survey registered its worst reading since April 2009. The bearish sentiment was then extended as unfounded rumors of tapping into the strategic petroleum reserve sent the major averages to fresh session lows. As a result, the S&P 500 ended lower by 0.3%.

Healthcare stocks outperformed the broader market on strength in biotech companies. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 143.15, +1.39) advanced 1.0% as Gilead Sciences (GILD 65.80, +3.78) added 6.1% after positive comments were made by analysts before the open. Meanwhile, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (SPPI 12.91, +0.90) and Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX 81.26, +4.59) gained between 6.0% and 7.5%.

In M&A news, medical equipment supplier, IRIS (IRIS 19.54, +6.12) surged 45.6% after announcing that the company will be acquired by Danaher (DHR 54.84, +0.08) for $19.50 per share. The purchase price represents a 45.3% premium to IRIS' Friday closing price of $13.42. Following the acquisition, Feltl & Co downgraded shares of IRIS from ‘buy' to ‘hold.' Elsewhere, Complete Genomics (GNOM 3.02, +0.35) jumped 13.1% after the company entered into a definitive merger agreement with China-based BGI-Shenzhen. Per the agreement, a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of BGI-Shenzhen will launch a tender offer to purchase all outstanding shares of GNOM for $3.15 per share, representing an 18.0% premium to GNOM's Friday closing price of $2.67.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average slipped 1.5% as it underperformed the broader market. Within the bellwether group, only UPS (UPS 74.23, +0.55) and CSX Corp (CSX 23.26, +0.10) managed to stay marginally positive. Airline stocks were generally lower after Southwest Airlines (LUV 9.05, -0.02) and Delta (DAL 9.23, -0.04) raised roughly 10% of their round trip fares by $10. The two carriers both shed near 0.3%. Trucking and railroad stocks also showed considerable weakness as Con-way (CNW 29.22, -1.33) and Kansas City Southern (KSU 81.24, -2.39) ended lower by 4.4% and 2.9%, respectively.

Shares of major financials showed weakness after last week's broad rally. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 16.13, -0.15) slipped 0.9% as most major names posted losses in the neighborhood of 1.0%. Bank of America (BAC 9.30, -0.25) and Morgan Stanley (MS 17.80, -0.44) both fell near 2.5%, while JPMorgan Chase (JPM 41.19, -0.38) and Goldman Sachs (GS 119.90, -1.46) lost near 1.0% each.

The materials sector was the weakest performer. The SPDR Materials Select Sector ETF (XLB 37.76, -0.59) slumped 1.5% as steel producers lagged after a series of downgrades. AK Steel (AKS 5.53, -0.34), Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF 42.36, -3.19), Reliance Steel & Aluminum (RS 54.99, -2.67), and United States Steel (X 21.31, -1.04) all posted losses between 4.5% and 7.0% after JP Morgan downgraded shares of the steelmakers from ‘overweight' to ‘neutral.'

Looking at tomorrow's earnings, FedEx (FDX 89.28, -0.87) will report its first quarter results before the bell. The company will be in focus after it recently lowered its earnings guidance to $1.37-1.43 from the original forecast of $1.45-1.60 per share.

The Empire Manufacturing Survey for September registered a reading of -10.4, which was down from the prior month's reading of -5.9. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected that the Survey would rise to -3.0.

A handful of economic data points will be reported tomorrow. The current account balance will be released at 8:30 ET, while net long-term TIC flows and the NAHB Housing Market Index will be reported at 9:00 ET and 10:00 ET, respectively.DJ30 -40.27 NASDAQ -5.28 SP500 -4.58 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 945/1.42 bln/1500 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 936/665.9/2089

3:30 pm : Crude oil touched a session high of $99.52 per barrel in morning action but pulled back into negative territory by afternoon floor trade. The energy component then slid over 4 points to a session low of $94.65 per barrel.

Without a clear explanation for the dramatic move, the weakness in crude oil has been attributed to a number of factors, including rumors of a strategic oil reserve release (which have since been denied by the White House), along with chatter of a potential "fat-finger" trade, in combination with light volume and a break of technical levels. Crude erased some of the loss but still settled 2.4% lower at $96.52 per barrel.

Natural gas spent its entire pit session in the red. It fell off its session high of $2.93 per MMBtu and brushed a session low of $2.86 per MMBtu. It spent the remainder of floor trade trading in a consolidative pattern and closed 2.4% lower at $2.87 per MMBtu.

Gold touched a floor session high of $1775.80 per ounce in morning action and slid to a session low of $1767.00 per ounce shortly after. However, the move quickly corrected, and the yellow metal spent the remainder of its pit session trading near the unchanged line. It ultimately settled 0.1% lower at $1770.70 per ounce. Silver pulled back off its session high of $34.70 per ounce set in morning action and inched lower. It closed pit trade with a 0.7% loss at $34.39 per ounce.

Soybeans fell their exchange limit in today's floor trade. The weakness in grains was attributed to speculation of better-than-anticipated yields for select crops following improved weather conditions for the U.S. sowing season.DJ30 -62.72 NASDAQ -14.80 SP500 -7.81 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 821/1116.1 mln/1619 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 763/387 mln/2200

5:52PM Microsoft outlines revenue recognition for the Office offer (MSFT) 31.20 +0.00 : Co announced the details of the Office offer providing consumers, students and small businesses who buy qualifying Office 2010 or Office for Mac 2011 the option to upgrade during the time of promotion. Starting October 19, people who purchase Office 2010 or Office for Mac 2011 will qualify to download, for free, one year of Office 365 Home Premium or the equivalent Office 2013 offering, when available. Small business customers in applicable markets will also be eligible for a three-month trial of Office 365 Small Business Premium. In association with the Office offer, Microsoft will defer revenue from eligible sales under the program to the earlier of the fulfillment date or the program's expiration date. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, Microsoft will defer an estimated $100 million to $140 million of revenue related to licenses sold into distribution channels that will be subsequently sold to end customers under the terms of the offer. The deferral only impacts the timing of revenue recognition and will not impact cash flows from operations.

4:13PM Advanced Micro announced that Thomas Seifert informed the company of his decision to resign as senior VP and CFO to pursue other opportunities (AMD) 4.02 +0.11 : Co announced that Devinder Kumar, senior vice president and corporate controller, will serve as interim CFO while a search commences for Seifert's replacement. Kumar has served as the Company's corporate controller since 2001. Seifert's departure is not based on any disagreement over the company's accounting principles or practices, or financial statement disclosures.

4:02PM Apple: AAPL crosses the $700.00 mark for the 1st time ever in extended hours trade (AAPL) 699.781 :

9:03AM Flextronics announces Board of Directors authorization for additional share repurchases (FLEX) 6.61 : Co announces that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan. Repurchases under the co's share repurchase plans are subject to an aggregate limit under Singapore law of 10% of the Company's outstanding ordinary shares as of the Company's Extraordinary General Meeting held in August 2012. This new authorization permits the repurchase of ordinary shares up to the current maximum under the 10% limitation.

9:03AM VirnetX re-files ITC complaint against Apple (AAPL) (VHC) 29.13 : Co announced that on Sep 14, 2012, its wholly-owned subsidiary, VirnetX, Inc. has re-filed its complaint with the United States International Trade Commission alleging that Apple (AAPL) has engaged in unfair trade practices by the importation, sale for importation, and sale after importation of certain devices with secure communication capabilities that infringe one or more claims of VirnetX's U.S. Patent No. 8,051,181. The accused products include the latest iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Macintosh computers.

8:30AM Apple iPhone 5 pre-orders top 2 mln in first 24 hours (AAPL) 691.28 : Co announced pre-orders of its iPhone 5 topped two million in just 24 hours, more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S. Demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21, many are scheduled to be delivered in October. iPhone 5 will be available at 356 Apple retail stores in the US beginning at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, September 21. iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28.

AAPL is testing new all time highs near $697 (all-time high is @ $696.98 from Friday) in the premarket.

7:01AM Xilinx acquires wireless backhaul solutions provider Modesat Communications; financial terms not disclosed (XLNX) 35.23 : Co announced the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Modesat Communications, a wireless backhaul solutions provider.

Ascent Solar Technologies (ASTI) announced the retail debut of the co's EnerPlex solar assisted battery case for Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 4 and 4S in the U.S. and all of N. America with one of the co's distributors, CommXPERTS.

Finisar (FNSR) announced a demonstration of the industry's first densely packaged 2x1xN two-slot ROADM linecard with Flexgrid capabilities.

LDK Solar (LDK $1.19 -0.05) reported second quarter GAAP net loss of $2.00 per share vs the ($1.43) Capital IQ consensus; revs approximately 53% YoY to $235.4 million versus $237.5 million Capital IQ estimate. Additionally, company Shipped 316.7 megawatts of wafers, 135.6 MW of cells and modules in the second quarter; Produced a total of ~538.1 metric tons of polysilicon during the second quarter; and Produced a total of approximately 90.8 MW of cells during the second quarter. For Q3, LDK Solar estimates its revenue to be in the range of $220-260 mln vs $460.0 million est, wafer shipments between 190-240 MW, cells and module shipments between 140-180 MW. For FY12, LDK Solar estimates its revenue to be in the range of $1.1-1.5 billion versus the $1.69 billion est, polysilicon shipments between 1,100-1,400 MT, wafer shipments between 0.9 gigawatts and 1.2 GW, cell and module shipments between 550-750 MW and inverter shipments between 170-210 MW. The company expects PV system project construction to be in the range of 200-300 MW and to recognize between 110-150 MW through project sales and EPC services for 3rd party customers.

Apple (AAPL $699.50 +8.50) announced pre-orders of its iPhone 5 topped two million in just 24 hours, more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S. Demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21, many are scheduled to be delivered in October. iPhone 5 will be available at 356 Apple retail stores in the US beginning at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, September 21. iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28.

The Benchmark Company raises their JDA Software (JDAS $31.49 +0.00) target to $36 from $32 ahead of the co's analyst day on September 18. They expect management to fill in more details around its recently announced strategy to reposition JDAS from a vendor of traditional SCP applications to a provider of cloud-based planning and optimization solutions. Former comments from management suggest that it does not plan to create a "pure" single instance, multi-tenant cloud SCP solution. Instead, it's pursuing a hybrid-cloud approach by offering existing applications as an extension of JDAS's managed services through a hosted offering.

10:49 am S&P Information Technology Index trading slightly lower today along with the overall market

The tech sector is trading lower today, along with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness with the SOX trading 0.8% lower. Within the chip index, TER (-2.9%) is a laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.2% lower today, while the QQQ is down 0.2% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.3% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+1.0%) is showing strength, while CSCO (-1.7%) is showing notable weakness.

There were no tech earnings of note this morning. In news, T (-0.1%) reports record sales for iPhone 5, while AAPL (+1.0%) announced iPhone 5 pre-orders top 2 mln in first 24 hours. There were no notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space. Among downgrades, however, PLT (-3.4%) was downgraded to Neutral at Mizuho, SAI (-3.1%) was downgraded to Mkt Perform at Raymond James, OPEN (-4.7%) was downgraded to Neutral at Piper Jaffray and INTC (-0.4%), VLTR (-4.2%) & AMD (0.0%) were downgraded to Neutral at Longbow. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.