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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Stocks began the week on a down note after Germany's Ifo Business Climate Index missed expectations. The major averages marked their session lows during the opening minutes before setting on a day-long climb towards the unchanged line. Due to weakness in Apple, the tech-heavy Nasdaq underperformed with a loss of 0.6%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 shed 0.2%.

The Nasdaq trailed other indices after Apple (AAPL 690.79, -9.30) reported selling just five million iPhone 5s over the weekend, while some expected sales to reach as much as 10 million units. As a result, Apple ended lower by 1.3%.

Utility stocks were the top performer as the risk-off trade took hold. Natural gas producer Questar (STR 20.10, +0.73) added 3.8% after shares of the company were upgraded from ‘neutral' to ‘buy' at UBS. Other utility names which benefited from rotation into safer sectors included AES Corporation (AES 11.24, +0.12), Exelon (EXC 35.87, +0.49), and Pinnacle West (PNW 53.40, +0.84). The three stocks all gained between 1.0% and 1.6%.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average rose by 1.0% as it broke its recent streak of underperformance. Within the group, railroad stocks rebounded after Norfolk Southern (NSC 66.28, +1.28) cut its guidance last week. Norfolk Southern ended higher by 2.0% while other railroad names also advanced. CSX (CSX 21.36, +0.23), Kansas City Southern (KSU 77.08, +1.08), and Union Pacific (UNP 121.11, +1.74) all posted gains between 1.0% and 1.5%.

In the materials sector, steel stocks were under pressure after Citigroup downgraded a pair of steelmakers. United States Steel (X 19.59, -0.35) shed 1.8% after being downgraded from ‘buy' to ‘neutral,' while AK Steel (AKS 5.01, -0.24) settled lower by 4.6% after its rating was cut from ‘neutral' to ‘sell.' The weakness spilled over to other steel names as AM Castle (CAS 12.20, -0.25) and Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF 40.77, -0.16) lost 0.4% and 2.0%, respectively.

Paper and packaging stocks traded higher after Credit Suisse raised their targets on select stocks within the group. The firm raised their target on International Paper (IP 36.78, +1.27) from $40 to $44, Packaging Corp of America (PKG 34.95, +1.20) from $36 to $41, and Rock-Tenn (RKT 73.75, +5.03) from $73 to $82. The three stocks all gained between 3.5% and 7.3% following the positive commentary. Elsewhere, KapStone (KS 21.80, +1.19) advanced 5.8% after Stephens upgraded the shares from ‘equal weight' to ‘overweight.'

Questcor (QCOR 19.08, -11.05) slumped 36.7% after disclosing that the U.S. government is investigating the company for its promotional practices. In addition, Leerink Swank downgraded the shares of the company from ‘outperform' to ‘market perform. Note that Questcor fell 40.0% last week amid concerns around insurance coverage for the company's Acthar gel.

Peregrine Pharma (PPHM 1.16, -4.23) plunged 78.5% after announcing discrepancies in its data from its Phase IIb trial of bavituximab in patients with second-line non-small cell lung cancer. The company said that investors should not rely on clinical data that was disclosed on or before September 7, 2012. Since September 7, Peregrine has rallied more than 75.0% on what was previously thought to be encouraging trial data.

The Case-Shiller 20-city Index will be reported at 9:00 ET, while consumer confidence and the FHFA Housing Price Index will be released at 10:00 ET.

The U.S. Treasury will auction off 2-yr notes.DJ30 -20.55 NASDAQ -19.18 SP500 -3.26 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1112/1.66 bln/1371 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1214/625.6 mln/1800

3:30 pm : A stronger dollar put pressure on crude oil in today's floor trade. The energy component dropped as low as $91.06 per barrel and spent most of afternoon action trading near that level. A slight rally heading into the close pushed prices higher but still left crude to settle with a 1.1% loss at $91.88 per barrel.

Natural gas traded lower in choppy fashion, dipping to a session low of $3.00 per MMBtu. It later popped to a session high of $3.07 per MMBtu and ultimately closed 1.3% lower at $3.04 per MMBtu. Precious metals struggled in negative territory for their entire pit sessions as a stronger dollar put pressure on prices.

Despite inching slightly higher after coming off their respective session lows of $1760.10 and $33.69 per ounce, both gold and silver were unable to erase losses. Gold settled 0.8% lower at $1764.60 per ounce while silver closed with a 1.9% loss at $33.99 per ounce.DJ30 +3.45 NASDAQ -18.28 SP500 -1.38 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1150/1376.0 mln/1319 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1292/398 mln/1696

8:30AM Apple iPhone 5 first weekend sales top 5 mln, below expectations (AAPL) 700.10 : Co has sold over five million of its new iPhone 5, just three days after its launch on September 21, and more than 100 million iOS devices have been updated with iOS 6, the world's most advanced mobile operating system. iPhone 5 is available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on September 28 and more than 100 countries by the end of the year. Demand for iPhone 5 exceeded the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders have been shipped to customers, many are scheduled to be shipped in October. "While we have sold out of our initial supply, stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date. We appreciate everyone's patience and are working hard to build enough iPhone 5s for everyone."

Briefing.com note: Initial feedback is that expectations were for more than 6 mln, and even 8-10 mln at the high end.

8:01AM Emcore enters into OEM agreement with Lake Shore Cryotronics to supply Terahertz systems and components (EMKR) 5.70 : Co announced that it has entered into an OEM agreement with Lake Shore Cryotronics to supply an OEM version of the PB7200 Portable Frequency Domain Terahertz (THz) Spectrometer.

Marvell (MRVL) and Micrel (MCRL) announced a fully interoperable IEEE 802.3 standard-compliant Ethernet PHY for in-vehicle networking.

NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXPI) introduced the LFPAK56D portfolio, a range of dual Power-SO8 MOSFETs specifically designed for automotive applications such as fuel injection, ABS and stability control. The LFPAK56D range is in volume production and is available immediately

Texas Instruments (TXN) introduced the new $199 Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 Starter Kit with a 4.3-inch LCD display supporting rotation and tilt capabilities via the on-board accelerometer that provides an affordable platform for smart appliances, industrial automation and networking applications and other devices requiring a touch screen interface.

Nufront and ARM (ARMH) announced that Nufront has broadened its portfolio of ARM technology with licenses for the ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore Processor and ARM Mali-T658 Graphics Processing Unit. Access to the advanced intellectual property from ARM will enhance the scalability of Nufront's next generation application processor designs, delivering powerful 3G-ready solutions to OEMs for smartphones, tablet computers and smart-TVs.

11:15 am Information Technology Index trading lower, trailing the broader market

The tech sector is trading lower today, trailing narrower losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness as well with the SOX trading 1.3% lower. Within the chip index, VECO (-9.4%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.3% lower today, while the QQQ is down 0.7% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.6% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, FB (-6.1%) is under notable pressure following a negative Barron's article out over the weekend, while GOOG (+1.5%) is bucking the trend. There were no tech earnings of note this morning. In news, AAPL (-1.3%) reported selling 5 mln iPhones in its first weekend of sales. This was below what many expected.

Elsewhere, TIVO (+6.1%) announced a settlement of patent litigation With VZ (0.0%). VZ will provide TIVO total compensation worth at least $250.4 mln and both cos agreed to dismiss all pending litigation with prejudice. Also, LMLP (+81.8%) was acquired by DRIV (+1.1%) for $3.45/share in cash. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to DRIV's earnings in its 2013 fiscal year. In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, RBCN (+3.4%) was upgraded to Neutral at Goldman. Among downgrades, ATML (-4.7%) was downgraded to Neutral at UBS, FNSR (-4.5%) was downgraded to Mkt Perform at Raymond James, and VECO (-9.3%) was downgraded to Sell at Goldman. PAYX (-0.1%) and RHT (-1.2%) are the only notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.