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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Equities got off to a mixed start as the key indices chopped around their respective unchanged lines during the first hour. Sellers took control after traders digested the wholesale inventories data, pushing the major averages to their worst levels. Afternoon trade was mostly quiet as the three averages hovered near session lows. As a result, the S&P 500 finished lower by 0.6%.

Earlier, the Federal Reserve released its September Beige Book. In its report, the twelve Federal Reserve Districts reported that economic activity "expanded modestly since the last report." Residential real estate conditions as well as the nonfinancial services sector also showed modest improvement.

The manufacturing sector was described as mixed but somewhat healthier than what was observed in the last report. Meanwhile, the industrial market was also described as mixed. While the Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland, and Atlanta districts all showed strength, conditions in Richmond deteriorated slightly. The Beige Book also commented on consumer spending by saying it was mostly unchanged since the previous report.

Financials registered the slimmest losses and the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 15.94, -0.01) shed 0.1%. Among the majors, Citigroup (C 35.14, +0.54) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 41.77, +0.39) were the top performers. The two names registered respective gains of 1.6% and 0.9% after Bank of America/Merrill Lynch resumed coverage of the two stocks with a ‘buy' rating. Note that JPMorgan Chase will report its third quarter earnings before Friday's open.

European financials saw mixed performance as Deutsche Bank (DB 41.17, +0.33) added 0.8% while Spanish Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA 7.59, -0.10) slipped 1.3%.

Energy stocks were the biggest laggard of the session. Chevron (CVX 112.45, -4.91) slid 4.2% after announcing that its third quarter earnings are expected to be substantially lower than results from the previous quarter. Penn Virginia (PVA 5.10, -0.39) and Tesoro (TSO 38.70, -2.29) lost 7.1% and 5.6%, respectively.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average outperformed the broader market with a gain of 0.1%. However, the strength was largely due to FedEx (FDX 89.52, +3.94). The bellwether stock gained 5.2% after announcing a program which targets $1.7 billion in annual profit improvements by the end of fiscal year 2016. In addition, the company reaffirmed its second quarter and full-year 2012 guidance which it had revised down on September 18.

Elsewhere, Alcoa (AA 8.71, -0.42) dipped 4.6% after beating on earnings and revenues. However, the company's third quarter revenue of $5.833 billion represents a 9.1% year-over-year decrease. In addition, AA lowered its 2012 global aluminum demand growth forecast from 7.0% to 6.0%.

Engine maker Cummins (CMI 87.79, -3.05) slid 3.4% after lowering its third quarter and full-year 2012 guidance due to weak demand. Caterpillar (CAT 83.16, -1.59) slipped 1.9% in sympathy.

Ambarella (AMBA 6.06, +0.06) made its public debut today. The producer of video processing semiconductors priced its initial public offering at $6, which was well below the expected price range of $9 to $11. The stock settled higher by 1.0% after shares began trading at $6.66.

August wholesale inventories increased by 0.5%. This was slightly lower than the increase of 0.6% which had been broadly forecast.

Weekly initial and continuing jobless claims, August trade balance, September export prices ex-agriculture, and September import prices ex-oil will all be reported at 8:30 ET.

The U.S. Treasury will look to make it three strong auctions for the week with tomorrow's $13 billion, 30-yr reopening.DJ30 -128.56 NASDAQ -13.24 SP500 -8.92 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1121/1.73 bln/1337 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1144/590.8 mln/1890

3:30 pm : Crude oil retreated from its pit session high of $93.66 per barrel set in morning action despite continued tension between Turkey and Syria. The energy component brushed a session low of $91.02 per barrel moments before settling with a 1.3% loss at $91.25 per barrel.

Natural gas dipped to a floor session low of $3.43 per MMBtu but buyers stepped in and took prices as high as $3.51 per MMBtu in afternoon action. However, the momentum faded heading into the close, and natural gas settled at $3.47 per MMBtu, or just 0.3% higher.

Gold chopped around between positive and negative territory during today's pit session. The yellow metal fell as low as $1759.10 per ounce, rallied to a session high of $1769.40 per ounce, and ultimately settled just 70 cents below the breakeven level at $1765.00 per ounce.

Silver inched higher after sliding to a session low of $33.81 per ounce in late morning action. It then closed with a 0.4% gain at $34.12 per ounce, or just below its session high of $34.19 per ounce.DJ30 -131.32 NASDAQ -16.24 SP500 -9.43 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1032/1491.3 mln/1384 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1042/410 mln/1977

9:40AM Semiconductor Hldrs lagging sector continues to underperform, notches new two month low of 30.73 (SMH) 30.74 -0.30 : The SMH slipped below its Sep trough to reach its lowest level since later July. The next supports are at 30.64/30.55 (extension target, July gap top, congest) with the July gap bottom just below at 30.50 -- XLNX -2.5%, NVDA -2% ALTR -1.7%, SNDK -1.4%, MRVL -1.4%, BRCM -1%, LRCX -1%, KLAC -0.9%, LLTC -0.8%, MCHP -0.7%.

8:06AM Avnet lowers Q1 guidance (AVT) 28.57 : Co issues downside guidance for Q1 (Sep), lowers adj. EPS to $0.52-0.58 from $0.78-0.88 vs. $0.83 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; lowers Q1 (Sep) revs to ~$5.85 bln from $5.8-6.4 bln vs. $6.07 bln Capital IQ Consensus. Sales at Electronics Marketing (EM) and Technology Solutions (TS) for the September quarter are expected to be ~$3.65 billion and $2.20 billion, respectively. The revised estimated EPS for Q1 is primarily attributable to the combined negative impacts of 1) lower than expected revenues, most notably at TS, 2) lower gross profit margin in the Western regions at EM associated with the weaker sales environment and 3) a greater than anticipated geographic mix shift in the EM business where better than expected sales in the lower-margin Asia region were more than offset by weaker sales in the higher-margin Western regions.

"It appears the uncertain macroeconomic conditions continue to negatively impact key areas of end demand in our served markets as our overall revenue for the quarter finished weaker than expected, particularly in the Americas region. The shortfall to our expectations was more acute at our TS business, where we experienced a second consecutive quarter of weaker than expected transaction activity at the end of the quarter as customers delayed IT projects. At EM, although overall sales were relatively in line with initial expectations, the lower-margin Asia business had a stronger than expected quarter, which was offset by a pronounced slowdown in the Americas region. This overall shortfall in Avnet's revenue accounted for more than half of the lowered earnings expectations while the regional mix shift and lower gross profit margins at EM accounted for the remainder. As a response to these developments, we are evaluating resource commitments across the portfolio and have identified further expense alignment actions in addition to the expense reductions of $40 - $50 million that we announced in August. We remain steadfastly committed to monitoring market developments and taking actions consistent with the pursuit of our long-term operating goals."

Qualcomm (QCOM) and Semp Toshiba have entered into a 3G and 4G license agreement. Qualcomm has granted Semp Toshiba a royalty-bearing patent license to develop, manufacture and sell 3G WCDMA and TD-SCDMA, and 4G OFDMA subscriber units.

7:20AM Ambarella prices 6 mln share IPO at $6, below the $9-11 expected range (AMBA) :

Cisco (CSCO) and NetApp (NTAP) introduced ExpressPod, a prepackaged and tested solution for growing small and medium-sized organizations; the addition of new storage clustering capabilities to the FlexPod data center platform, and the release of a validated VMware (VMW) solution for Oracle (ORCL) Real Application Cluster on FlexPod.

Cree (CREE $24.83 +0.00) reports F1Q13 results on October 16th after market close. Based on LED demand growth and continued momentum of its lighting business, they expect results to beat Street's estimates. However, revenue guidance could be a tad light due to seasonal slowdown of LED component sales partially offset by growth of lighting sales. They expect a slight beat for F1Q on lighting growth and better LED component sales.

09:12 am Qualcomm downgraded to Neutral at DA Davidson; tgt lowered to $65: . DA Davidson downgrades QCOM to Neutral from Buy and lowers their tgt to $65 from $70. They continue to believe Qualcomm is a market leader and recognize the considerable content in the iPhone 5 and lead in LTE, they would urge a degree of caution regarding the pace of growth. With the iPhone 5 ramp already in progress, they believe the strongest catalyst has passed. They are raising their FY13 ests to reflect the higher dollar content in the iPhone. However, given the combination of mounting competition (BRCM, SPRD, RDA -- all 3 rated Buy and MediaTek) and demand pressure, they are taking a cautious approach in the near term.

10:03 am S&P Information Technology Index trading slightly higher today

The tech sector is trading just higher today, ahead of slight losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness with the SOX trading 0.3% lower. Within the chip index, NXPI (-4.8%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.2% lower today, while the QQQ is flat and the NASDAQ is trading just lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, FB (-1.9%) is showing notable weakness after a Bloomberg article out overnight detailing the SEC questioning the company's mobile growth ahead of the IPO.

In tech earnings last night, GLUU (-11.9%) reiterated Q3 guidance and issued cautious commentary on its gaming outlook. This morning, ADTN (+3.9%) posted a Q3 roughly inline with its negative preannouncement, while OCZ (-35.9%) and AVT (-8.9%) issued guidance well below consensus. ARW (-5.8%) is trading lower on the AVT news. In news, OCZ (-35.2%) appointed Ralph Schmitt as CEO and announced its delaying its 10k. Also, NFLX (+3.0%) CEO Hastings stepped down from MSFT (-0.5%) board.

In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, QLIK (+5.9%) was upgraded to Buy at UBS. Among downgrades, CNQR (-1.2%) was downgraded to Hold at Wunderlich, BAH (-2.7%) was downgraded to Sell at Lazard, SAI (-1.3%) was downgraded to Neutral at Lazard, SAP (-1.1%) was downgraded to Equal Weight at Barclays, and ZNGA (-2.3%) was downgraded to Neutral at Piper. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.