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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Equities began the day on a higher note, but the early strength did not hold past the opening minutes. The S&P 500 marked its session best shortly after the open, and headed lower. The morning slide was accompanied by headlines out of the Middle East, which indicated Israeli forces have killed two top Hamas officials in an operation dubbed "Pillar of Defense." After the first-hour slide, the benchmark average held near the 1,365 level until President Obama held a press conference to further discuss the fiscal cliff. During his remarks, the commander-in-chief said he is "hoping for compromise and hoping for new ideas." The president's statements failed to inspire investor confidence, thus resulting in an afternoon sell-off which saw the S&P 500 settle lower by 1.4%.

Earlier, the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its October meeting. The Committee discussed economic and policy implications from implementing various thresholds that would need to be triggered before the target Federal Funds Rate is increased. Meeting participants deliberated whether such thresholds might usefully replace, or augment the date-based guidance that had been provided in the policy statements since August 2011. Participants generally favored the use of economic variables, in place of, or in conjunction with a calendar date. However, they offered different views on whether quantitative or qualitative thresholds would be most effective. The minutes also indicated that a number of committee members believe the current asset purchasing program will need to be expanded once operation twist ends.

Technology stocks saw narrower losses than the broader market. The relative strength was largely due to a positive quarterly report from Cisco Systems (CSCO 17.66, +0.81), which beat on the bottom line, and reported revenue in-line with expectations. After reporting earnings, Cisco was upgraded at Pacific Crest to ‘outperform' from ‘sector perform.' Other networking shares also benefited from the upbeat earnings. F5 Networks (FFIV 87.50, +0.96), JDS Uniphase (JDSU 11.13, +0.18), and Juniper Networks (JNPR 17.55, +0.20) all gained between 1.1% and 1.6%.

Elsewhere in tech, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 1.93, -0.16) slid 7.7% after Reuters reported the company has hired JPMorgan Chase to explore its options, which include a possible sale.

Also of note, LinkedIn (LNKD 98.77, -0.49) fell to session lows after Facebook (FB 22.36, +2.50) announced the launch of a jobs page. The move was partially retraced and LinkedIn finished lower by 0.5%. Meanwhile, Facebook settled near its session highs on the day when another 700 million shares held by insiders became available for public trade.

Consumer discretionary stocks traded mostly in-line with the broader market. However, apparel retailers saw strength after Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF 41.92, +10.74) reported strong quarterly results. The company's shares gained 34.5% after beating earnings estimates by $0.27. In addition, the retailer's $1.17 billion in revenue also exceeded expectations. The company topped off the strong report by raising its full-year 2013 earnings guidance above consensus. Abercrombie & Fitch is now above its 200-day moving average, trading at levels last seen in the middle of May.

In the energy sector, coal stocks continued their recent weakness and the Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL 23.30, -0.48) slid 2.0%. Arch Coal (ACI 6.59, -0.44) lost 6.3% and was a notable laggard. The stock traded at its worst level in a month after testing, and being rejected by its 200-day moving average. Looking at other coal names, Alpha Natural Resources (ANR 7.27, -0.31) slid 4.1% and Peabody Energy (BTU 25.38, -0.84) fell 3.2%.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average underperformed the remaining industrials and lost 2.6%. Airlines saw considerable weakness as Delta Air Lines (DAL 9.56, -0.65) and JetBlue Airways (JBLU 4.97, -0.30) fell 6.4% and 5.8%, respectively.

In today's economic news, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index showed a 12.6% increase in new mortgage applications. This follows the prior week's 5.0% decline.

During September, inventories rose by 0.7%, which was slightly above the 0.6% increase that had been expected by the Briefing.com consensus. This follows prior month's reading of a 0.6% increase.

October retail sales declined by 0.3%, which was slightly worse than the 0.2% decrease that had been broadly expected. The prior month's reading was revised up to show an increase of 1.3%. Excluding autos, retail sales were unchanged, which was below the Briefing.com consensus, which called for a rise of 0.1%.

October producer prices declined by 0.2%, which was cooler than the 0.1% increase that had been widely forecast. Core producer prices slipped 0.2% which was lower than the Briefing.com consensus call of a 0.1% increase.

Tomorrow, weekly initial and continuing claims as well as the October CPI, core CPI, and the Empire Manufacturing Index will all be released at 8:30 ET. Lastly, the November Philadelphia Fed Survey will be reported at 10:00 ET.DJ30 -185.23 NASDAQ -37.08 SP500 -19.04 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 505/2.03 bln/1962 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 331/830.2 mln/2783

3:35 pm : Commodities ended the day mostly higher. Crude oil rallied hard earlier this morning and ultimately rose as high as $86.61/barrel. By the end of the day, Dec crude oil finished almost $1 higher at $86.32/barrel.

Natural gas futures were volatile again, surging higher this morning, but giving up most of those days later in the session. By the time floor trading closed, Dec natural gas finished 3 cents higher at $3.77/MMBtu.

Precious metals also posted a gain. Both Dec gold and Dec silver finished today's session near their session highs. Gold ended $5.60 higher at $1730.00/oz, while Dec silver ended 1% higher at $32.82/oz. Dec copper finished the day 2 cents lower at $3.45/lb.DJ30 -159.40 NASDAQ -30.99 SP500 -16.22 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 574/1670.0 mln/1885 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 380/527 mln/2710

4:42PM Agilent Technologies appoints Ron Nersesian President and Chief Operating Officer; Bill Sullivan Remains CEO (A) 36.14 -0.19 : Co announced that its board of directors has appointed Ron Nersesian Agilent president and chief operating officer, effective immediately. Nersesian has been executive vice president and chief operating officer since Nov 2011. Nersesian will continue to be responsible for Agilent's Chemical Analysis, Life Sciences, Electronic Measurement, and Agilent Order Fulfillment businesses, with the presidents of those groups reporting to him. Nersesian will continue to report to William Sullivan, who remains chief executive officer

4:32PM Texas Instruments to cut 1,700 jobs- co expects annualized savings of about $450 mln by the end of 2013; Total charges will be about $325 mln, most of which will be accounted for in the current quarter; Co's current Q4 outlook did not comprehend these restructuring charges (TXN) 28.76 -0.62 : Co announced it will reduce costs and focus investments in its Wireless business on embedded markets with greater potential for sustainable growth. Cost reductions include the elimination of about 1,700 jobs worldwide.

TI previously outlined intentions to focus its OMAP processors and wireless connectivity solutions on a broader set of embedded applications with long life cycles, instead of its historical focus on the mobile market where large customers are increasingly developing their own custom chips. These changes require fewer resources and less investment. "We have a great opportunity to reshape our OMAP processor and wireless connectivity product lines to concentrate on embedded markets. Momentum is already building with new embedded applications and a broad set of customers, and we are accelerating our efforts in these areas," said Greg Delagi, senior vice president of Embedded Processing.

As a result of these actions, the co expects annualized savings of about $450 million by the end of 2013. Total charges will be about $325 million, most of which will be accounted for in the current quarter. TI's Q4 outlook, published on Oct 22, did not comprehend these restructuring charges.

Micron Technology (MU) and AgigA Tech, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor (CY) have signed an agreement to collaborate to develop and offer nonvolatile DIMM products.

7:08AM Tessera Tech subsidiary DigitalOptics will focus its efforts on its core MEMS camera module business; actions could result in annualized op expense savings of $15-18 million by Q2 2013 (TSRA) 14.08 : Tessera Technologies, announced its wholly owned subsidiary, DigitalOptics Corporation will focus its efforts on its core MEMS camera module business, which targets the large and growing mobile phone market. DOC plans to reduce its workforce - not including those related to manufacturing operations in Zhuhai, China - by up to 40%. These actions could result in annualized operating expense savings of between $15 million and $18 million by the second quarter of 2013. DOC anticipates that the staff reductions and facility dispositions will be spread over the next two to three quarters to ensure continuity in the business as well as compliance with relevant legal requirements. In connection with these actions, the Company expects to incur charges of ~$4 million to$5 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 and $1 million to $2 million in the first quarter of 2013, not including any tax related charges or potential charges associated with the disposition of the Charlotte facility.

6:31AM Universal Display approves program to repurchase up to $50 mln of the co's outstanding shares of common stock over the next twelve months (PANL) 23.65 : The stock repurchase program will be funded using the company's working capital. As of September 30, 2012, the company had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of approximately $239 million. As of November 2, 2012, the company had 46,507,390 shares of common stock outstanding.

6:21AM ASML confirmed earlier that none of its creditors has opposed the capital repayment which forms part of the Customer Co-Investment Program announced on July 9, 2012 (ASML) 54.80 : ASML will proceed with the cash capital repayment of EUR 9.18 per ordinary share and the consolidation of outstanding ordinary shares (the reverse stock split) in a ratio of 77 shares for every 100 shares and confirms that the ex-entitlement date will be 26 Nov 2012, the record date will be 28 Nov 2012 and the cash capital repayment will be made on 3 December 2012. Holders of New York shares will receive the cash capital repayment in U.S. dollars at an exchange rate that will be determined on 27 Nov 2012. Shares issued to the three Stichtingen for participating customers under the Customer Co-investment Program will not participate in this Synthetic Buyback.

Research In Motion (RIMM) announced BBM version 7, a free update for the globally popular mobile social network, which will allow customers to make free voice calls to other BBM customers around the world over a Wi-Fi connection

RF Micro Devices (RFMD) announced the availability of the RFFM6903 front end module.

Cisco Systems (CSCO) reported first quarter earnings of $0.48 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.46, while revenues rose 5.5% year/year to $11.88 billion versus the $11.78 bln consensus. Cash flows from operations were $2.5 billion for Q1, compared with $2.3 billion for 1Q12, and compared with $3.1 billion for 4Q12. Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $45.0 billion at the end of Q1, compared with $48.7 billion at the end of 4Q12. Cisco repurchased 15 million shares of common stock under the stock repurchase program at an average price of $16.44 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $253 million. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under this program is approximately $5.6 billion with no termination date.

Zynga (ZNGA) reaffirmed its 2012 financial outlook set forth in its press release issued on October 24, 2012 relating to its third quarter 2012 financial results. The company also announced executive appointments: Mark Vranesh, chief accounting officer, has been appointed CFO.

Facebook (FB) Cantor Fitzgerald notes, this morning, 852 million Facebook shares (approximately 35% of outstanding shares) will be available for sale into the public market, consisting of 804 mln shares off lock-up and options to purchase 48.3M shares. Importantly, these shares are primarily from ex-employees and institutions that did not participate in the IPO, not from officers and directors of the company. That said, the firm recommends patient investors take advantage of the market dislocation that's likely to ensue between now and year-end to accumulate the stock.