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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The S&P 500 ended lower by 1.2% after European concerns returned to the forefront. Equities began the day with a broad sell-off as a downbeat European trade weighed. Italian and Spanish indices were the source of continent-wide weakness as controversy continued to plague the troubled sovereigns.

In Italy the MIB lost 4.5% as authorities continue to investigate several financials, including the world's oldest bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Today, five of eight banks listed on the Italian MIB experienced trading halts amid the selloff. However, Monte Paschi was not one of affected names.

Meanwhile, Spain's IBEX fell 3.8% as 34 of 35 listings ended in the red. The markets were rattled as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other members of the People's Party find themselves in the middle of an alleged kickback scheme uncovered by Spain's largest daily newspaper, El Pais. Recent days have seen Mr. Rajoy face resignation calls from opposition leaders as well as Spanish citizens.

European financials saw notable selling pressure with the weakness spilling over to their U.S. counterparts. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 17.41, -0.20) slipped 1.1% with Bank of America (BAC 11.48, -0.23) and Morgan Stanley (MS 22.88, -0.63) as two of the weakest majors. The pair saw respective losses of 2.0% and 2.7%.

In addition to financials, the tech sector was one of the day's biggest laggards. The largest sector component, Apple (AAPL 442.32, -11.30) underperformed, and lost 2.5%. Including today's loss, Apple is the weakest S&P 500 performer year-to-date. The computer company has lost 16.8% since the start of 2013.

3:30 pm :

Mar crude oil fell deeper into negative territory as a strong dollar index and renewed concerns over the European debt crisis put pressure on prices. The energy component brushed a session low of $95.89 per barrel and settled with a 1.6% loss at $96.18 per barrel.
Mar natural gas climbed up to a session high of $3.35 per MMBtu but retreated towards the unchanged line in afternoon floor trade. It eventually settled with a 0.6% gain at $3.32 per MMBtu.
Apr gold lifted off its session low of $1661.80 per ounce set in morning action and broke into positive territory about two hours later. It continued to inch higher in afternoon action despite strength in the dollar index. The yellow metal settled 0.3% higher at $1676.30 per once, just below its session high of $1678.60 per ounce.
Mar silver, on the other hand, lost momentum as it headed into afternoon floor trade. It pulled-back from its session high of $31.92 per ounce and settled 0.7% lower at $31.72 per ounce.

4:37PM Advanced Energy reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS, revs above consensus (AEIS) 15.15 -0.49 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.16 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.16; revenues rose 0.4% year/year to $113 mln vs the $111.41 mln consensus.

Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.14-0.18, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.12 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $105-115 mln vs. $100.30 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"Demand for our large scale inverters in the North American market remains strong, and we continue to look at expansion opportunities. In our Thin Films business, we are beginning to see signs that point to recovery in some of our markets as the year progresses. Together, these market conditions position us well for 2014, as we remain committed to our 2014 aspirational goals and actively pursue both organic and inorganic opportunities."

4:14PM Power Integrations beats by $0.05, beats on revs; guides Q1 revs in-line (POWI) 38.18 +0.11 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.47 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.42; revenues rose 18.7% year/year to $79.2 mln vs the $74.27 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $76-82 mln vs. $75.89 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:07PM SunPower renews partnership with Non-Profit GRID Alternatives (SPWR) 7.68 -0.15 : Co announced that it is renewing its supplier partnership with GRID Alternatives. Under terms of the agreement, SunPower is providing GRID Alternatives with its high efficiency solar panels through a combination of donations and fair market value sales. The renewed commitment will bring solar technology to underserved communities across California and Colorado, generating approximately $4.8 million in energy savings over a 30-year life of the solar power systems. In addition, the partnership will provide thousands of hands-on training opportunities for job seekers through GRID's volunteer-based installation model.

4:07PM Rudolph Tech misses by $0.02, misses on revs (RTEC) 13.36 -0.40 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.17 per share, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.19; revenues rose 24.5% year/year to $54.3 mln vs the $56.94 mln consensus.

*Gross margin was 53% and cash from operations totaled $22.1 mln.

4:01PM MagnaChip Semi announces proposed secondary offering of 5,000,000 shares of common stock by stockholders (MX) 15.81 -0.11 : Co announced that, subject to market conditions, certain of its stockholders (the "selling stockholders") intend to offer and sell 5,000,000 shares of MagnaChip's common stock in an underwritten registered public offering. In addition, the selling stockholders intend to grant the underwriters of the common stock an option to purchase an additional 750,000 shares of common stock. MagnaChip will not receive any proceeds from the sale of its common stock by the selling stockholders. Barclays Capital Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and UBS Securities LLC will act as joint book-running managers for the proposed offering. Needham & Company, LLC will act as co-manager.

TranSwitch (TXCC) announced that the co's HDplay TXC-44146 transceiver has been designed into Acto's new high definition projector models DX9100 and DW9100.

9:21AM NXP Semi announces selling shareholders price secondary offering of 30 mln shares of its common stock at $30.35 per share (NXPI) 30.76 :

9:20AM Jabil Circuit to acquire Nypro for $665 mln; transaction is expected to be neutral to slightly accretive to core EPS for the balance of fiscal 2013 and accretive to EPS on both a core and GAAP basis in fiscal 2014. (JBL) 19.36 : Co announced an agreement to acquire Nypro, a provider of manufactured precision plastic products for customers in the Healthcare, Packaging and Consumer Electronics industries, with over $1 billion in total annual revenues. The total purchase price is expected to be $665 million, subject to certain adjustments, and is expected to be funded from Jabil's existing cash and credit facilities. The transaction is expected to be neutral to slightly accretive to Jabil's core earnings per share for the balance of fiscal 2013 and accretive to earnings per share on both a core and GAAP basis in fiscal 2014.
9:02AM Cree appoints Mike McDevitt Chief Financial Officer (CREE) 43.94 : Co announces the appointment of Mike McDevitt as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. McDevitt brings more than two decades of finance and operations leadership and has served as Vice President and Interim CFO of the company since May 22, 2012. Prior to his appointment as Interim CFO, McDevitt held several key leadership roles at Cree including Director of Sales Operations from 2011-2012, Director of Financial Planning from 2005-2011 and Corporate Controller from 2002-2005.

Vishay Intertechnology (VSH) announced that Chilisin Electronics, together with its related cos, has entered into a worldwide, non-exclusive license agreement with Vishay for the right to manufacture, have manufactured, use, sell, offer for sale, distribute, import, and export high-current, molded power chokes / inductors under Vishay's patents.

6:18AM NXP Semi announces registered secondary offering of 30 mln shares of common stock by selling shareholders (NXPI) 30.76 : Co announced that certain of its principal stockholders, including affiliates of funds managed or advised by AlpInvest Partners B.V., Apax Partners, Bain Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Technology Management, have commenced a registered secondary offering of 30 mln shares of common stock pursuant to NXP's shelf registration statement on Form F-3. NXP will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares in the offering. Barclays and Credit Suisse are acting as joint bookrunning managers for the offering.

08:08 am Cisco Systems target raised to $24 at Oppenheimer: . Oppenheimer raises their CSCO tgt to $24 from $22 ; based on channel checks, they see upside to Cisco's January quarter and a solid pipeline building into 3Q13. Cisco's core routing/switching business is holding against a challenging macro and UCS momentum continues. They did pick up increased competition in low-end switching but believe Cisco's presence in WLAN could turn the table long-term. And opposite last quarter, they detect improving US demand while Europe remains mixed. Supply chain results signal well for networking/storage and while IT spending is slower, the bar is low enough for Cisco to clear. They remain bullish on Cisco's renewed focus, growing software revenue and integrated data center approach.

08:08 am Procera Networks initiated with a Buy at Needham; tgt $25: . Needham initiates PKT with a Buy and price target of $25. PKT is trading at 33x CY13E, but only 21.5x EV/E in a market where there are some beat up valuations. They note Procera and Allot (ALLT) are rapidly gaining share in the DPI systems market from the integrated router vendors such as CSCO , ALU and ERIC. However, the Operating Margins in the estimates are in the mid teens and normal margins in this category are in the 25% plus vicinity. To be clear, results can be lumpy Q-Q and margins volatile, but they think expanding margins will drive the stock higher and provide upside to estimates.