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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The major averages finished today's session on a mixed note. The Dow registered a slightly higher close while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended in the red. With today's lower close, the S&P 500 has snapped its streak of seven consecutive winning sessions.

After starting the day on a lower note, the key indices attempted to reclaim their losses. However, selling pressure manifested itself shortly thereafter, and drove equities to session lows.

The morning weakness occurred as sellers targeted cyclical stocks. Financials, industrials, and technology led the decline with financials ending as the weakest group.

The financial sector underperformed amid weakness in major bank names. Morgan Stanley (MS 22.67, -0.43) lost 1.9% while the broader SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 18.28, -0.10) slipped 0.5%. Notably, the sector led the morning decline after being one of the top performers year-to-date.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average has also acted as one of the leaders of this year's market rally. Since the start of 2013, the bellwether complex has added more than 15.0%. However, the space trailed behind the broader market today, and settled lower by 0.3%.

Transportation-related stocks also weighed on the industrial sector, which ended as one of the weakest performers. The SPDR Industrial Select Sector ETF (XLI 41.72, -0.24) shed 0.6%.

Elsewhere, the technology sector was pressured by some of its largest components. Apple (AAPL 428.43, -9.44), Google (GOOG 827.61, -7.21), and Oracle (ORCL 35.43, -0.45) all lost between 0.9% and 2.2%.

While large cap tech names lagged, there were some areas of strength. Chipmakers fared relatively well and the PHLX Semiconductor Index rose 0.4%.

With the fourth quarter earnings season drawing to a close, only several notable names have yet to report their results. This morning, Costco (COST 103.75, +1.31) beat on earnings and reported revenue in-line with its March 7 pre-announcement. The relative strength of the retailer contributed to the outperformance of the consumer staples sector.

The defensive trade appeared to be favored today as health care and telecoms finished among the day's leaders. In the health care space, Merck (MRK 45.04, +1.38) added 3.2% after a regulatory body voiced its support for Merck to continue one of its clinical trials.

With equities spending the day in the red, the 10-yr note saw steady buying interest in overnight trade with the bid spilling over into the day session. As a result, 10-yr yield slipped four basis points to 2.02%.

After ending yesterday at its lowest level since early 2007, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 12.28, +0.72) jumped over 6.0%.

Trading volume was below average as 622 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Looking at tomorrow's economic data, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00 ET. February retail sales, retail sales ex-auto, export prices ex-agriculture, and import prices ex-oil will all be announced at 8:30 ET. Finally, January business inventories will be reported at 10:00 ET and the U.S. Treasury will report its February budget at 14:00 ET.

The U.S. Treasury will also reopen $21 billion in 10-yr notes.DJ30 +2.77 NASDAQ -10.55 SP500 -3.74 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1011/1.60 bln/1444 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1244/622.4 mln/1777

3:35 pm : Commodities mostly ended today's session higher with precious metals, copper, natural gas and crude oil ending the day in positive territory. Commodities including heating oil, RBOB gasoline, soybeans and ethanol finished the day in the red.

Apr crude oil rose as high as $93.43/barrel, which was hit one hour after pit trading began, and ended the day up $0.63 at $92.51/barrel. Apr natural gas futures only rose $0.01 to $3.64/Mopped.

Precious metals consolidated in afternoon trade and finished near session highs. Apr gold rose $16.80 to $1591.90/oz and May silver gained $0.20 to $29.17/oz. Mar copper rose $0.05 to $3.55/lb.DJ30 +5.32 NASDAQ -8.98 SP500 -2.98 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1031/1405.89 /1404 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1242/424 mln/1761

12:53PM Hewlett-Packard issues statement on ISS recommendation to vote for co's 'Say on Pay' proxy proposal; says 'is pleased that ISS has changed its recommendation' (HPQ) 21.23 +0.20 : Co issued the following statement following Institutional Shareholder Services' (ISS) decision to change its recommendation and encourage shareholders to vote for HP's "Say on Pay" proxy proposal: "HP is pleased that ISS has changed its recommendation to investors and is now supporting the 'Say on Pay' proposal in our proxy statement. We continue to believe that our pay-for-performance program reflects the industry's best practices."

Ciena (CIEN) announced that Ritter Communications has deployed Ciena's packet networking and converged packet optical technologies throughout its regional fiber optic network. Co also announced that the Utah Education Network and the University of Utah have deployed Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, equipped with WaveLogic Coherent Optical Processors.

LTX-Credence (LTXC) announced that Texas Instruments (TXN) has selected the LTX-Credence Diamondx tester as its test solution for Cortex-M microcontrollers in a 65nm process.

8:33AM Advanced Micro executes purchase agreement to sell and lease-back austin campus, expected to generate ~$164 million in cash (AMD) 2.59 : Co announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell and lease-back its 'Lone Star Campus' located at 7171 Southwest Parkway in Austin, Texas to 7171 Southwest Parkway Holdings, LP, an affiliate entity of real estate investment company Spear Street Capital. Upon closing, net of all fees, the sale is expected to generate ~$164 mln in cash. The proceeds are expected to be reflected in the company's first quarter 2013 financial statements when reported on Apr. 18, 2013. At closing, AMD will enter into a 12-year lease with an extension option to continue its operations on the campus. The transaction is expected to close on or about Mar. 26, 2013.

Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC) announced significant business traction with coherent optical module suppliers, reporting that eight of the world's largest optical module manufacturers and vertically-integrated 100G systems cos are actively designing solutions based on the AppliedMicro S28032 multiplexer.
Advanced Energy Industries (AEIS) announced that its AE 75TX solar inverters have been selected by First Power and Light for a 147 kW solar energy system at the Mary Switzer Building.

Veeco Instruments (VECO) announced that the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF has purchased a GEN200 Molecular Beam Epitaxy system.
3S PHOTONICS and Finisar (FNSR) announced their formal agreement to launch a partnership for the development of a new packaging platform for 980nm cooled laser pump modules.

Seagate Technology (STX) announced it is the first hard disk drive manufacturer to ship two bln hard disk drives.

8:07AM Chipmos Technology reports Feb revs declined 5.1% y/y to NT$1,355.3 mln ($45.7 mln) (IMOS) 10.32 : The decline reflects typical seasonality in the industry related to Chinese New Year and normal customer demand patterns. The Company expects to slightly offset this typical softness with continued growth in its LCD driver and mixed-signal businesses.

11:11 am Tech Sector trading lower -0.41% today and behind the overall market
The tech sector is trading lower today, just ahead of larger losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative strength, however, with the SOX trading 0.4% higher. Within the chip index, MLNX (+6.0%) is a dragging the SOX higher. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading just lower today, while the QQQ is down 0.2% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.3% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, QCOM (+0.2%) and TXN (+0.2%) are bucking the trend, while EBAY (-1.1%) is under pressure following its latest comps.

In tech earnings last night, PWRD (-6.4%) posted a slight Q4 miss. In news, CRM (-1.9%) announced a proposed $1 bln offering of convertible senior notes due 2018. CDNS (-3.0%) announced it will acquire Tensilica for ~$380 mln in cash. The deal is expected to be slightly dilutive to non-GAAP EPS in FY13. GLUU (+19.4%) announced the availability of the company's first real-money mobile gambling offering through Probability plc in the UK. Among rumors, we are hearing NCTY () may go private. Also, LNKD (-0.5%) will buy Pulse newsreader for more than $50 mln, according to reports. Among notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, VNTV (+1.9%) was upgraded to Outperform at Raymond James and ISIL (+4.3%) was upgraded to Buy at B. Riley Caris. Among downgrades, RHT (-4.0%) was downgraded to Neutral at Citigroup, DA Davidson downgraded CDNS (-3.0%) to Neutral, AVG (-6.1%) was downgraded to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley, INFY (-1.5%) was downgraded to Negative at Susquehanna and PWRD (-6.4%) was downgraded to Neutral at Citigroup. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.

08:52 am Xoom initiated with a Buy at Needham; tgt $27: . Needham initiates XOOM with a Buy and price tgt of $27. Xoom is disrupting the legacy cash-to-cash global money transfer mkt, growing substantially faster than the traditional offline players. Firm believes Xoom offers consumers a compelling value proposition with a convenient, fast, and cost effective way to send money to 30 countries. Firm sees Xoom as a multi-year 25-30% revenue growth and margin expansion story that has the potential to deliver sustained upside surprises as it captures share from the legacy players. Despite the almost 50% jump in the stock from the IPO price, firm recommends investors BUY the stock, although it notes it would be more aggressive on pullbacks.

08:52 am Cadence Design downgraded to Neutral at DA Davidson: . DA Davidson downgrades CDNS to Neutral from Buy. Based on Tensilica's trailing 12-month revenue of $44 mln, CDNS is paying ~8x sales net of cash, a premium valuation compared to its closest peer, CEVA, trading at 4x out-year consensus EV/Sales, and higher than the 6x multiple paid for Denali in 2010. Based on Tensilica's 200 employees and an estimated annual all-in cost of $175k to $200k per employee, total operating costs are likely $35-$40 mln. More importantly, this diminishes the likelihood of CDNS initiating a dividend or meaningful stock repurchase program this year (could buy 9% of outstanding), thus removing a potential stock catalyst.

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