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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Equities ended today's session on their lows as global growth concerns reemerged. The three major indices all lost 0.9%, but the underperformance of small cap stocks was notable as the Russell 2000 slid 2.5%.

Although most markets across the globe were closed in observance of Labor Day, some countries continued reporting their economic data.

China reminded investors of its importance to the global economy as the decline in the country's Manufacturing PMI (50.6 actual, 50.9 prior, 51.0 consensus) along with a disappointing U.S. ISM Index (50.7 actual, 51.3 prior, 51.0 consensus) pressured commodities and commodity-related sectors.

As a result, energy and materials both ended with losses near 1.7%. Crude oil settled lower by 2.7% at $90.95 after today's inventory report revealed that crude stockpiles climbed to 6.696 million barrels, a record high dating back to 1982 when the Energy Information Administration began tracking the data.

Meanwhile, the materials sector declined throughout the day as related metals sold off. Gold futures fell 1.1% to $1455.90 per troy ounce after being down as much as 2.1% intraday. Meanwhile, copper was unable to bounce off its lows as the red metal declined 3.8% to $3.068 per pound.

The relative weakness of gold pressured miners as the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 29.65, -0.71) settled lower by 2.3%. Steelmakers also displayed weakness throughout the day, and the Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 41.56, -0.87) slumped 1.9%. Disappointing manufacturing data from China and the U.S. weighed on the group, and Alcoa's (AA 8.43, -0.07) announcement of a possible curtailment of its smelting capacity reflected the sluggish global growth.

Concerns regarding economic health also pressured industrial shares, and specifically, the Dow Jones Transportation Average. The bellwether complex was one of the leaders of the first-quarter market rally. However, the sector underperformed last month, ending April with a loss of 1.2%.

The 20-stock complex kicked off the month on a cautious note as 18 components ended with losses of at least 1.0% while the Transportation Average slid 2.3%.

Stocks saw a brief afternoon bounce when the Federal Open Market Committee released its latest policy statement, which did not contain any groundbreaking news.

As expected, the FOMC maintained its purchasing program at $85 billion per month, and kept its target Federal Funds Rate steady at 0-0.25%. The central bank also reiterated its goal of staying true to the current policy course until the unemployment rate declines to 6.5%.

Today's statement did contain an explicit mention of a possible increase or decrease to the purchase program. However, this wasn't "new" as prior statements from the Fed have already allowed for the possibility of modifications to the program.

Looking back at the day's remaining economic data, total construction spending fell 1.7% in March after increasing an upwardly revised 1.5% (from 1.2%) in February. The Briefing.com consensus expected construction spending to increase 0.5%.

Most of the decline was the result of weaker public construction spending. That sector declined 4.1% in March after increasing 1.5% in February. This drop helps explain why government spending fell substantially in the first quarter GDP report.

Investors will receive a full slate of economic data tomorrow with the April Challenger Job Cuts Report set to kick things off at 7:30 ET. Weekly initial claims, preliminary first quarter productivity, first quarter unit labor costs, and the March trade balance will all be released at 8:30 ET.

Also of note, the European Central Bank will release its latest interest rate decision with many expecting a 25 basis point rate cut from 0.75% to 0.50%.DJ30 -138.85 NASDAQ -29.66 SP500 -14.87 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 541/1.8 bln/1950 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 841/721.1 mln/2182

3:30 pm :

June crude oil extended yesterday's losses as a larger-than-anticipated build in inventories weighed on prices. The Dept of Energy reported that for the week ending Apr 26, crude oil inventories had a build of 6.696 mln barrels when consensus called for a build of 1.05 mln barrels. The energy component dipped to a session low of $90.11per barrel as it headed into afternoon floor trade and eventually settled with a 2.6% loss at $91.00 per barrel.
June natural gas rose to a session high of $4.44 per MMBtu in morning pit action but lost steam as the session progressed. It retreated into negative territory in the last hour of floor trade and settled 0.2% lower at $4.33 per MMBtu.
June gold fell deeper into negative territory in today's floor trade ahead of the FOMC statement. The yellow metal retreated from its session high of $1467.50 per ounce and spent most of afternoon action trading near the $1445 per ounce level. It eventually settled with a 1.8% loss at $1445.70 per ounce. Prices inched higher in electronic trade following the FOMC decision to maintain its monthly asset purchase program at $85 bln but are still down 1.1%.
July silver also traded lower today. It pulled back from its session high of $23.92 per ounce and dipped as low as $23.21 per ounce in late morning action. Unable to erase much of the loss, it settled 3.5% lower at $23.33 per ounce.

5:57PM Texas Instruments prices $1.0 bln in investment grade notes (TXN) 36.41 +0.20 : Co announced the pricing of two series of senior unsecured notes for an aggregate principal amount of $1.0 billion. The notes consist of the following: $500 million of 1.00% notes due May 1, 2018 and $500 million of 2.25% notes due May 1, 2023. TI expects to use the net proceeds of this offering for repayment of outstanding debt. The offering is expected to close May 8, 2013. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., and Mizuho Securities USA Inc. are serving as joint book-running managers for the offering.

4:47PM Integrated Silicon beats by $0.05, beats on revs; guides JunQ EPS below consensus, revs in-line (ISSI) 8.73 -0.44 : Reports Q2 (Mar) earnings of $0.21 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.16; revenues rose 20.0% year/year to $75.0 mln vs the $73.0 mln consensus. Co issues guidance for Q3 (Jun), sees EPS of $0.20-0.24, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.25 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $76-81 mln vs. $78.5 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:30PM AXT misses by $0.01, beats on revs (AXTI) 2.75 -0.12 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.08 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.07); revenues fell 4.6% year/year to $22.4 mln vs the $20.26 mln consensus.

4:29PM Newport misses by $0.11, misses on revs (NEWP) 14.65 -0.50 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.16 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.11 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.27; revenues fell 15.6% year/year to $132.6 mln vs the $138.16 mln consensus.

"Based on input from our customers, we expect conditions in several end markets to improve during the course of 2013, resulting in increased sales in the second half of the year. In Q2 of 2013, we expect sales to be slightly higher than Q1 level, based on our current backlog and the anticipated market improvement. As a result, we also expect slight sequential increases in our non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the second quarter of 2013. In parallel, our long-term growth initiatives continue to gain momentum, and we are confident that these will enable us to accelerate our growth rate in future years."

4:26PM FormFactor beats by $0.05, beats on revs (FORM) 4.96 +0.01 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.13 per share, ex-items, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.18); revenues rose 51.1% year/year to $52.6 mln vs the $51.68 mln consensus.

"Our overall business improved as we moved through Q1, primarily driven by increased demand for our memory probe cards," said Tom St. Dennis, CEO of FormFactor. "Q1 was also the first full quarter of MicroProbe's contributions to our financial results and we made substantial progress integrating the MicroProbe business, which is helping us capture certain synergies earlier than anticipated."

4:23PM Atmel reports EPS in-line, beats on revs (ATML) 6.48 -0.19 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.03 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.03; revenues fell 8.0% year/year to $329.1 mln vs the $321.24 mln consensus. "Improving business conditions, a healthier backlog, and our strong product portfolio provide us increased confidence moving forward this year," said Steve Laub, Atmel's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are making good progress enhancing our cost structure which we expect to materially benefit our long-term margin profile."

4:19PM Seagate Tech beats by $0.10, beats on revs (STX) 36.94 +0.24 : Reports Q3 (Mar) earnings of $1.26 per share, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.16; revenues fell 20.8% year/year to $3.53 bln vs the $3.39 bln consensus.

"Seagate's operational results this quarter again reflect strong execution... The continued advancement of cloud, mobile and open source computing are trends that are shifting data volumes toward personal and corporate cloud environments, creating tremendous opportunities for Seagate's leading storage technology portfolio. Looking ahead, our top priorities are focused on the efficiency of our operations, extending our leadership in storage technology innovation and returning value to shareholders."

4:09PM JDS Uniphase misses by $0.01, misses on revs; guides Q4 revs below consensus (JDSU) 12.52 -0.98 : Reports Q3 (Mar) earnings of $0.10 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.11; revenues rose 0.5% year/year to $405.3 mln vs the $417.49 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $420-440 mln vs. $447.23 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"The March quarter experienced delayed carrier capex budget releases resulting in lower revenue than expected in our Communications Test and Measurement and Optical Communications businesses. Despite the revenue challenges, the JDSU team delivered solid results in most areas of the business. Our innovation engine and product portfolio align well with our customers' strategic priorities, enabled by healthy cash generation and our strong balance sheet."

8:03AM IPG Photonics misses by $0.03, misses on revs; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs in-line (IPGP) 63.57 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.67 per share, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.70; revenues rose 15.2% year/year to $141.9 mln vs the $150.18 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.72-0.82 vs. $0.78 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $155-165 mln vs. $162.10 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
"The fundamentals that drive our business remain intact with strong order flow and sequentially improving margins. We are continuing to develop new industry-leading products and applications which should generate future growth. The core materials processing applications continue to drive growth as they gain significant market share from legacy technologies. Our scale, technological and cost advantages drive customer acceptance and make IPG the top choice for many laser processing applications. Our guidance for the second quarter takes into consideration these improving dynamics."

8:02AM O2Micro beats by $0.01, misses on revs (OIIM) 3.42 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.17 per share, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.18); revenues fell 41.8% year/year to $17.3 mln vs the $17.7 mln consensus.

12:52AM Amkor appoints Steve Kelly as CEO (AMKR) 4.24 : Co announces that Stephen Kelley has been appointed to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director of the co, effective May 8. Kelley succeeds Ken Joyce, who previously announced his intention to retire. Kelley's appointment follows a comprehensive, six month search process conducted by the Board of Directors with the professional assistance of a global executive recruiting firm. Most recently, Kelley served as Chief Executive Officer of Scio Diamond Technology Corporation, an industrial diamond technology company.

Cray (CRAY) reported first quarter loss of $0.23 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ consensus of ($0.24), while revenues fell 29.2% year/year to $79.5 million vs the $70.33 million consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of "roughly $80 million" vs. $87.50 million Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co issues in-line guidance for FY13, sees FY13 revs of "approximately $500 million" vs. $498.17 million Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.