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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : Equities ended today's quiet session on a mixed note as the S&P 500 shed 0.1% while the Nasdaq added 0.3%.

Stocks began in the red after Japan's second quarter GDP report (0.6% actual, 0.9% forecast) missed expectations. Another piece of news out of Asia indicated the People's Bank of China could lower the reserve requirement ratio for small to mid-sized banks. Both items were perceived as beneficial to precious metals with Japan's below-consensus growth leaving the door open to further monetary easing while news from China discussed outright easing.

Gold futures advanced 1.8% while silver futures surged 4.6%, causing the precious metals to end at $1335.70 and $21.34 per troy ounce, respectively. In turn, miners rallied broadly as the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 28.01, +1.54) spiked 5.8%. However, the outperformance of miners was not enough to keep the materials sector (-0.2%) out of the red.

Similarly, most other growth-oriented sectors registered losses. Industrials and technology were the only exceptions as the two groups added 0.1% and 0.7%, respectively.

The industrial sector advanced as machinery producers and transportation companies displayed strength. Caterpillar (CAT 86.32, +1.81) rose 2.1%, and the Dow Jones Transportation Average tacked on 0.2%.

Elsewhere, the tech sector ended in the lead, contributing to the outperformance of the Nasdaq. The top-weighted sector (and index) component, Apple (AAPL 467.36, +12.91), settled higher by 2.8% following an International Trade Commission decision to issue an import and sale ban on some Samsung devices after the company infringed on Apple patents.

Remaining in the tech sector, BlackBerry (BBRY 10.78, +1.02) was another notable outperformer after the company said it has begun exploring strategic alternatives.

The solid gains in technology helped the S&P climb off its early lows, but the index was unable to close in the green. However, small caps outperformed as the Russell 2000 advanced 0.5%.

Treasuries were confined to a narrow range and the benchmark 10-yr yield slipped three basis points to 2.61%.

As mentioned earlier, participation was lacking as only 586 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Today's economic data was limited to the July Treasury budget, which showed a deficit of $97.6 billion following a deficit of $69.6 billion in July 2012. Since the Treasury data are not seasonally adjusted, the data cannot be compared with the June level. The Briefing.com consensus expected the budget to show a deficit of $96 billion.

The Congressional Budget Office released their budget preview last week and predicted a shortfall of $96 billion. The market is well aware of the CBO's forecast and the reaction to the budget data is limited.

Tomorrow, July retail sales, export prices ex-agriculture, and import prices ex-oil will all be reported at 8:30 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of June business inventories.DJ30 -5.83 NASDAQ +9.84 SP500 -1.95 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1431/1.37 bln/1087 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1629/585.8 mln/1384

3:30 pm :

Sep crude oil erased earlier losses as investors reacted to supply concerns in Libya. The energy component climbed into positive territory after trading as low as $105.03 per barrel in morning pit trade. It touched a session high of $106.46 per barrel and settled with a 0.1% gain at $106.11 per barrel.
Sep natural gas advanced to a session high of $3.36 per MMBtu but pulled back in afternoon action. It settled 2.5% higher at $3.31 per MMBtu, just above its session low of $3.30 per MMBtu.
Precious metals rose today despite a stronger dollar index.
Dec gold advanced for a fourth consecutive session, trading as high as $1343.70 per ounce. It settled at $1334.60 per ounce, booking a 1.7% gain.
Sep silver rose from a session low of $20.90 per ounce and settled with a solid 4.6% gain at $21.34 per ounce.

3:04PM Apple working back toward session high at 468.20, its 200 ema is at 468.40 with its six month close high from last week is at 469.45 (AAPL) 468.04 +13.59 : Note that its 200 day sma and six month intraday high from last week come into play at 471.06/471.89.

11:05AM VIX trends lower despite softness in broader market (VXX) 14.53 -0.07 : The VIX (-0.49, 12.92) is trading lower despite weakness in the broad markets. Since the VIX typically trades with an inverse correlation to the equity market, the weakness in both the VIX and equities stood out today.

On Friday, the VIX was trading slightly higher around mid-day, but rose around 4% during the afternoon as the equity market sold off. Equities continued to see weakness this morning and the VIX traded higher at the open as a result. However, the VIX has since given up initial gains and is now lower by 0.56 as equities have rebounded (essentially giving up the late Friday gain in VIX). The VIX is now back where it was mid-day Friday, while the S&P 500 is about 4 points below where it was at that time. With the end of earnings season and summer doldrums setting in, the lower VIX may just be an illustration of expectations for a quiet market over the very near term.

With only four trading days left to expiration, Aug VIX futures are nearly trading at parity with VIX cash, while Sept trades at a healthy 2.2 point premium; term structure has flattened from last week.

11:00AM Agilent and SomaLogic enter agreement to expand access to proteomic technology (A) 46.26 +0.04 : Co and SomaLogic Inc. (a privately held biotechnology company) announced that they have entered into an agreement to expand access to SomaLogic's unbiased protein biomarker discovery platform. The companies will initially place SomaLogic's SOMAscan proteomic assay, which employs custom Agilent microarrays in its workflow, in select academic and contract research centers. Although the SOMAscan assay is already available to researchers directly from SomaLogic as a service, this planned roll-out is aimed at meeting the rapidly growing demand for access to SomaLogic's highly multiplexed, cost-effective proteomic analyses. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Nanometrics (NANO) announced that SK hynix has realized significant process control improvement by deploying the Atlas II platform for optical critical dimension metrology across its memory device production.

Rambus (RMBS) announced that the co's 60 watt equivalent A19 LED bulb has gained provisional ENERGY STAR certification.

SanDisk (SNDK) announced that its strategic investment arm, SanDisk Ventures, has invested in Tegile Systems. Specific financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.

In company-specific news, BlackBerry (BBRY 10.49, +0.73) is higher by 7.5% after the company said it has begun exploring strategic alternatives.

Viking Technology, a division of Sanmina (SANM), announced that SolidFire has selected its SATADIMM SSD as both the cache SSD and boot volume SSD for their storage nodes.

Silicom (SILC) has been awarded two Design Wins from a new customer in the Traffic Management and Policy Enforcement Industry. The co expects the revs from these Design Wins to reach ~ $1 mln per year.

11:04 am Technology
The tech sector is trading higher today, ahead of modest losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing strength as well with the SOX trading 0.3% higher. Within the chip index, SUNE (+2.2%) is a notable standout.

Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.2% lower today, while the QQQ is up 0.2% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.1% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+1.9%) is showing notable strength, while FB (-0.8%) is under pressure.This morning in earnings, PERI (-10.4%) missed by $0.07, missed on revs; guided Q3 revs below consensus; reaffirmed FY13 guidance. In news, BBRY (+5.0%) announced that its Board of Directors has formed a Special Committee to explore strategic alternatives to enhance value and increase scale in order to accelerate BlackBerry 10 deployment. These alternatives could include, among others, possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions.In rumors, AAPL (+1.9%) will host an iPhone event on Sept. 10, according to reports.

Among notable analyst upgrades in tech this morning, FFIV (+3.4%) was upgraded to Overweight at Barclays, Needham upgraded LNKD (+2.0%) to Buy, Baird upgraded NTAP (+0.5%) to Neutral, and TMUS (+0.1%) was upgraded to Perform at Oppenheimer. In downgrades, BRCM (-0.6%) was downgraded to Neutral at Goldman, JNPR (-1.6%) was downgraded to Sector Perform at RBC, and YOKU (-1.6%) was downgraded to Hold at Deutsche Bank. SINA (+1.4%) is only the notable name in tech scheduled to report after the close.

Needham lowers its Apple (AAPL) tgt to $595 from $710 to reflect a more hostile competitive environment since our previous valuation report in February. The decrease in Apple's fair value extended across all major operating segments. The largest percentage decline-42.3%--was in the Mac segment as the negative impact of tablets on PC sales became increasingly apparent in the first half of the calendar year. The iPad experienced the next largest decline-37.2%--to reflect the decline in the average selling price of iPads as buyers shifted from the 10 inch to the lower margin 8-inch model. The value of the iPhone declined 15.4%, reflecting a more competitive global environment. Expectations for the iPhone are in a sense binary. If Apple continues with a single high-end model, the iPhone's market share is likely to decline further.

Needham upgraded Linkedin (LNKD) to Buy from Hold and sets target price at $280, given several unexploited growth opportunities. They are most encouraged by the roll out of sponsored updates, which should drive incremental advertising revenue, particularly mobile advertising. They believe mobile is critical tool driving further member engagement, which they believe LinkedIn is well positioned. Looking towards the future, they expect improved international monetization and deeper penetration into specific verticals to drive long-term growth.