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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The S&P 500 settled lower by 0.5% after broad-based selling persisted throughout the session.

Equities were confined to a downtrend from the open, and even the news of the first expansionary eurozone GDP reading in 18 months could not spark a bid.

Nine of ten sectors registered losses while technology posted a fractional gain of 0.01%.

The tech sector climbed into the lead early this afternoon as Apple (AAPL 498.50, +8.93) advanced 1.8% after Omega Advisors disclosed having a position in the stock. The relative strength of the largest sector component overshadowed the underperformance of chipmakers. The PHLX Semiconductor Index lost 1.6%.

While technology was able to end in the green, the materials sector shed 0.2% after spending the majority of the session in positive territory. Gold miners made a significant contribution to the sector's outperformance as the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 28.70, +1.51) spiked 5.6%. On a related note, gold futures climbed 1.1% to $1334.60 per troy ounce.

Outside of materials and technology, only energy (-0.4%), financials (-0.4%), and telecom services (-0.2%) ended slightly ahead of the broader market. Meanwhile, several influential sectors weighed. Health care (-0.8%), consumer staples (-0.7%), consumer discretionary (-1.1%), and industrials (-0.8%) lagged.

Notably, industrials slumped amid weakness in transportation-related companies. The Dow Jones Transportation Average fell 0.8% as 16 of 20 components ended in the red.

The discretionary sector was another significant laggard. Retailers registered losses and Macy's (M 46.33, -2.17) fell 4.5% after missing on earnings and revenue. In addition, the company lowered its full-year 2014 earnings guidance below consensus.

Home builders also contributed to the sector's underperformance. The iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB 20.81, -0.46) lost 1.9% to widen its August decline to 6.6%.

Elsewhere, treasuries were trapped in a narrow range, and the benchmark 10-yr yield shed one basis point to end at 2.71%.

Below-average volume was the story once again as only 622 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Today's economic news was limited to just two data points.

July PPI was unchanged (0.3% Briefing.com consensus) while core PPI ticked up 0.1% (0.2% Briefing.com consensus). The halting aspect of the report is that the lack of inflation pressure isn't really indicative of an economy that is gaining momentum. The PPI report is a data point that the Fed could view as a reason to hold off on tapering in September.

Separately, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index remained in a downtrend as today's 4.7% fall marked the twelfth decline out of the past fourteen readings.

Tomorrow, weekly initial claims, July CPI, core CPI, and August Empire Manufacturing will all be reported at 8:30 ET. June net long-term TIC flows will be released at 9:00 ET while July industrial production and capacity utilization will be reported at 9:15 ET. The busy day of data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of the August Philadelphia Fed Survey and the NAHB Housing Market Index.DJ30 -113.35 NASDAQ -15.17 SP500 -8.77 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1034/1.55 bln/1443 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 976/621.8 mln/2046

3:30 pm :

Sep crude oil spent most of today's pit trade in negative territory, touching a session low of $105.60 per barrel. The dip came despite inventory data that showed a draw of 2.812 mln barrels when a smaller draw of 1.5 mln barrels was anticipated. However, the energy component managed to erase the earlier losses as it headed into the close and settled 0.1% higher at $106.86 per barrel.
Sep natural gas traded higher in a fairly tight range between $3.33 and $3.38 per MMBtu. It eventually settled 1.5% higher at $3.34 per MMBtu.
Precious metals rose today as the dollar index traded in negative territory.
Dec gold came off its session low of 1318.40 per ounce and settled with a 0.9% gain at $1333.10 per ounce, or just below its session high of $1334.90 per ounce.
Sep silver lifted off its session low of $21.42 per ounce and booked a 2.1% gain as it closed at $21.78 per ounce.

4:30PM Motorola Solutions names Gino Bonanotte as acting Chief Financial Officer (MSI) 57.71 -0.13 : Co announced that Gino A. Bonanotte has been named acting chief financial officer. Bonanotte, 48, will report to Chairman and CEO Greg Brown and will replace Ed Fitzpatrick, who will be leaving the company. The company has initiated a search for a permanent CFO and is targeting to complete that process by the close of 2013. Bonanotte, previously corporate vice president overseeing financial operations for the company's sales and product operations organization, joined Motorola in 1988.

4:11PM Agilent beats by $0.06, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs below consensus (A) 46.51 -0.41 : Reports Q3 (Jul) earnings of $0.68 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.62; net revenues fell 4.1% year/year to $1.65 bln vs the $1.64 bln consensus.

Co issues guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.75-0.77, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.76 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $1.70-1.72 bln vs. $1.73 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Co reported orders of $1.60 bln down 4% YoY.

"Although we are operating in a very challenging economic environment, we are pleased with our operational performance, as we continue to make progress improving our manufacturing efficiency and streamlining our expense structure. The result has been better than forecasted operating margins."

4:08PM Cisco Systems beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line (CSCO) 26.38 +0.06 : Reports Q4 (Jul) earnings of $0.52 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.51; revenues rose 6.2% year/year to $12.42 bln vs the $12.41 bln consensus.

Cash flows from operations were $4.0 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, compared with $3.1 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2013, and compared with $3.1 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012.

Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $50.6 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, compared with $47.4 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2013, and compared with $48.7 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012.

Cisco repurchased ~47 million shares of common stock under the stock repurchase program at an average price of $24.80 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $1.2 billion.

4:03PM NetApp beats by $0.04, misses on revs; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs in-line (NTAP) 42.33 +0.04 : Reports Q1 (Jul) earnings of $0.53 per share, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.49; revenues rose 4.9% year/year to $1.52 bln vs the $1.53 bln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.60-0.65 vs. $0.63 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $1.56-1.66 bln vs. $1.62 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
"NetApp delivered solid results and innovation with the latest release to our clustered Data ONTAP operating system... Despite an uneven macro environment, our branded business was strong, with 9% year-over-year growth. This is evidence of the tremendous value we are delivering to customers today and their confidence in our long-term strategy to enable them to navigate the future."

Large Cap Gainers

NEM (31.92 +6.12%): Strengh in gold companies: ABX, GG also higher
WY (27.89 +3.33%): Wall Street Journal reporting that prospective bidders submitted expressions of interest in a deal for the company's home-building unit
BBY (31.86 +3.24%): Target raised to $38 from $30 at Barclays; mantioned positively by Jim Cramer

Large Cap Losers

M (46.49 -4.14%): Missed quarterly EPS by $0.06 ($0.72 vs $0.78 estimate, revs fell 0.8% yoy to $6.07 bln vs $6.25 bln estimate; sees FY14 EPS of $3.80-3.90 (lowered from $3.90-3.95) vs $3.94 estimate
CBS (52.69 -1.79%): Bloomberg reporting that prime-time viewership has declined 4.7% in first week after dispute with Time Warner Cable (TWC) that led to a blackout of ~3 mln homes
DAL (19.28 -1.38%): Downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan

Mid Cap Gainers

BRCD (7.91 +14.64%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.07 ($0.19 vs $0.12 estimate), revs fell 3.4% yoy to $536.6 mln vs $518.88 mln estimate; sees Q4 EPS of $0.17-0.19 vs $0.15 estimate, revs of $545-565 mln vs $548.49 mln estimate; target raised at ISI Group, BMO Capital Markets, UBS, and Needham
KGC (5.75 +6.64%): Strength in gold/silver companies: AU, GFI, IAG, PAAS, EGO, SLW, AUY, BVN, FNV also higher
SLT (5.44 +3.03%): Mentioned positively in blog article

Mid Cap Losers

CREE (61.12 -19.32%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.01 ($0.38 vs $0.37 estimate), revs rose 22.2% yoy to $375 mln vs $376.93 mln estimate; gross margin decreased 60 basis points to 38.2% on a non-GAAP basis; sees Q1 EPS of $0.36-0.41 vs $0.43 estimate, revs of $380-400 mln vs $399.57 mln estimate; downgraded at Northland Capital, DA Davidson, Susquehanna
PT (3.89 -7.38%): Co reported Q2 earnings of EUR 0.28 per share vs EUR 0.08 in prior year; revs fell 5.5% to EUR 1.54 bln vs EUR 1.52 bln estimate
MYGN (28.47 -5.88%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.09 ($0.53 vs $0.44 estimate), revs rose 30.9% yoy to $174.1 mln vs $159.69 mln estimate; sees FY14 EPS of $1.87-1.94 vs $1.86 estimate, revs of $690-710 mln vs $665.58 mln estimate; downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen

12:08PM Semiconductor Hldrs ETF extends to new session high (SMH) 38.49 -0.10 : Noted some intraday relative strength in the 11:10 update after the SMH had tested support near its 50 ema/sma (session low 38.13) with the recovery extended to 38.49 in recent trade. Top performers include: NVDA +4%, AMD +3.2%, ASML +1.4%, AMKR +1.3%, INTC +0.9%, MRVL +0.6% ,TER +0.5%, BRCM +0.4%.

10:27AM IBM awarded 10 year $1 bln cloud hosting services contract to assist US Department Of Interior's move to cloud computing (IBM) 188.67 +0.25 : Co announced it will work with the United States Department of the Interior (US DOI) as the Department embarks on a decade long transformation of their information technology (IT) systems to a cloud computing model. As part of an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, valued for IBM up to $1 billion, the Department may use IBM cloud computing technologies, services and hosting as the foundation of their next generation infrastructure.

Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) announced that MediaTek is leveraging several of Skyworks' front-end solutions in their dual-core MT6572 platform which is supporting multiple leading tier-one smartphone manufacturers in emerging markets.

6:35AM JA Solar announces $96 mln registered direct offering (JASO) 8.30 : Co announced that it has entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement with a single institutional investor to issue securities in a registered direct offering that will result in gross proceeds to the co of up to $96 million, before deducting the placement agent fees and estimated offering expenses. This amount does not take into account any proceeds from the Series B Warrant, which is not exercisable for one year following the date of issuance.

Under the terms of the Securities Purchase Agreement, the co has agreed to sell an aggregate of 15,228,425 ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value per share, of the co, represented by 3,045,685 ADSs, at a price of $7.88 per ADS, which is 94% of the volume-weighted average price of the co's ADSs on Aug 13, 2013. The co has also agreed to issue to the Investor a warrant to acquire up to 12,724,164 Ordinary Shares represented by 2,544,833 ADSs within three months after the issuance date at an initial exercise price of $1.886 per Ordinary Share, subject to adjustment and subject to reset in certain circumstances, a warrant to acquire up to 12,724,164 of Ordinary Shares represented by 2,544,833 ADSs within six months after the issuance date at an initial exercise price of $1.886 per Ordinary Share, subject to adjustment and subject to reset in certain circumstances, a warrant to acquire up to 12,724,164 Ordinary Shares represented by 2,544,833 ADSs within nine months after the issuance date at an initial exercise price of $1.886 per Ordinary Share, subject to adjustment and subject to reset in certain circumstances, and a warrant to acquire up to 50,896,656 Ordinary Shares represented by 10,179,332 ADSs at an initial exercise price of US$2.18 per Ordinary Share, subject to adjustment and subject to reset on the date that is nine months after the date it is issued. Barclays acted as the exclusive placement agent in connection with this offering.

6:30AM Taiwan Semi held a meeting of the Board of Directors, which approved capital appropriation of ~$1.925 bln for the purpose of installing, expanding and upgrading advanced technology capacity, as well as $37.8 mln in R&D capital appropriations (TSM) 16.27 :

11:03 am Technology Sector trading lower along with the broader market
The tech sector is trading lower today, along with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness with the SOX trading 1.5% lower. Within the chip index, CREE (-20.3%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.3% lower today; the QQQ and the NASDAQ are trading 0.3% lower on the session as well. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+1.6%) is showing notable strength, while MSFT (-1.2%) is under pressure. In notable tech earnings last night:

CREE (-20.6%) beats by $0.01, revs in-line; guided Q1 EPS below consensus, revs in-line
JDSU (-1.4%) reported EPS in-line, missed on revs; guided Q1 revs below consensus
BRCD (+14.1%) beat by $0.07, beat on revs; guided Q4 EPS above consensus, revs in-line
MM (-17.1%) beat by $0.03 and missed on revs

In news, AAPL (+1.6%) remains strong after Icahn reported a large position in the stock yesterday afternoon. In rumors, we are hearing that SSNI (-22.3%) is under pressure after it lost a major contract. Among notable analyst upgrades in tech this morning, CBB (+2.2%) was upgraded to Neutral at BofA/Merrill, MRVL (-0.1%) was upgraded to Buy at B. Riley, SINA (+1.7%) was upgraded to Buy at Citigroup, CHL (+0.1%) was upgraded to Neutral at UBS, and INFY (-1.1%) was upgraded to Buy at Nomura. In downgrades, MM (-17.1%) and CREE (-20.6%) were both downgraded at a number of firms, UMC (-2.5%) was downgraded to Sell at Goldman, CHA (+0.1%) was downgraded to Neutral at UBS, and BR (-3.6%) was downgraded to Underweight at JP Morgan. CSCO (-1.0%), A (-0.4%), and NTAP (-0.6%) are the notable names in tech scheduled to report after the close.

Cree (CREE) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.38 per share, which is better than expected, while revenues rose 22.2% year/year to $375 million which is line with expectations. Gross margin decreased 60 basis points to 38.2% on a non-GAAP basis. The company issued guidance for the first quarter with EPS of of $0.36-0.41 which is below expectations and revenues of $380-400 million which is line with expectations. "Our fiscal fourth quarter was a strong finish to a great year, with record revenue and good earnings growth in line with our targets," stated Chuck Swoboda, Cree Chairman and CEO. "Total company backlog is ahead of this point last quarter and we are targeting solid growth in LED lighting in Q1..."

JDS Uniphase (JDSU) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.13 per share, which was in lien with expectations, while revenues fell 2.9% year/year to $421.3 million which is below consensus. The company issued guidance for the first quarter with revenues of $410-430 million which is below expectations.

Brocade (BRCD) reported third quarter earnings of $0.19 per share, which is above expectations, while revenues fell 3.4% year/year to $536.6 million which is above expectations. The company issued guidance for the fourth quarter with EPS of $0.17-0.19 which is above expectations with revenues of $545-565 million which is in line with expectations. For Q4, co expects SAN revenue to be up 1% to 4% quarter-over-quarter as the current demand for storage is improving but remains softer than last year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 65.6% in Q3, up 190 basis points from Q3 12 and up 50 basis points from Q2 13. The year-over-year improvement in gross margin was due primarily to a more favorable mix within our Ethernet product sales, a higher percentage of SAN products in our overall revenue, and lower spending. Non-GAAP operating margin was 21.6% in Q3, up 210 basis points from Q3 12 and up 260 basis points Qtr./Qtr., due to improved gross margins and lower spending. Based on the company's performance in Q3 and the outlook for Q4, we expect full-year FY13 gross margin to be more than 65%, above the two-year target model range of 63% to 64%, and FY13 operating margin to be at the high end of the two-year target model range of 19.5% to 22.0%. "In Q3, Brocade exceeded our guidance for revenue, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP EPS, and cash flow," said Lloyd Carney, CEO of Brocade. "The storage market is recovering more quickly than we had anticipated entering our third quarter and, coupled with continued strong adoption of Gen 5 Fibre Channel, contributed to good Storage Area Networking (SAN) revenue results. In IP Networking, our Federal sales were disappointing while Brocade VDXTM switch revenue showed continued strong growth in Q3, underscoring our leadership in Ethernet fabrics. We are making great progress toward our spending-reduction goal, and are already seeing the benefits in our financial results and cash flow."