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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The S&P 500 settled higher by 0.8%, regaining its 100-day moving average (1640/1641) shortly after the open. The Dow and S&P started the session by chopping around their respective flat lines before the two indices began tracking the Nasdaq, which outperformed with a gain of 1.0%.

This morning, reports from Fox News indicated Senator John McCain was set to oppose the current Syria proposal after saying he would do so if the plan was not forceful enough. However, an afternoon vote containing two McCain amendments passed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by a 10-7 vote. The full Senate is expected to have a say on the measure next week.

Stocks slipped from their highs in reaction to the results of the afternoon vote, but still managed to hold the vast majority of their gains. Meanwhile, Treasuries did not reflect much of a safety bid as the complex remained pinned to its lows. The benchmark 10-yr yield ended higher by 5 basis points at 2.894%. More notable was the move in the 2-yr yield, which added four basis points to end at 0.462%, the highest since June 2011.

Nine of ten sectors posted gains with health care (+1.1%) ending in the lead. The sector received significant support from biotechnology as the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 201.38, +3.53) climbed 1.8%.

The outperformance of biotech and technology helped the Nasdaq settle ahead of the other indices. The largest tech component, Apple (AAPL 498.69, +10.11) advanced 2.1% following reports suggesting the company will unveil a new TV set-top box at its September 10 press event.

Today's Nasdaq strength was not an unusual development. The tech-heavy index has outpaced the other indices throughout the third quarter. The index is higher by 7.2% since the end of June while the Dow is essentially unchanged (+0.1%) over that time.

Outside of health care and technology, industrials (+1.0%), materials (+0.9%), telecom services (+1.3%), and discretionary shares (+1.0%) settled ahead of the broader market. The financial sector (+0.8%) was the early leader, but surrendered its spot as the afternoon progressed.

The utilities space (-0.1%) was the lone decliner while consumer staples (+0.5%) and energy (+0.5%) underperformed. On a related note, crude oil slid 1.1% to $107.35 per barrel.

Participation in today's session was in-line with longer-term averages as just under 730 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Federal Reserve's September Beige Book did not send any shockwaves through the market as the central bank struck a familiar tone. The Fed said, "The economy has continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace" while residential real estate activity, "Increased moderately in most Districts." Lending activity was described as "mixed" with little change observed in lending standards.

With regards to employment and inflation, the Fed said hiring "held steady or increased modestly" while upward price pressures "remained subdued."

Today's economic data was limited to the July trade deficit, which widened to $39.1 billion from an upwardly revised $34.5 billion in June (from -$34.2 billion). The Briefing.com consensus expected the deficit to come in at $38.2 billion.

The widening in the deficit resulted from imports increasing $3.5 billion versus June and exports decreasing $1.1 billion. The drop in exports was paced by a $1.6 billion decline in exports of capital goods, excluding automotive, and a $1.36 billion decline in exports of consumer goods, the bulk of which stemmed from a pullback in exports of jewelry, gem diamonds, and artwork, antiques and stamps.

Conversely, imports increased on the back of a near $2.0 billion jump in imports of industrial supplies and materials, a $0.8 billion increase in imports of automotive vehicles, and a $0.7 billion increase in consumer goods, most of which stemmed from imports of artwork, antiques and stamps. The widening in the trade deficit is going to factor negatively in GDP models for the third quarter.

Tomorrow, August Challenger Job Cuts will be reported at 7:30 ET, August ADP Employment Change will cross the wires at 8:15 ET, and weekly initial claims will be released at 8:30 ET. Also at 8:30 ET, revised second quarter productivity and unit labor costs will be reported. The busy day of data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of July factory orders and the August ISM Services report.DJ30 +96.91 NASDAQ +36.43 SP500 +13.31 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1650/1.74 bln/867 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2150/728.1 mln/859

3:30 pm :

Crude oil and precious metals traded lower today despite a weaker dollar index. Investors reacted to opposition to an attack on Syria.
Reports indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin said the U.S. had no right to strike Syria without UN approval. In addition, Fox News reported that Senator John McCain is opposing the current Syria proposal.
Dec gold fell back below $1400.00 per ounce, dipping to a session low of $1384.60 per ounce. It settled at $1390.10 per ounce, booking a 1.6% loss.
Dec silver retreated from its session high of $23.80 per ounce and settled 1.4% lower at $23.43 per ounce.
Oct crude oil pulled back from its session high of $108.14 per barrel set at pit trade open and dipped as low as $106.84 per barrel. It eventually settled at $107.19 per barrel, or 1.3% lower.
Natural gas, on the other hand, extended yesterday's gains despite spending most of its session in negative territory. It came off its session low of $3.64 per MMBtu and broke into the black as it headed towards the close, settling with a 0.3% gain at $3.68 per MMBtu.

4:35PM JinkoSolar Holding to supply 23 MW PV modules to Swinerton Builders for California solar farm (JKS) 18.99 +0.62 : Co announced that it will supply 23MW of Solar PV modules to Swinerton Builders, a leading US Engineering and Construction Company and Clenera, a clean energy finance and management firm. According to terms of the agreement, deliveries will be completed during the 4th quarter of 2013. Swinerton will utilize JinkoSolar's 300W 72 cells high-efficiency PV modules in its construction of the Westland Solar Farms, LLC ground-mounted solar plant in Fresno County, California. When completed, this Utility Scale Solar Farm will provide electricity to PG&E.

2:18PM Qualcomm confirms its wholly-owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Connected Experiences, will release a Qualcomm branded smartwatch in Q4 of 2013 (QCOM) 67.34 +0.59 : Designed to serve as a second display to a smartphone, the Qualcomm Toq smartwatch will feature proprietary Qualcomm MEMS Technologies' Qualcomm Mirasol display technology, a reflective, low-power display that enables an always on viewing experience, wireless charging by Qualcomm WiPower LE technology and a true stereo Bluetooth audio experience, all while offering its wearer long battery life with seamless connectivity to their smartphone.

Large Cap Gainers

DG (56.61 +5.07%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.03 ($0.77 ex items vs $0.74 estimate), revs rose 11.3% yoy to $4.39 bln vs $4.36 bln estimate; reaffirmed FY14 EPS of $3.15-3.22 ex items vs $3.21 estimate, revs +10-11% (~$17.62-17.78 bln) vs $17.72 bln estimate; Q2 same store sales rose 5.1%
MET (48.92 +3.89%): Upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Barclays
MU (14.49 +3.41%): Reports earlier said competitor SK Hynix experienced a fire at one of its plants in China; recent speculation that there was little damage caused stock to give up some gains

Large Cap Losers

RYAAY (44.85 -8.20%): Co said it could miss its full-year profit forecast following a decline in bookings due to competition and weakness in the British Pound; downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS
KMI (36 -4.18%): Initiated with a Hold at Jefferies; KMP also initiated with a Hold at Jefferies
MSFT (31.22 -2.07%): Downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Mid Cap Gainers

CIEN (23.12 +11.79%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.07 ($0.23 vs $0.16 estimate), revs rose 13.6% yoy to $538.4 mln vs $533.51 mln estimate; sees Q4 revs of $550-580 mln vs $550.91 mln estimate
ETFC (15.75 +8.32%): Subsidiary E*TRADE Bank has received regulatory approval to dividend capital to the company's parent; $100 mln capital distribution will take place during September
JCP (13.59 +6.84%): Glenview Capital reported a 9.1% stake

Mid Cap Losers

NAV (31.93 -6.12%): Reported Q3 loss of -$2.94 per share (may not compare to -$1.30 estimate), revs fell 11.9% yoy to $2.86 bln vs $2.97 bln estimate
SAI (14.32 -5.45%): Missed quarterly EPS by $0.10 ($0.13 vs $0.23 estimate), revs fell 12.5% yoy to $2.47 bln vs $2.56 bln estimate; sees FY14 EPS of $0.95-1.03 vs $1.15 estimate, revs of $9.7-10.2 bln vs $10.37 bln estimate
GWRE (44.43 -4.41%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.11 ($0.25 ex items vs $0.14 estimate), revs rose 43.3% yoy to $96.9 mln vs $93.1 mln estimate; sees FY14 EPS of $0.20-0.24 vs $0.44 estimate, revs of $328.5-340.5 mln vs $348.02 mln estimate; sees Q1 EPS of -$0.18 to -$0.15 vs $0.03 estimate, revs of $61.4-63.4 mln vs $72.02 mln estimate; downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup

7:32AM Microchip narrows Q2 revenue guidance in line with consensus (MCHP) 39.19 : Co narrows guidance for Q2 (Sep), sees Q2 (Sep) revs of +3-5% to ~$476-485 mln vs. $476.00 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Microchip previously provided guidance on July 31, 2013 for net sales to be up between 2% and 6% sequentially.

"Bookings activity in our business has been strong in July and August. The September quarter is progressing as we expected and we are narrowing the range of our revenue guidance, but leaving the midpoint of our guidance unchanged,"

7:08AM Ciena beats by $0.07, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 revs above consensus (CIEN) 20.68 : Reports Q3 (Jul) earnings of $0.23 per share, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.16; revenues rose 13.6% year/year to $538.4 mln vs the $533.51 mln consensus. Two customers accounted for greater than 10% of revenue and represented 31.8% of total revenue

Co issues guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $550-580 vs. $550.91 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Sees adjusted (non-GAAP) gross margin in the low 40s percent range
Sees adjusted (non-GAAP) operating expense in the high $190s million range]

08:56 am Nokia downgraded to Hold at Argus on Microsoft's handset purchase: . Argus downgrades NOK to Hold from Buy following the announced sale of Nokia's handset business to Microsoft. Following the handset divestiture, which is likely to take place in calendar 1Q13, Nokia will remain a leader in wireless networks and location (mapping) services while retaining a significant intellectual property portfolio. Nokia is also licensing its handset patent portfolio to Microsoft. The deal immediately provides Nokia access to 1.5 billion euros in short-term financing, which it may use to buy out Siemens' interest in the NSN venture. Deal terms also provide Nokia with a $750 million payment if the deal is blocked by regulators.

SAIC (SAI) awarded contract by LSB Industries worth approximately $118 mln over two years. Under the contract, co will provide EPC services, including foundations, structural steel, electrical, and instrumentation; cost control and scheduling; quality control; and overall project construction for the 1350-ton-per-day ammonia plant. This ammonia plant will provide feedstock for other units at the facility with excess production used to supply an ammonia pipeline or other customers.

LinkedIn (LNKD) announced proposed follow-on offering; announced that it is commencing an underwritten registered public offering of $1 billion of shares of its Class A common stock. The principal purposes of the offering are to increase co's financial flexibility and to further strengthen its balance sheet. Co intends to use the net proceeds of the offering primarily for general corporate purposes, including working capital, expansion of its product development and field sales organizations, international expansion, general administrative matters and for capital expenditures, including infrastructure. It may also use a portion of the net proceeds from the offering for potential strategic acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary businesses, technologies or other assets. The lead bookrunning managers of the proposed offering are J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and BofA Merrill Lynch are acting as joint bookrunning managers of the proposed offering. Allen & Company LLC is acting as co-manager.

Guidewire Software (GWRE) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.25 per share, excluding non-recurring items, which was better than expected, while revenues rose 43.3% year/year to $96.9 million which is higher than expected. Total license revenue, including term and perpetual licenses, for Q4 was $49.1 million, an increase of 70% YoY. Recurring term license revenue was $44.9 million, a 64% increase from a year ago and revenue from perpetual licenses was $4.2 million compared with $1.6 million a year ago. Maintenance revenue was $9.9 million, up 26% from the comparable period in fiscal 2012, and services revenue was $38.0 million, up 23% from the comparable period in fiscal 2012. Rolling four-quarter recurring term license and maintenance revenue was $150.4 million, an increase of 44% from the comparable period in fiscal 2012. The company sees FY14 revs of $328.5-340.5 million which is below expectations with first quarter revenues of $61.4-63.4 million which is below expectations. The company sees FY14 non-GAAP EPS of $0.20-0.24 which is below expectations with Non-GAAP EPS of ($0.18)-($0.15) which is below expectations.

SciQuest (SQI) announced it had acquired CombineNet, a provider of advanced sourcing software to large companies with complex procurement needs. SciQuest purchased 100% of the outstanding stock of CombineNet, Inc. for total consideration of approximately $43 million comprised of approximately $26 million in cash and approximately 820,000 shares of common stock. SciQuest expects CombineNet to generate approximately $1 million of non-GAAP revenues per month during the remainder of 2013. Inclusive of integration costs, the Company expects the acquisition to have an approximately neutral impact in the third quarter and full year 2013 on non-GAAP diluted net income per share and adjusted free cash flow. Over time, SciQuest expects to be able to increase CombineNet's revenue growth rate, operating margins and free cash flow margins to be in-line with those of the overall company. The financial impact of the acquisition on a GAAP basis cannot be estimated until the allocation of the purchase price is made following the closing of the acquisition.