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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The S&P 500 settled lower by 0.7% after contradicting headlines from Washington fostered volatile price action throughout the session.

Equity indices displayed modest losses at the open, but were able to turn positive by late afternoon. The rebound was predicated on optimism associated with budget talks in Washington after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was quoted as saying 'tremendous progress' had been made.

However, contradicting headlines from House Republicans began pouring in during the early afternoon, and House Speaker John Boehner called the Senate proposal a 'hand grenade' during a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers. To counter this 'hand grenade,' the House is expected to vote on its own bill later today.

Selling pressure intensified during the final 90 minutes of the session amid headlines indicating the Senate has halted its negotiations pending the outcome of the House vote. California Senator Dianne Feinstein weighed in on the situation, saying budget talks have 'all fallen apart.'

All ten sectors ended in the red with countercyclical consumer staples (-0.9%) and utilities (-1.4%) leading to the downside. Among staple stocks, Coca-Cola (KO 37.66, -0.25) lost 0.7% following its in-line earnings report.

Elsewhere, the industrial sector slid 0.9% as the underperformance of defense contractors outweighed the relative strength of transports. FLIR (FLIR 28.59, -4.58) tumbled 13.8% after announcing restructuring plans and issuing below-consensus guidance while the broader PHLX Defense Index slumped 2.3%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Transportation Average ended with a modest loss of 0.2%, drawing strength from the 4.1% gain in the shares of FedEx (FDX 120.08, +4.71) after the company authorized a 32 million share buyback program.

Also of note, the financial sector (-0.8%) underperformed the broader market after Citigroup (C 48.86, -0.74) reported a 7.8% year-over-year decline in revenue.

With regard to commodities, crude oil fell 1.3% to $101.08 per barrel while gold futures added 0.3% to $1281.00 per troy ounce.

Treasuries ended near their lows with the 10-yr yield up four basis points at 2.73%. More notably, short-term debt was pressured with traders dumping the paper amid the increased probability of a default. The 4-week yield ended higher by 6.5 basis points at 0.317% while both the 3-month (+3 bps to 0.09%) and 6-month (+5 bps to 0.124%) bills were the subject of some selling.

Trading volume was below average as 690 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

On the economic front, today's data pointed to a bit of a slowdown in manufacturing growth in the New York Fed region as The Empire Manufacturing Survey for October registered a reading of 1.5. This was down from the prior month's reading of 6.3 while economists polled by Briefing.com had expected that the survey would slip to 4.5.

As a result of today's decline, the S&P 500 trimmed its year-to-date gain to 19.1%.DJ30 -133.25 NASDAQ -21.26 SP500 -12.08 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 733/1.68 bln/1790 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 685/690.4 mln/2345

3:30 pm :

In afternoon action, energy commodities weakened, while precious metals gained steam as headlines about the govt shutdown kept hitting the market. The dollar index continued to trade just under the HoD, but dropped about an hour ago, erasing about half of its gains
Gold and silver hit new highs for the day about 45 minutes ago and are now mixed in electronic trade. Dec gold ended $3.3 lower to finish at $1273.30/oz, while Dec silver ended $0.16 lower at $21.19/oz.
Crude oil was in the red all day, excluding one brief moment overnight where it was up a few cents. Crude oil extended losses in today's afternoon session and about 10 after floor trading ended, crude broke below the $101/barrel level. At the end of floor trading session, crude oil ended $1.22/barrel lower at $101.17/barrel
Natural gas was higher overnight, but lost steam and sold 20-25 minutes after floor trading began this morning. After that sell off, nat gas spent the rest of the day in the red, closing three cents lower at $3.79/MMBtu.

5:04PM Linear Tech misses by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 revs below consensus (LLTC) 39.55 -0.46 : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.45 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.46; revenues rose 1.6% year/year to $340.4 mln vs the $339.27 mln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs flat to down 4% from Q1 which equates to $326.8-340.4 mln vs. $342.63 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
"For our first fiscal quarter, we grew revenue sequentially over the prior quarter by 4% which was at the high end of our guidance and represented a good September quarter for us. "
Once again, growth in our major end-markets was lead by Automotive and Industrial. The Automotive end-market represented 19% of bookings in the first quarter, which was a historical high for the Company. We added a full point to operating margin, which is an industry leading 45.9%.
Looking ahead, our second fiscal quarter has been challenging over the past three years partially due to the December quarter being a historically slow quarter for the automotive and industrial end-markets.
Our book to bill ratio for the first quarter was slightly positive, however, bookings normally weaken the last month of the December quarter due to the holiday period. =

4:15PM Yahoo! Correction: Beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line -- guidance out soon (YHOO) 33.38 -0.62 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.34 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.33; rev ex-TAC fell 0.7% year/year to $1.08 bln vs the $1.09 bln consensus.

Display: GAAP display revenue was $470 mln for Q3, a 7% decrease y/y. Display revenue ex-TAC was $421 mln for Q3, a 7% decrease y/y. The Number of Ads Sold (excluding Korea) increased ~1% compared to the third quarter of 2012. Price-per-Ad (excluding Korea) decreased approximately 7 percent compared to the third quarter of 2012.
Search: GAAP search revenue was $435 mln for the third quarter of 2013, an 8% decrease y/y. Search revenue ex-TAC was $426 mln for Q3, a 3% increase y/y. Paid Clicks (excluding Korea) increased ~21% compared to the third quarter of 2012. Price-per-Click (excluding Korea) decreased ~4% compared to the third quarter of 2012.

Cash Balance: Cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable securities were $3.2 bln as of Sept 30, 2013 compared to $6 bln as of December 31, 2012, a decrease of $2.8 bln. During the third quarter of 2013, Yahoo repurchased 59 mln shares for $1,685 mln and used a net $163 mln for acquisitions.

"In Q3, we generated free cash flow of $249 mln and returned an additional $1.7 bln to shareholders through buybacks. As we exit Q3, we are extremely pleased with the strength of our balance sheet, with nearly $3.2 bln in cash and securities, and we are well positioned with ample liquidity to fund our future investments for growth."

Our previous comment ahs been removed.

4:10PM Intel beats by $0.05, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 revs in-line; Q3 gross margins above midpoint of co's guidance (INTC) 23.39 -0.06 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.58 per share, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.53; revenues rose 0.2% year/year to $13.48 bln vs the $13.45 bln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $13.2-14.2 bln vs. $13.99 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

PC Client Group revenue of $8.4 bln, up 3.5 percent sequentially and down 3.5 percent year-over-year.
Data Center Group revenue of $2.9 bln, up 6.2 percent sequentially and up 12.2 percent year-over-year.
Intel reports Q3 gross margins of 62.4% versus Street expectations of ~60.7% (INTC guided for margins of 61% +/- 200 bps)
Co sees Q4 Gross margin percentage: 61 percent, plus or minus a couple of percentage points.
"The third quarter came in as expected, with modest growth in a tough environment...We're executing on our strategy to offer an increasingly broad and diverse product portfolio that spans key growth segments, operating systems and form factors. Since August we have introduced more than 40 new products for market segments from the Internet-of-Things to datacenters, with an increasing focus on ultra-mobile devices and 2 in 1 systems."

Large Cap Gainers

SCHW (23.28 +5.79%): Beat on EPS by $0.02, beat on revs; reaffirmed guidance.
FDX (121.08 +4.95%): Authorized new share repurchase program of up to 32 mln shares of common stock; shares augment the remaining 7.4 mln shares under the existing buyback.
TSLA (186.26 +3.64%): Upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Wedbush.

Large Cap Losers

TTM (31.2 -3.47%): Weakness in India names (HDB and IBN also lower).
SI (122.03 -1.91%): Co plans to sell water technologies unit to PE firm for $800 mln, according to reports; entered into agreement with Accenture (ACN) to form a JV in the smart grid field.
CTSH (86.64 -1.79%): Tgt raised to $92 from $80 at UBS.

Mid Cap Gainers

DXCM (30.14 +3.79%): Initiated with a Buy at The Benchmark Company; tgt $37.
SD (6.38 +3.07%): Leon Cooperman discussed bullish view of SD.
HFC (43.49 +2.35%): Upgraded to Sector Outperform at Howard Weil; tgt $47.

Mid Cap Losers

TDC (44.01 -16.31%): Cut Q3 and FY13 guidance below consensus; announced additional $300 mln buyback; target lowered to $52 from $60 at Mizuho; downgraded at Goldman, Credit Suisse, Sterne Agee, Morgan Stanley; tgt lowered to $59 from 469 at Stifel.
CZR (19.74 -11.84%): Disclosed it entered into a first lien credit agreement governing its new $2.769 bln senior secured credit facilities.
FLIR (29.65 -10.61%): Announced that it is realigning multiple production and engineering organizations; sees $27-30 mln Q4 charge as a result; sees Q3 EPS and revs below consensus (results impacted due to exposure to Federal Government); lowered FY13 guidance.

STMicroelectronics (STM) has revealed the industry's first complete smart-meter System-on-Chip that combines precision metering with flexible, programmable processing and PLC subsystems along with advanced security in a single device.

9:07AM Emulex raises Q1 EPS and rev guidance (ELX) 7.83 : Co issues upside guidance for Q1 (Sep), raises EPS to $0.12-0.13, excluding non-recurring items, from $0.09-0.11 vs. $0.10 Capital IQ Consensus; raises Q1 (Sep) rev to $113-114 mln from $109-111 mln vs. $111.65 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"We were able to achieve these results by delivering stronger than expected top line performance as well as tighter operational control," Benck concluded. Emulex expects to announce its final first quarter results on October 30, 2013 and will provide additional information and commentary on that quarterly conference call.

9:03AM CalAmp and General Dynamics (GD) Broadband announce partnership to bring wireless 4G LTE products to customers worldwide (CAMP) 23.63 : Co announced a partnership with General Dynamics (GD) Broadband to provide customized versions of CalAmp's high-performance, multi-carrier broadband routers for use with GD Broadband LTE communications systems supporting mission-critical public safety, defense and industrial applications worldwide. "GD Broadband products and technologies can be found in public safety networks worldwide," said Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems.

Marvell (MRVL) announced the availability of a new generation of Xelerated AX and HX families of network processor and traffic management solutions optimized specifically to enable a new class of efficient, flexible and scalable network infrastructure equipment used to facilitate the explosive growth of the mobile Internet.

Analyst comments: VECO -3% (ticking lower, downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer), NSM -1.2% (downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo), AAP -0.4% (initiated with an Underperform at Wedbush), RIG 0% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus)

Broadcom (BRCM) announced the architecture for a new generation of multicore processors, featuring the industry's highest performance 64-bit ARM core

Serus announced that Micron Technology (MU) has selected the Serus solution to optimize its global supply chain. Micron intends to implement the Serus cloud-based solution across its global operations.

Microsemi (MSCC) expanded its silicon carbide Schottky product family with a new line of 650 volt solutions. The new diodes are targeted at high-power industrial applications including solar inverters.

1:12AM Universal Display: EPO issues decision affirming patent coverage for Iridium L2MX composition patent (OLED) 32.91 : Co announcesthat the European Patent Office issued a decision on the Company's European Patent No. 1933395. After considering legal and technical arguments from Sumitomo Chemical Company, Merck Patent GmbH and BASF SE in support of their request for a complete invalidation of the claims, the EPO panel issued a decision that affirms the basic inventions and broad patent coverage in the '395 patent, but narrows the scope of the original claims.

Universal Display likely will appeal the ruling to reinstate a broader set of claims. This patent, as originally granted by the EPO, would be deemed valid during the pendency of an appeals process. Ultimately though, the Company does not expect the final outcome of any one patent in any one jurisdiction to have a material impact on the Company's commercial business.