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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The major averages posted losses across the board as the Nasdaq (-0.7%) led to the downside.

Stocks slumped at the open as cautious-sounding headlines from China combined with continued weakness among momentum names conspired to keep equities in the red throughout the session.

Reports out of the Middle Kingdom suggested the largest Chinese banks saw their debt write-offs triple during the first half of the year. Separate headlines indicated the People's Bank of China may tighten monetary policy due to excessive inflation. The liquidity crunch has made its presence known through the overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (SHIBOR), which jumped 73 basis points to 3.78%.

In addition to the news from China, stocks had to endure continued weakness among momentum names. Shortly after yesterday's close, activist investor Carl Icahn said he halved his stake in Netflix (NFLX 330.24, +7.72) after booking a 457% gain over the course of 14 months. Netflix outperformed today, but other momentum darlings like LinkedIn (LNKD 240.76, -4.19), Tesla (TSLA 164.50, -7.04), and Yelp (YELP 66.04, -3.37) posted losses as some participants may have taken a cue from Mr. Icahn, cashing in on some of this year's top performers.

Chipmakers were also victimized by heavy selling as the PHLX Semiconductor Index tumbled 3.4% after Altera (ALTR 32.30, -5.02) reported disappointing earnings and Broadcom (BRCM 26.36, -0.78) issued cautious guidance.

Even though select tech names displayed significant losses, the broader sector ended in-line with the S&P. Meanwhile, most other cyclical groups underperformed and the industrial sector (unch) was the only cyclical group that ended ahead of the broader market.

Industrials outperformed, building on the relative strength of Boeing (BA 129.02, +6.54), Norfolk Southern (NSC 86.06, +5.46), and Northrop Grumman (NOC 105.56, +4.10) after the three reported better-than-expected earnings. However, the sector could not turn positive due to the underperformance of Caterpillar (CAT 83.76, -5.41), which lost 6.1% after missing on earnings, revenue, and issuing cautious guidance.

Although equity indices spent the entire session in negative territory, only the energy sector (-1.4%) posted a loss exceeding 1.0% as crude oil slid 1.4% to $96.95 per barrel.

Countercyclical sectors outperformed with consumer staples ending in the lead with a modest gain of 0.1%.

Treasuries registered modest gains as the 10-yr yield slipped 2.5 basis points to 2.49%.

Trading volume was a bit below average as less than 710 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

On the economic front, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index slipped 0.6% to follow last week's uptick of 0.3%.

Separately, the August Housing Price Index from the FHFA increased 0.3%, which followed an increase of 0.8% observed during the prior month.

Lastly, export prices, excluding agriculture, ticked up 0.3% in September after an unchanged prior reading. Excluding oil, import prices rose 0.1%, which followed last month's decline of 0.2%.

Tomorrow, weekly initial claims and the August trade deficit will all be reported at 8:30 ET.DJ30 -54.33 NASDAQ -22.49 SP500 -8.29 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1003/1.82 bln/1539 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1359/708.2 mln/1644

3:30 pm :

Precious metals chopped around in negative territory today, with Dec gold and Dec silver falling to respective session lows of $1329.60 and $22.54 per ounce
Unable to gain much momentum, gold settled 0.6% lower at $1334.30 per ounce, while silver settled with a 0.8% loss at $22.61 per ounce
Dec crude oil fell for a third consecutive session following inventory data. The EIA reported that crude oil inventories had a build of 5.25 mln barrels when a smaller build of 2.95 mln barrels was anticipated. The energy component brushed a session low of $96.16 per barrel and settled with a 1.5% loss at $96.87 per barrel
In contrast, Nov natural gas traded higher, advancing to a session high of $3.64 per MMBtu in early afternoon pit trade. It eventually settled with a 1.1% gain at $3.62 per MMBtu

5:05PM Teradyne beats by $0.01, misses on revs; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (TER) 16.34 -0.33 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.46 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.45; revenues fell 6.6% year/year to $433 mln vs the $445.66 mln consensus. Bookings in the third quarter of 2013 were $271 million of which $207 million were in Semiconductor Test, $40 million in Wireless Test and $24 million in System Test. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.00-0.07, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.24 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $260-285 mln vs. $341.57 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"Despite industry-wide lower capital spending this year, we've achieved solid operating results and market share momentum through three quarters," said CEO, Mike Bradley. "Consistent with prior years, we're projecting the normal seasonal slowdown in the fourth quarter, but at somewhat higher revenue levels than we experienced at this time last year. We continue to make progress in mobility applications in both Semiconductor Test and LitePoint and will be well-positioned for any expected market growth in 2014."

4:30PM MKS Instruments announces Gerald G. Colella to succeed Leo Berlinghieri as CEO, effective January 1, 2014 (MKSI) 28.86 -0.23 : Co announced Leo Berlinghieri will retire as Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the co at year-end 2013. The Board of Directors has elected Gerald G. Colella, who currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer, to succeed Mr. Berlinghieri as Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2014, at which time Mr. Colella will also become a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Colella had previously succeeded Mr. Berlinghieri as President in February of this year, and has served as Chief Operating Officer since 2010.

4:26PM MKS Instruments beats by $0.04, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (MKSI) 28.86 -0.23 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.25 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.21; revenues rose 17.7% year/year to $166.45 mln vs the $164.64 mln consensus.
Co issues guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.31-0.41 vs. $0.33 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $185-200 mln vs. $179.99 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:23PM Cadence Design reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line (CDNS) 14.51 -0.05 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.21 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.21; revenues rose 8.3% year/year to $367 mln vs the $367.03 mln consensus.
Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.22-0.24, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.23 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $370-380 mln vs. $378.57 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:22PM Lam Research beats by $0.10, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 EPS above consensus, revs in-line (LRCX) 52.21 -1.86 : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.81 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.71; revenues rose 11.9% year/year to $1.01 bln vs the $1.01 bln consensus.

Co issues mixed guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $1.02, plus or minus $0.05, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.93 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $1.1 bln, plus or minus $30 mln, vs. $1.1 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Co sees Q2 shipments of approximately $1.125 billion plus or minus $30 million; gross margin of approximately 46.0% plus or minus 1.0%; Operating margin as a percent of revenue of approximately 18.5% plus or minus
1.0%

4:21PM Mellanox Tech misses by $0.03, misses on revs (MLNX) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.29 per share, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.32; revenues fell 33.5% year/year to $104.1 mln vs the $107.34 mln consensus.

4:19PM LSI Logic beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs below consensus (LSI) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.17 per share, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.16; revenues fell 2.7% year/year to $607 mln vs the $611.41 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.13-0.19 vs. $0.17 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $580-620 mln vs. $638.42 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:17PM Plexus reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS in-line, revs in-line (PLXS) 38.72 -0.59 : Reports Q4 (Sep) earnings of $0.67 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.67; revenues fell 4.5% year/year to $567.73 mln vs the $561.51 mln consensus.
Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.57-0.63, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.57 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $520-550 mln vs. $541.69 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate

4:11PM F5 Networks beats by $0.07, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (FFIV) 86.31 -4.34 : Reports Q4 (Sep) earnings of $1.26 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.19; revenues rose 9.0% year/year to $395.3 mln vs the $384.83 mln consensus.
Co issues mixed guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $1.17-1.20 vs. $1.20 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $390-400 mln vs. $389.16 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:08PM FormFactor will accelerate its third quarter earnings announcement and conference call (FORM) 6.17 -0.37 : The earnings announcement will be released at approximately 5:00 a.m. PDT on Thursday, October 24. A conference call to discuss the third quarter results and fourth quarter financial guidance will be held tomorrow, October 24, 2013 at 5:30 a.m. PDT, or 8:30 a.m. EDT.

4:05PM TriQuint Semi beats by $0.06, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (TQNT) 8.31 -0.63 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.16 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.10; revenues rose 24.9% year/year to $250.8 mln vs the $250.11 mln consensus. Mobile Devices market revenue grew 53% sequentially and 42% over the same period a year ago. Gross margin for the third quarter was 38.0%, up sequentially from 31.3% due to higher revenue and improved factory utilization.

Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.12 and $0.14, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.19 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $260-270 mln vs. $280.59 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Fourth quarter revenue is currently 88% booked to the midpoint of this guidance. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be between 35% and 36%.

Large Cap Gainers

GLW (17.11 +11.48%): Announced it is entering into a series of strategic and financial agreements with Samsung (SSNLF) intended to strengthen product and technology collaborations between the two companies; Board authorized $2 bln share repurchase; sees Q3 EPS of $0.33 ex items vs $0.32 estimate, revs of $2.1 bln (in-line)
BCR (137.43 +8.24%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.10 ($1.50 ex items vs $1.40 estimate), revs rose 4.9% yoy to $758.0 mln vs $740.2 mln estimate; upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray; upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman
CP (141.32 +7.91%): Beat quarterly EPS by C$0.16 (C$1.88 ex items vs C$1.72 estiamte), revs rose 5.7% yoy to C$1.53 bln vs C$1.52 estimate

Large Cap Losers

ALTR (32.63 -12.57%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.03 ($0.37 vs $0.34 estimate), revs fell 9.9% yoy to $445.9 mln vs $451.97 mln estimate; sees Q4 revs -3% to +1% (~$432.5-450.36 mln) vs $474.55 mln estimate
FTI (53.41 -7.55%): Missed quarterly EPS by $0.06 ($0.53 ex items vs $0.59 estimate), revs rose 21.5% yoy to $1.72 bln vs $1.74 bln estimate; sees FY13 EPS of $2.00-2.10 vs $2.19 estimate
ARMH (46.4 -6.57%): Downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS

Mid Cap Gainers

APOL (25.92 +23.78%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.30 ($0.55 ex items vs $0.25 estimate), revs fell 15.2% yoy to $845 mln vs $823.87 mln estimate; sees FY14 revs of $2.95-3.05 bln vs $3.22 bln estimate; upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel, target $30
MDVN (59.23 +9.91%): Continued strength following positive results from Phase 3 trial of enzalutamide
COLE (14.05 +9.59%): To merget with American Realty Capital Properties (ARCP); Cole stockholders to receive 1.0929 shares of ARCP common stock or $13.82 in cash for each share of Cole common stock

Mid Cap Losers

CREE (61.83 -16.81%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.01 ($0.39 ex items vs $0.38 estimate), revs rose 23.8% yoy to $391 mln vs $392.18 mln estimate; sees Q2 EPS of $0.36-0.41 ex items vs $0.43 estimate, revs of $400-420 mln vs $414.32 mln estimate; downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham; downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at boutique firm; target lowered to $54 from $66 at Credit Suisse
STM (7.95 -8.52%): Missed quarterly EPS by $0.04 (-$0.03 ex items vs $0.01 estimate), revs fell 7.1% yoy to $2.01 bln vs $2.05 bln estimate; sees Q4 revs flat sequentially plus or minues 3.5% (~$1.94-2.04 bln) vs $2.11 bln estimate
OCR (53.51 -6.83%): Agreed to pay $120 mln to settle allegations of illegal discounts to nursing homes in exchange for patient referrals

10:40AM Semiconductor Hldrs ETF continues to lag, hovering near early Oct gap (SMH) 39.98 -1.35 : The sector has been hit hard this morning in the wake of earnings with the SMH hovering just above the top of its early Oct bull gap at 39.89 (session low 39.93). The bottom of the gap and its 50 ema come into play at 39.72/39.69 -- ALTR -12.9%, BRCM -6.5%, ARMH -6.5%, CRUS -5.8%, XLNX -4.3%, ADI -3.1%, TER -3.1%, SNDK -2.7%, AMAT -2.7%, LLTC -2.6%, LRCX -2.6%, KLAC -2.4%, TXN -2.1%, MU -2.1%, TSM -1.9%, INTC -1.3%, MRVL -1.2%.

9:03AM Samsung Elect announces Galaxy S 4 mini coming to the U.S. next month (SSNLF) 1450.00 : Wireless carriers will announce their specific availability, colors and timing. AT&T (T), Sprint (S), Verizon (VZ) and U.S. Cellular will carry the Galaxy S 4 mini.

Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet (AVT), has launched a new series of SpeedWay Design Workshops for designers of electronic applications based on the Xilinx (XLNX) Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC.

Broadcom (BRCM) announced a new C-DOCSIS system-on-a-chip for Chinese operators to scale service deployments for more cost-efficient, competitive offerings

Analyst comments: ARMH -2.7% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS), COH -1.4% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill, downgraded at Argus), EXC -1.4% (downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies), BAX -1.1% (downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen)

7:11AM ATMI misses by $0.03, misses on revs; sees LifeSciences segment breaking even next Q, and growing profitably thereafter (ATMI) 27.78 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.29 per share, excluding $0.03 in expenses, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.32; revenues fell 7.9% year/year to $100.2 mln vs the $104.71 mln consensus.

"Third quarter revenues in Microelectronics were impacted by a weak wafer start environment, which is causing some customers to delay purchases, and ongoing headwinds from pricing and customer material efficiency gains.... While we continue to experience an overall lackluster wafer start environment, we remain confident that we are well positioned to realize growth from customers developing and ramping solutions for the advanced nodes," added Neugold. "We continue to make great progress in developing our technologies to address additional opportunities for profitable growth. In LifeSciences, we anticipate achieving breakeven revenue levels in the fourth quarter of 2013, and growing profitably from there. We are on target to achieve additional eVOLV license revenues in the fourth quarter of 2013 and in 2014, with meaningful royalty revenues beginning in the second half of 2014. Throughout 2013 we have taken steps to better align our organization, which will also improve our cost structure. We anticipate the benefit from these actions to begin during the fourth quarter of this year."

7:10AM Motorola Solutions beats by $0.30, reports revs in-line; guides FY13 EPS above consensus, revs in-line (MSI) 60.43 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $1.32 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.30 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.02; revenues fell 1.9% year/year to $2.11 bln vs the $2.13 bln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for FY13, sees EPS of $4.63-4.70, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $4.39 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY13 revs of approx $8.68 bln vs. $8.7 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Government segment sales were $1.5 billion, down 4 percent from the year-ago quarter. GAAP operating earnings were $252 million or 17.2 percent of sales compared to $273 million or 17.9 percent of sales in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating earnings were $299 million or 20.4 percent of sales compared to $310 million or 20.4 percent of sales in the year-ago quarter.

7:06AM SanDisk to offer $1 bln of convertible senior notes (SNDK) 69.32 : Co announced its intention to offer, subject to market and other conditions, up to $1.0 billion principal amount of Convertible Senior Notes due in 2020 in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers. In addition, the Company expects to grant the initial purchaser for the offering an option to purchase up to an additional $150 million principal amount of notes from the Company to cover over-allotments. The Company intends to use a portion of the net proceeds of the offering to fund the cost of privately negotiated convertible note hedge transactions, which will serve to increase the effective conversion price of the convertible debt.

07:25 am Corning shares soar 24% following in line guidance & taking ownership of SCP JV from Samsung
Corning (GLW $19.00 +3.65) issued guidance for the third quarter with EPS of $0.33, excluding non-recurring items which is line with estimates with revenues of core $2.1 billion which is also in line with expectations. In the Display Technologies segment, third-quarter LCD glass sequential price declines remained moderate, as expected. LCD glass volume was up slightly sequentially, driven by higher-than-expected demand in the wholly owned business.

Sales in all other segments were in line with expectations. Core gross margin was 44%, up nearly two percentage points year over year and up slightly sequentially. The company expects fourth-quarter results to be lower sequentially, mainly driven by normal seasonality in its Telecommunications, Life Sciences, and Environmental Technologies segments. Adding to the seasonality impact is a significant year-over-year decrease in fiber sales in North America and China, and slower-than-expected construction of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia.

In Display Technologies, the company expects moderate sequential price declines and sequential volumes to be down slightly for its LCD glass.

Corning also announced it is obtaining full ownership of Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. (SCP) -- (SSNLF), an unconsolidated equity venture with Samsung Display that manufactures LCD glass in Korea. Samsung Display currently owns 43% of SCP. Corning's board authorized an additional $2 billion share repurchase program Actions expected to be immediately accretive on fully diluted basis for Corning.

07:23 am Broadcom shares fall 9% following disappointing gudiance
Broadcom (BRCM $24.65 -2.49) reported third quarter earnings of $0.76 per share, excluding non-recurring items, while revenues rose 0.8% year/year to $2.15 billion which is higher than expected. The company issued guidance for the fourth quarter with revenues of $1.915- 2.03 billion which is below expectations. Product gross margin in Q4 is expected to decline 50-100 bps.

07:22 am Cree shares plunge 16% following EPS guidance that was below estimates
Cree (CREE $62.45 -11.87) reported first quarter earnings of $0.39 per share, excluding non-recurring items, which is better than expected, while revenues rose 23.8% year/year to $391 million which is line with expectations with adj. GM +170 bps YoY to 39.2%. The company issued guidance for the second quarter with EPS of $0.36-0.41, excluding non-recurring items, which is below expectations with revenues of $400-420 million which is line with expectations.