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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The S&P 500 added just over a point (+1.28) after spending the entire session inside of a five-point range. Excluding the first 30 minutes of action, the benchmark index was confined to a two-point range as many participants elected to sit today's session out.

With the bond market closed for Veterans Day and no market-moving economic or company news, equity indices drifted near their flat lines throughout the session. Small caps outperformed the broader market, but the Russell 2000's gain was limited to just 0.1%.

Meanwhile, the S&P crept higher as six of ten sectors registered gains. Financials (+0.1%) and health care (+0.2%) paced the slight advance, but only the health care sector was able to end among the leaders.

The countercyclical group received support from drug makers amid news Shire (SHPG 135.33, +0.93) will acquire ViroPharma (VPHM 49.42, +10.04) for $50 per share, representing a 27.0% premium to Friday's closing price. Biotechnology climbed throughout the day, and the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 205.54, +1.36) advanced 0.7%.

Unlike health care, the remaining countercyclical sectors-consumer staples (-0.1%), utilities (+0.02%), and telecom services (-0.3%)-underperformed.

With regard to cyclical groups, financials ended in-line with the S&P while consumer discretionary (+0.2%), energy (+0.2%), and technology (+0.1%) eked out slim gains. On the downside, industrials (-0.03%) and materials (-0.1%) lagged throughout the day.

Momentum names traded in mixed fashion following last week's group-wide weakness. Facebook (FB 46.20, -1.33) and LinkedIn (LNKD 211.66, -3.51) registered respective losses of 2.8% and 1.6% while Priceline.com (PCLN 1096.50, +23.30) gained 2.2% and Tesla (TSLA 144.70, +6.75) rose 4.9%.

Trading volume was well below average as just over 530 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

There is no notable economic data on tomorrow's calendar.

Nasdaq +29.8% YTD
Russell 2000 +29.7% YTD
S&P 500 +24.2% YTD
DJIA +20.4% YTD

DJ30 +21.32 NASDAQ +0.56 SP500 +1.28 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1248/1.55 bln/1293 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1556/537.6 mln/1433

3:35 pm :

Dec crude oil lifted from its session low of $94.17 per barrel set in early morning pit trade and broke into positive territory. Strength came on a weaker dollar index and failed talks between Iran and six world powers on reaching a deal on the country's nuclear program. The energy component brushed a session high of $95.38 per barrel and settled with a 0.6% gain at $95.14 per barrel
Dec natural gas oscillated between positive and negative territory today. It brushed a session low of $3.54 per MMBtu and eventually settled 0.6% higher at $3.58 per MMBtu
Dec gold traded slightly lower today despite the weaker dollar index. It touched a session high of $1284.00 per ounce in early morning pit trade and eventually settled with a 0.3% loss at $1281.20 per ounce
Dec silver spent most of today's floor trade trading just above the unchanged line. It slipped into the red in the last half hour of the session and settled at $21.28 per ounce, or 0.2% lower

4:16PM Spreadtrum Comms beats by $0.03, beats on revs (SPRD) 30.48 -0.01 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.74 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.71; revenues rose 58.1% year/year to $293.3 mln vs the $244.45 mln consensus.
The Company's operating margin for the quarter was 13.4%, up from 12.9% in the previous quarter and remaining the same as 3Q12. The sequential increase in operating margin was primarily due to lower research and development (R&D) expenses as a percentage of revenue. Non-GAAP operating margin, adjusted to exclude share-based compensation expenses was 15.3% in 3Q13, compared to 19.0% in 2Q13 and 16.6% in 3Q12

4:08PM Emulex to offer up to $125 mln aggregate principal amount of Convertible Senior Notes due 2018 in a private offering (ELX) 7.54 +0.05 : Co announced its intention to offer, subject to market and other conditions, up to $125 million aggregate principal amount of Convertible Senior Notes due 2018 in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933. In addition, the Company expects to grant the initial purchaser for the offering an option to purchase up to an additional $18.75 million aggregate principal amount of notes from the Company to cover over-allotments.

4:05PM Emulex announces new three-part initiative to improve profitability and enhance shareholder value; initiative includes a $200 mln capital return plan, a new cost savings program and board transformation (ELX) 7.54 +0.05 : ELX announced a cost savings program that is expected to generate $30 mln in annual cost savings over the fiscal 2013 spending level, expanding on the previously announced $10 mln cost savings initiative in its connectivity business. Co expects to complete this effort over the next few quarters and will provide quarterly progress updates on the savings, with the full run-rate benefits of this program expected to be realized in fiscal 2015. These actions are being undertaken to immediately return capital to shareholders while at the same time pursuing significant increases in the profitability and free cash flow of the Company. Finally, Emulex is adding three new experienced executives to the Board of Directors who will help drive the Company's transformation.

4:04PM Rackspace misses by $0.04, reports revs in-line (RAX) 49.32 +0.78 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.11 per share, $0.04 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.15; revenues rose 15.7% year/year to $388.6 mln vs the $387.79 mln consensus.
Cash flow from operating activities was $115 million for the third quarter of 2013. Capital expenditures were $118 million, including $74 million for purchases of customer gear, $12 million for data center build outs, $7 million for office build outs and $25 million for capitalized software and other projects.

4:02PM QuickLogic announces it intends to offer newly issued shares of common stock in an underwritten public offering; size not disclosed (QUIK) 3.30 -0.12 : QUIK announced that it intends to offer newly issued shares of common stock, $0.001 par value in an underwritten public offering under an effective shelf registration statement on file with the SEC. The final terms of the offering will depend on market and other conditions at the time of pricing. Roth Capital is serving as the sole book-running manager for the offering and The Benchmark Company is acting as co-manager.

Large Cap Gainers

RIG (55.41 +3.67%): Announced agreement with Icahn Group; co will propose a dividend out of paid-in capital of $3 per share
BBY (43.89 +3.49%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS; target raised to $52 from $40 at Jefferies; target raised to $50 from $42 at Telsey Advisory Group
BX (26.8 +3.43%): Bloomberg reporting co is in talks with China Investment Corp to sell a west London office development

Large Cap Losers

TTM (29.33 -4.69%): Downgraded to Outperform from Buy at Credit Agricole; downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Nomura
KLAC (63 -2.78%): Downgraded to Negative from Neutral at Susquehanna
RIO (52.18 -1.86%): JP Morgan Analyst reportedly negative on mining stocks

Mid Cap Gainers

VPHM (49.43 +25.52%): To be acquired by Shire (SHPG) for $50 per share
AEGR (79.67 +13.12%): Rebound following declines seen after co received FDA warning letter concerning comments made about Juxtapid on CNBC interview; analysts at FBR Capital downplayed the letter
YOKU (27.17 +5.07%): Upgraded to Buy from Hold at Brean Capital; mentioned positively at JP Morgan

Mid Cap Losers

DNR (18.25 -5.68%): Seeing headlines that co will not be considering MLP options
RVBD (17.02 -2.96%): Adopted stockholder rights plan
SLW (20.98 -2.87%): Reported Q3 EPS of $0.22 (in-line), revs rose 3.2% yoy to $166.4 mln vs $187.32 mln estimate

9:02AM Riverbed Technology adopts stockholder rights plan (RVBD) 17.54 : Co announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously adopted a stockholder rights plan and declared a dividend distribution of one preferred share purchase right on each outstanding share of the Company's common stock.

The Board of Directors adopted the Rights Plan in order to help promote the fair and equal treatment of all stockholders of the Company and ensure that the Board remains in the best position to discharge its fiduciary duties to the Company and its stockholders.
Pursuant to the Plan, Riverbed will issue one preferred stock purchase right for each share of common stock outstanding at the close of business on November 21, 2013. Each right will entitle shareholders to buy one one-thousandth of a share of a new Series A participating preferred stock at an exercise price of $75. Initially, these rights will not be exercisable and will trade with the shares of Riverbed's common stock.
In general terms, the Rights Plan imposes a significant penalty upon any person or group which acquires 10.0 percent (or 20.0 percent in the case of institutional investors who report their holdings on Schedule 13G) or more of the Company's outstanding common stock without the approval of Riverbed's Board.

NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) has selected Accenture (ACN) to manage and accelerate NXP's recruitment process through the use of analytics, gamification and social media techniques.

QLogic (QLGC) announced that the co gained share in the Fibre Channel adapter market in the third quarter of calendar year 2013, according to new data from the Dell'Oro Group Q3 2013 SAN Report and the Crehan Research Q3 2013 Quarterly Market Share Report. Co captured significant rev market share in the 16Gb Gen 5 Fibre Channel category, increasing by 12 percentage points sequentially, according to the Dell'Oro Group.
Trina Solar (TSL) announced that the co's State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology has received accreditation from China's Ministry of Science and Technology.
Cypress Semiconductor (CY) announced production availability of a high-density video frame buffer that addresses the market's increasing demand for high-bandwidth video buffering.

Xilinx (XLNX) announced first customer shipment of the semiconductor industry's first 20nm product manufactured by TSMC, and the PLD industry's first 20nm All Programmable device.

7:31AM JA Solar to supply 70 MW of modules to Shanghai CSET in China (JASO) 10.98 : Co announced that it has signed two agreements to supply a total of 70 MW of high-efficiency polycrystalline solar modules to Shanghai CSET Co., Ltd., a photovoltaic ("PV") system integrator focused on the planning, design and operation of solar PV stations, for two commercial rooftop projects in China.
According to the agreements, 20 MW of modules will be delivered in December 2013, and 50 MW will be delivered in the first quarter of 2014. The projects will utilize JA Solar's high-efficiency polycrystalline modules with an average power output of between 255 W and 260 W in a 60-cell format, which are among the most powerful modules of their kind on the market. The contract amount will be paid in full prior to delivery.