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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The major averages posted modest Wednesday losses after spending the entire session inside narrow ranges. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% while the S&P 500 shed less than a point. For its part, the Nasdaq Composite (+0.1%) ended just above its flat line.

Although today's session did not generate much (or any) excitement, it should be noted that equity indices essentially held their levels after yesterday's broad-based spike that sent the S&P 500 to a fresh record closing high.

Individual sectors were split right down the middle for the entire trading day with five groups posting gains while the other five registered losses.

The financial sector (+0.7%) took the lead shortly after the open and never relinquished its standing as top components rallied notably. Bank of America (BAC 17.25, +0.53) soared 3.2% while other large names like Citigroup (C 49.42, +0.59), JPMorgan Chase (JPM 58.16, +0.90), and Morgan Stanley (MS 31.97, +0.87) gained between 1.2% and 2.8%.

Today's outperformance of financials marked the second consecutive day of relative strength for a vital sector that has been struggling to keep pace with the broader market so far in 2014. Including today's gain, the sector extended its year-to-date advance to 0.9% versus a 1.4% gain for the S&P 500.

Financials notwithstanding, the remaining four advancers-consumer discretionary, industrials, materials, and technology-posted slim gains of no more than 0.3%. Of the four, the discretionary sector (+0.3%) had the best showing thanks to strength among media names.

On the downside, the four countercyclical sectors-consumer staples, health care, utilities, and telecom services-lost between 0.2% and 0.7% while the energy sector (-1.1%) spent the day in a steady retreat while crude oil fell 1.8% to $101.48/bbl.

The energy space slumped amid the weight of ExxonMobil (XOM 93.80, -2.72), which tumbled 2.8%, marking its largest daily decline since November 2012. Meanwhile, the broader sector widened its year-to-date loss to 2.7%. Only the telecom services sector has had a worse showing as it holds a 5.0% loss so far in 2014.

Treasuries ended modestly higher with the benchmark 10-yr yield down one basis point at 2.69%.

Also of note, today featured the release of the March Beige Book from the Federal Reserve. Similar to other reports received during past weeks, the Beige Book highlighted severe weather as a major headwind. To that end, 'weather' was mentioned 119 times in the entire release versus an average of 14 mentions in each previous Beige Book report dating back to 1997.

Eight out of twelve Fed Districts reported continued expansion from January to February with the growth characterized as 'modest' to 'moderate.' Retail sales saw relative weakness across the board, but that was written off as a result of the weather.

With regards to employment, a gradual improvement was reported in most districts while pressure from wages was characterized as 'stable.'

Investors received two other economic reports:

The ADP Employment Change report for February indicated an increase of 139K while the Briefing.com consensus called for an increase of 150K. Also of note, the January reading was revised down to 127,000 from 175,000.
The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index fell to 51.6 in February from 54.0 in January. That was the weakest print since February 2010 while the Briefing.com consensus expected the index to fall to 53.5. Not surprisingly, many sectors reported that extreme winter weather conditions wreaked havoc on business activity in February. The evidence in the hard data, however, suggests a cyclical slowdown is more likely taking place. The Employment Index fell a whopping 8.9 points to 47.5 in February from 56.4 in January. That ended a 25-month expansion cycle.

Tomorrow, the February Challenger Job Cuts report will be released at 7:30 ET while weekly initial claims, fourth quarter productivity, and unit labor costs will be announced at 8:30 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the factory orders report for January.

Nasdaq Composite +4.3% YTD
Russell 2000 +3.8% YTD
S&P 500 +1.4% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.3% YTD

DJ30 -35.70 NASDAQ +6.00 SP500 -0.10 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1260/2.08 bln/1323 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1458/653.6 mln/1541

3:30 pm :

Precious metals rose as the dollar index slipped into negative territory following weak U.S. economic data. The ADP Employment Change report for February showed an increase of 139K while the Briefing.com consensus called for an increase of 150K. The January reading was revised down to 127K from 175K. In addition, the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index fell to 51.6 in February from 54.0 in January, the weakest print since February 2010, while theBriefing.com consensus expected the index to fall to 53.5.
Apr gold erased earlier losses as it lifted from its session low of $1334.20 per ounce and broke into positive territory in morning action. It brushed a session high of $1342.00 per ounce and settled with a 0.2% gain at $1340.20 per ounce. May silver dipped to a session low of $21.19 per ounce but quickly recovered back above the unchanged line. It touched a session high of $21.33 per ounce and eventually settled at $21.27 per ounce, or 0.3% higher.
Apr crude oil extended yesterday's losses despite the weaker dollar index. The move came on EIA inventory data that showed a build of 1.4 mln barrels when consensus called for a build of 1.3-1.5 mln barrels.
The energy component pulled back from its session high of $103.22 per barrel set moments after equity markets opened and trended lower to a session low of $101.22 per barrel. Unable to gain momentum, it settled 1.8% lower at $101.48 per barrel.
Apr natural gas also traded in the red, retreating from its session high of $4.66 per MMBtu. It brushed a session low of $4.51 per MMBtu and settled with a 2.8% loss at $4.53 per MMBtu.

5:01PM Avago Tech announces $0.27 interim dividend (AVGO) 63.08 -0.27 : Co announced that its Board of Directors has approved a quarterly, interim cash dividend of $0.27 per ordinary share. The dividend is payable on March 31, 2014 to shareholders of record at the close of business (5:00 p.m.) Eastern Time on March 20, 2014.

4:46PM Semtech beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 EPS in-line, revs in-line (SMTC) 25.59 +0.13 : Reports Q4 (Jan) earnings of $0.23 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.22; revenues fell 16.0% year/year to $126.53 mln vs the $125.29 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.28-0.32, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.30 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $127-133 mln vs. $130.03 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Capital expenditures are expected to be ~$9 mln

12:40PM Notable movers of interest (SCANX) : The following are some of today's most notable movers of interest, categorized by market capitalization (large cap over $10 billion and mid cap between $2-10 billion) and ranked by % change (all stocks over 100K average daily volume).

Large Cap Gainers

FEYE (95.66 +8.47%): Target raised to $105 from $90 at FBR Capital; co expected to price 5.6 mln share offering Thursday night
BF.B (87.86 +4.22%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.07 ($0.82 vs $0.75 estimate), revs rose 5.0% yoy to $1.08 bln vs $1.07 bln estimate; sees FY14 EPS of $2.95-3.05 (raised from $2.80-3.00) vs $2.96 estimate; upgraded to Buy at BTIG Research
FAST (48.1 +2.66%): Reported February sales rose 7.7% yoy to $274.52 mln

Large Cap Losers

FLT (124.86 -3.92%): Weakness attributed to 2.5 mln share block trade that priced at $127 per share
RIO (54.6 -3.19%): Downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup
CHU (13.1 -3.00%): Reuters reporting China has new plans for a valued-added tax for telecommunication services providers

Mid Cap Gainers

GOLD (84.44 +3.93%): Bloomberg reporting CEO indicated that the company would consider a sale of its stalled Senegalese gold project
GME (38.54 +3.19%): Increased quarterly dividend 20% to $1.32 from $1.10 per share
GTAT (17.03 +1.97%): Target raised to $18.50 from $15.50 at BofA/Merrill

Mid Cap Losers

CSIQ (38.61 -11.59%): Missed quarterly EPS by $0.13 ($0.39 vs $0.52 estimate), revs rose 76.2% yoy to $519.5 mln vs $525.4 mln estimate; sees Q1 revs of $415-460 mln vs $545.80 mln estimate; sees FY14 revs of $2.7-2.9 bln vs $2.77 bln estimate
GEVA (99.09 -4.71%): Announced 2 mln public offering of common stock
NAV (36.26 -4.05%): Missed quarterly EPS by $1.27 (-$3.07 vs -$1.80 estimate), revs fell 16.3% yoy to $2.21 bln vs $2.62 bln estimate

9:09AM Fairchild Semi confirmed that a jury in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California found Tuesday that Fairchild willfully infringed two U.S. patents asserted against the company by Power Integrations (POWI) and awarded $105 million in damages against Fairchild (FCS) 14.05 : Co reported that a jury in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California found Tuesday that Fairchild willfully infringed two U.S. patents asserted against the company by Power Integrations, Inc. and awarded $105 million in damages against Fairchild. Fairchild said it was very disappointed by the outcome and will challenge several aspects of the verdict during post-trial review and any appeal. Fairchild said the infringement finding was in error and failed to account for differences in the accused products. The company also said it was particularly concerned by several elements of the damages award, including the sufficiency of the damages evidence and Power Integrations' unique damages theory. Products in the case include chips used in switch-mode power supplies made by the company's System General subsidiary. In a previous patent infringement case between the two companies, a jury awarded Power Integrations $34 million in damages in 2006. Virtually all of that damages award was eventually thrown out by a 2013 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

8:36AM ForceField Energy (FNRG) divests TCS Businesses in China - receives ~$8.6 mln of its common stock held by former minority partner; receives LED lighting purchase order 4.88 :

Co has completed the sale of its 60% interest in Wendeng He Xie Silicon Cto the minority owner of Wendeng and has concluded its operations at Zibo Baokai Commerce and Trade. The combination of both transactions significantly improves the Company's working capital, eliminates operating losses related to these business segments, and enables the Company to sharpen its focus on its continuing key business segments...
Co announced the signing of a LED lighting purchase order for the immediate sale and delivery of LED "High Bay" and LED fluorescent replacement lighting products to a warehouse facility of a Fortune 100 company located in southern United States. This purchase order for ~300 LED High Bay Lights and ~100 LED tubes followed a successful initial trial and prev

Argon Design announced the licensing of their Streams and Coverage Tool to Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). AMD will use Argon's technology to validate its video decoder design and ensure that its designs are fully compatible with the latest HEVC video compression specification.

Qualcomm (QCOM) announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, in cooperation with Sprint (S) and NASCAR, demonstrated the second phase of an over-the-air trial of an LTE TDD hyper-dense small cell network at the Phoenix International Raceway.

HP Enterprise Services (HPQ) has been awarded a five-year task order worth up to $548 mln by the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Manpower Data Center to provide maintenance and support for mission-critical hardware and software located around the world.

7:08AM Canadian Solar misses by $0.13, misses on revs; guides Q1 revs below consensus; guides FY14 revs in-line (CSIQ) 43.67 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.39 per share, $0.13 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.52; revenues rose 76.2% year/year to $519.5 mln vs the $525.4 mln consensus; co preannounced Q4 results on Feb 11, 'profitable' GAAP Q4, rev $510-520 mln, shipments 605-620 MW.

Total solar module shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013 were 621 MW, compared to 478 MW in the third quarter of 2013 and 404 MW in the fourth quarter of 2012. Solar module shipments to the Chinese market represented 42.9% of total shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to less than 1% in the third quarter of 2013, and 9.9% in the fourth quarter of 2012. Solar module shipments to the Japanese market represented 19.7% of total shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to 29.5% in the third quarter of 2013 and 11.7% in the fourth quarter of 2012. Solar module shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013 included 41 MW used in the Company's total solutions business, compared to 60 MW in the third quarter of 2013 and 16 MW in the fourth quarter of 2012.
By geography, in the fourth quarter of 2013, sales to the European markets represented 5.5% of net revenue, sales to the Americas represented 32.1% of net revenue, and sales to Asia and all other markets represented 62.4% of net revenue, compared to 9.5%, 46.9% and 43.6%, respectively, in the third quarter of 2013 and 40.6%, 20.0% and 39.4%, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2012.
The year-over-year increase in gross profit was primarily due to the increase in revenue contribution from the Company's higher margin total solutions business, as well as higher module shipments and lower module manufacturing cost, which was partially off-set by a slight decline in module average selling price. Gross margin in the fourth quarter of 2013 was 19.5%, compared to 20.4% in the third quarter of 2013 and 5.0% in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $415-430 mln vs. $545.80 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. The co expects Q1 module shipments to be in the range of ~470 MW to 490 MW. Total revenue for the first quarter of 2014 is expected to be in the range of $415 million to $430 million, with gross margin expected to be between 14% and 16%. Management continues to see strong demand for the Company's products in the first quarter of 2014, as the seasonality in Chinese market was more than compensated by the increase in demand from Japan and the U.S. However, longer shipping time to these markets will push some revenue to the second quarter of 2014. In addition, the production output from the Company's module factories in China was low during the Chinese New Year holiday period. Meanwhile, the Company's revenue and gross margin in the first quarter of 2014 are expected to be adversely affected by the severe winter conditions in North America, which delayed construction and recognition of ~$100.0 million in revenue from some of its utility-scale projects in Canada. The Company expects to recognize this revenue in the second and third quarter of 2014. The expected gross margin in the first quarter of 2014 is adversely impacted by ~ 100 basis points (1.0%) due to the recently reported fire incident at the Company's cell plant in Suzhou. The Company expects to fully recover its losses from its property and business interruption insurance in later quarters.

Co issues in-line guidance for FY14, sees FY14 revs of $2.7-2.9 bln vs. $2.77 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. For the full year 2014, the Company expects annual module shipments to be in the range of 2.5 GW to 2.7 GW, including 400 MW to 500 MW of project recognition. In addition, the Company expects to build and hold up to 250MW of project assets during 2014. The Company expects that its net revenue for 2014 will be in the range of ~$2.7 billion to $2.9 billion, with ~50% of revenue being derived from its total solutions business. The Company's Canadian and U.S. project revenue recognition is expected to be back-end loaded in 2014 due to permitting and construction schedule as well as US GAAP accounting rules which, for most Canadian projects, only allow revenue recognition after commercial operation date (COD) and the transfer of ownership to end customers. The estimated COD of all of the Company's late-stage projects is disclosed in this press release to provide better granularity to investors.

2:04AM ReneSola provides high-efficiency modules to 11.7MW solar project in Italy (SOL) 3.87 : Co announces it has delivered approximately 45,900 of its high-efficiency modules to the Photovoltaic Plant of Ferrara Aranova project, a 11.7MW ground-mounted solar project in Italy.

ReneSola modules installed for the project averaged 255W and are insured by PowerGuard, third-party coverage that supplement's the Company's warranties regarding product quality and performance.

Ixia (IXIA) announced today that the Audit Committee of Ixia's Board of Directors has completed the internal investigation that was initiated by the Committee as a result of the October 2013 resignation of the company's former president and chief executive officer. The Committee retained independent counsel and an advisory firm with forensic accounting expertise to assist the Committee in conducting the investigation, which included an email review and performing procedures to assess the company's recording of certain financial transactions and the corresponding impact on the company's financial reporting. Results of Audit Committee Internal Investigation: On February 26, 2014, the Committee completed the investigation and made its findings with respect thereto. The Committee found that, although the company's former president and chief executive officer (the "Former CEO") had misstated his academic credentials, age, and early employment history, the investigation did not establish that he engaged in intentional misconduct with respect to the company's financial results or financial statements. The Committee also concluded that Tom Miller, the company's former chief financial officer, did not engage in any intentional misconduct. The investigation found, however, an aggressive tone at the top set by the Former CEO, a lack of leadership in terms of tone at the top with respect to the company's recently resigned chief financial officer, and insufficient resources, controls, and training of relevant personnel with respect to revenue recognition, all of which collectively resulted in certain identified errors in the company's revenue recognition. As a result of the investigation and the company's own internal review, certain errors in the company's revenue recognition practices that affect the timing of the company's recognition of revenue for certain prior periods were identified. Any correction of these errors will result in a shift of revenues between accounting periods. The errors do not have any impact on the total amount of revenue ultimately recognized by the company and do not reflect a lack of validity of the underlying transactions. The company is currently proceeding as quickly as possible to complete its quantification and evaluation of the impact of the identified errors on the company's previously issued financial statements in order to determine whether the company will need to restate financial statements for any prior period(s). SEC Filings Update: On March 4, 2014, the company filed with the Commission a Form 12b-25 Notification of Late Filing relating to the Form 10-K. The company reported in the Form 12b-25, that it was unable to file the 2013 Form 10-K by the prescribed due date of March 3, 2014 without unreasonable effort or expense. As indicated in the Form 12b-25, due to the errors in the company's revenue recognition practices identified in the investigation and by the company, and due to the company's need to file the Form 10-Q before filing its Form 10-K, the company requires additional time to complete its consolidated financial statements as of and for the three years ended December 31, 2013, and its assessment of its internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2013. The company is currently working to file the Form 10-K as soon as possible. If the Form 10-K is filed on or before March 18, 2014, the filing would be within the extension period of 15 calendar days provided under Rule 12b-25 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. There can be no assurance, however, that the Form 10-K and the audit of the company's financial statements to be included therein will be completed by that date. CFO Transition: The company also announced that, following the completion of the Audit Committee investigation, Tom Miller has resigned as its chief financial officer, effective March 3, 2014. The Board has appointed Brent Novak, the company's vice president, finance, to also serve as the company's acting chief financial officer. Novak joined the company in 2004 as senior director, finance, and has served as vice president, finance since 2006. Miller has agreed to continue as an employee of the company for three months following his resignation in order to provide support during the transition period. The company also filed for a delay in its 10-K. Ixiahas determined that it is unable to file its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 within the prescribed time period without unreasonable effort or expense. As the Registrant previously reported in a Form 12b-25 Notification of Late Filing filed with the SEC on November 13, 2013, as a result of the resignation on October 24, 2013 of Victor Alston, the Registrant's former President and Chief Executive Officer, the Audit Committee of Ixia's Board of Directors initiated an internal investigation. The Committee retained independent counsel and an advisory firm with forensic accounting expertise to assist the Committee in conducting the investigation, which included an email review and performing procedures to assess the Registrant's recording of certain financial transactions and the corresponding impact on the Registrant's financial reporting. As the Registrant also reported in the November 2013 Form 12b-25, the investigation needed to be completed prior to the Registrant's filing with the Commission of its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013."