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Looking at technology bellwethers, Apple NASDAQ:AAPL 525.62, -11.26 slid 2.1% to extend its recent slide. Since its September highs, the stock has lost over 25% in value as it searches for its next level of support. Intel NASDAQ:INTC 20.03, +0.07 advanced 0.4% to snap its 9-day losing streak. The stock has lost nearly 10% since the beginning November.

Networking companies continued seeing strong earnings. Yesterday, Cisco Systems NASDAQ:CSCO 17.94, +0.28 rallied after its quarterly report. NetApp NASDAQ:NTAP 30.20, +3.07 surged 11.4% after beating on the bottom line. The networking company exceeded earnings expectations by 0.03 and reported in-line revenue. Following the report,, Raymond James upgraded shares of NetApp to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform.’

In other earnings news, Wal-Mart NYSE:WMT 68.72, -2.59 reported Q-3 earnings of 1.08 on $113.93-B in revenue. The retail giant’s bottom line beat the consensus estimate by 0.01, while the revenue missed expectations. The company’s guidance was mostly in-line as it expects Q-4 earnings between 1.53 and 1.58. Wal-Mart lost 3.6% in response to this morning’s results while peer, Target NYSE:TGT 62.44, +1.06, gained 1.7% after its in-line quarter.

Stocks in the materials space traded largely in-line with the broader market, weakness among steel producers weighed on the sector.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average traded in-line with the remaining industrials.

A number of economic data points were reported today. Most notably, the Philadelphia Fed Survey slipped to -10.7 for November. This follows October’s reading of -1.9 while economists polled had expected that the Survey would improve to a reading of 0.0.

The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 439,000, which was higher than the 388,000 that had been expected by the consensus. The tally was ahead of the revised prior week count of 361,000. As for continuing claims, they rose to 3.334-M to 3.163-M

The Empire Manufacturing Survey for November registered a reading of -5.2, which was up from the prior month’s reading of -6.2. Economists polled expected that the Survey would slip to -8.5.

Friday, September net long-term TIC flows will be reported at 9:00 a EST. In addition, October industrial production and capacity utilization will both be announced at 9:15 a EST.