Business can be soft, flat or picking up.

FORBES: Management Guidance Is Mostly Worthless

If you're listening closely, you'll notice that songs streamed over Bluetooth sound a bit flat and soft around the edges.

WSJ: Bluetooth Speakers: The Untethered Sound System

The company is seeing weakness in its core business, as well as soft demand for both solar and flat-panel equipment.

FORBES: Applied Materials Q4 Edges Ests; Outlook Weak; Shrs Slip

As Devils forwards Jacob Josefson and David Clarkson screened Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, Salvador flicked a soft wrist shot that skipped along the ice like a flat rock across a pond and through Lundqvist's legs.

WSJ: Devils Level Rangers to Even It Up

McDonalds (MCD), t he franchise food chain, is planning to buyback about 10% of its shares outstanding in a strategy to stabilize MCD shares at a time of flat profits and slowing fast-food revenues in soft economies round the globe.

FORBES: Multi-billion Dollar Buybacks Can Spike Stock Prices

Microchip Technology this afternoon warned that revenue for the fiscal third quarter ending in December will be flat to down 7% from FY Q2, due to continued soft macroeconomic conditions.

FORBES: Microchip Sees Soft Dec Qtr On Weak Macro Conditions