lcUpdtDate = DATE()
...snip...
USE orders SHARED IN 0
...snip...
SELECT ... INTO CURSOR cUpdtOrd
...snip...
SELECT cUpdtOrd
SCAN
   SELECT orders
   IF SEEK(cUpdtOrd.clientid)	
      REPLACE orders.updtdate WITH lcUpdtDate
   ENDIF
   SELECT cUpdtOrd
ENDSCAN

Be careful putting stuff in <>. It is interpretted as html code. Also helps to preface your code with a [pre] and [/pre] tag surrounded by <> instead of [].

What version of VFP are you using? There have been discussions here with an earlier problem of the SEEK() function. You may want to break this down into a SEEK SOME_VALUE instead.