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Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The stock market ended the Wednesday session on a mixed note. The tech-heavy Nasdaq displayed relative strength, climbing 0.4%, while the S&P 500 added 0.2% with five sectors settling in the green. For its part, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.2%) spent the entire session below its flat line.

Equities started the midweek affair on a rather unassuming note in the absence of market-moving news or economic releases. With those pieces missing from the equation, participants turned their attention to quarterly earnings as another dose of better than expected results pushed the S&P 500 to a fresh record close at 1987.01.

The health care sector (+0.8%) surged at the open and never relinquished the lead thanks to a big earnings beat reported by Biogen Idec (BIIB 337.60, +33.93). The stock soared 11.2%, while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 259.34, +5.66) advanced 2.2%. Elsewhere among biotech names, Puma Biotech (PBYI 233.43, +174.40) nearly tripled in value after announcing positive trial results.

In addition to boosting the health care space, biotechnology provided a measure of support to the Nasdaq, which also drew strength from the shares of Apple (AAPL 97.19, +2.47). The top-weighted tech stock rose 2.6% after beating earnings estimates on below-consensus revenue. However, the company guided Q4 revenue below its Capital IQ consensus estimate.

Sticking to tech earnings, Microsoft (MSFT 44.87, +0.04) missed bottom-line estimates, but beat on revenue. Meanwhile, Broadcom (BRCM 38.15, -0.60) and Juniper Networks (JNPR 22.43, -2.39) retreated despite delivering above-consensus results. Notably, Broadcom and other chipmakers struggled to stay out of the red with the PHLX Semiconductor Index falling 2.3%.

The underperformance of microchip names prevented the technology sector (+0.2%) from extending its slim gain, while other cyclical sectors ended on a mixed note. Energy (+0.6%) and materials (+0.4%) finished ahead of the broader market, while financials (+0.2%) kept pace with the S&P 500. The remaining two growth-sensitive sectors-consumer discretionary (-0.1%) and industrials (-0.4%)-could not make it into the green.

The weakest sector of the day-industrials-lagged amid weakness in the shares of Boeing (BA 126.71, -3.03). The Dow component lost 2.3% despite beating earnings estimates and raising its fiscal-year 2014 earnings guidance.

Also of note, it was reported during the session that the International Monetary Fund lowered its growth forecast for the U.S. to 1.7% from 2.0% and said the Fed may need to delay its first rate hike due to the contraction that took place in the first quarter. However, the remarks had little impact on equities as the major averages held their ground. The Treasury market did not move either and the 10-yr note ended the day flat with its yield at 2.47%.

Participation was well below average with less than 570 million shares changing hands at the NYSE.

Economic data was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which rose 2.4% to follow last week's 3.6% decline.

Tomorrow, weekly initial claims (Briefing.com consensus 308K) will be reported at 8:30 ET, while the New Home Sales report for June (consensus 475K) will cross the wires at 10:00 ET. On the earnings front, 3M (MMM 144.68, -0.44), American Airlines (AAL 43.33, +0.95), Caterpillar (CAT 108.38, -1.68), Ford Motor (F 17.78, -0.04), and General Motors (GM 37.41, -0.35) will report ahead of the opening bell.


S&P 500 +7.5% YTD
Nasdaq Composite +7.1% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +3.1% YTD
Russell 2000 -0.4% YTD

DJ30 -26.91 NASDAQ +17.68 SP500 +3.48 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1362/1.75 bln/1378 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1759/569.2 mln/1279 3:30 pm :

Aug gold touched a session high of $1311.80 per ounce in early morning pit trade but gave up the gain as it slipped below the unchanged line in afternoon action. It brushed a session low of $1303.50 per ounce and settled 0.1% lower at $1304.50 per ounce.
Sep silver touched a session low of $20.94 per ounce after retreating from a session high of $21.10 per ounce. It then chopped around near the break-even line and settled unchanged at $21.00 per ounce.
Sep crude oil traded higher today following bullish inventory data. The EIA reported that for the week ending July 18, crude oil inventories fell by almost 4 mln barrels when expectations called for a smaller draw of 2.6-2.9 mln barrels.
The energy component rose as high as $103.34 per barrel and settled with a 0.7% gain at $103.12 per barrel.
Aug natural gas advanced to a session high of $3.81 per MMBtu. However, prices pulled back into negative territory in late afternoon floor trade, leaving natural gas to settle 0.3% lower at its session low of $3.76 per MMBtu.

4:17 pm TriQuint Semi beats by $0.06, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS in-line, revs below consensus (TQNT) : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.13 per share, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.07; revenues rose 21.4% year/year to $230.8 mln vs the $220.6 mln consensus.

Co issues mixed guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.23-0.25 vs. $0.24 Capital IQ Consensus EstimateCO sees Q3 revs of $255-265 vs. $277.36 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate5:06 pm Teradyne beats by $0.13, beats on revs; guides Q3 below consensus (TER) : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.54 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.13 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.41; revenues rose 22.5% year/year to $525.6 mln vs the $479.38 mln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.34-0.43, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.48 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $440-480 mln vs. $490.33 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"Semiconductor Test orders were driven by a combination of capacity expansion and new design wins with the strongest demand from applications processor, power management, microcontroller and memory test. Our strong sales and earnings growth reflect both the short time to market requirements of chip makers and our operating model's ability to flex to meet customer demand. After the strongest first half of orders since 2004, our third quarter outlook reflects the industry's normal seasonal patterns."

5:03 pm Rambus and ENTR sign license agreement for DPA countermeasures to secure next generation content (RMBS) : Cryptography Research, the security division of RMBS, and Entropic (ENTR) announced they have signed a patent license agreement allowing for the use of the Cryptography Research side-channel attack countermeasures in Entropic's integrated circuits. The Cryptography Research patented technology will protect Entropic's set-top box system-on-a-chip (SoC) products against differential power analysis and related attacks.

4:46 pm F5 Networks on the call (FFIV) :

Security business continues to be largest growth driverSaw a rise in competitive win rates across coClosed acquisition of defense.net; increases portfolio w/ cloud based security servicesContinue to see new project wins for traffic diameter solutionShares are slightly higher in after-hours trading.

4:09 pm F5 Networks beats by $0.04, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS above consensus, revs in-line (FFIV) : Reports Q3 (Jun) earnings of $1.39 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.35; revenues rose 18.9% year/year to $440.3 mln vs the $435.05 mln consensus.

Co issues guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $1.46-1.49, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.45 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $453-463 mln vs. $456.08 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "F5's solid gains in Q3 were driven by strong growth in product revenue, up 5 percent sequentially and 20 percent year-over-year...Growing demand for our expanding array of systems and application services was fueled by increasing awareness and uptake of our security offerings and the appeal of our Good, Better, Best pricing options. During the quarter, sales of Good, Better, Best bundles grew 49 percent from the prior quarter and contributed to a significant increase in sales of software products and of security solutions in particular."

4:35 pm MKS Instruments beats by $0.14, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS in-line, revs in-line (MKSI) : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.42 per share, $0.14 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.28; revenues rose 17.8% year/year to $185 mln vs the $171.25 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.28-0.42 vs. $0.31 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $170-190 mln vs. $175.48 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Looking ahead, reports from the recent semiconductor industry tradeshow continue to project that third quarter OEM shipments may be down from the second quarter. In our other markets, the global economy continues to improve and we continue to search out and leverage growth opportunities in a strategic manner."

4:14 pm Qualcomm beats by $0.10, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs in-line -- co believes certain licensees in China are not fully complying with their contractual obligations to report their sales of licensed products (QCOM) : Reports Q3 (Jun) earnings of $1.31 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $1.21; revenues rose 9.0% year/year to $6.81 bln vs the $6.52 bln consensus.

Co issues guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $1.03-1.18, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.38 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $6.5-7.4 bln vs. $7.14 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, we expect to complete a minimum of $1 billion in stock repurchases under our current stock repurchase program. Our outlook for fiscal 2014 diluted earnings per share includes an estimate of the benefit related to stock repurchases.

China continues to present significant opportunities for us, particularly with the rollout of 4G LTE, but also presents significant challenges, as our business practices continue to be the subject of an investigation by the China National Development and Reform Commission (:NDRC)...

We also believe that certain licensees in China currently are not fully complying with their contractual obligations to report their sales of licensed products to us (which includes certain licensees underreporting a portion of their 3G/4G device sales and a dispute with a licensee) and that unlicensed cos may seek to delay execution of new licenses while the NDRC investigation is ongoing. We expect calendar year 2014 3G/4G device shipments to be ~1.3 billion globally. However, our estimate of calendar year 2014 3G/4G device shipments that we currently expect to be reported to us is ~1.04 billion to 1.13 billion, which is adjusted for units that we believe may not be reported to us, are in dispute or are currently unlicensed. We are taking steps to address these issues, although the timing of any resolution is uncertain."
MSM chip shipments: 225 million units, up 31 percent y-o-y and 20 percent sequentially. March quarter total reported device sales: ~$58.1 billion, up 3 percent y-o-y and down 13 percent sequentially. March quarter estimated 3G/4G device shipments: ~ 250 to 254 million units, at an estimated average selling price of ~$228 to $234 per unit. Cash and Marketable

4:13 pm Facebook beats by $0.10, beats on revs (FB) : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.42 per share, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.32; revenues rose 60.5% year/year to $2.91 bln vs the $2.81 bln consensus.

Revenue from advertising was $2.68 billion, a 67% increase y/y. Excluding the impact of year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates, revenue from advertising would have increased by 65%.

Daily active users (DAUs) were 829 million on average for June 2014, an increase of 19% year-over-year. Mobile DAUs were 654 million on average for June 2014, an increase of 39% year-over-year. Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.32 billion as of June 30, 2014, an increase of 14% year-over-year.

Mobile MAUs were 1.07 billion as of June 30, 2014, an increase of 31% year-over-year.

Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 62% of advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2014, up from approximately 41% of advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2013.
Payments and other fees revenue was $234 million, a 9% increase from the same quarter last year.
GAAP costs and expenses for the second quarter of 2014 were $1.52 billion, an increase of 22% from the second quarter of 2013. Excluding share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, non-GAAP costs and expenses were $1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2014, up 18% compared to $1.02 billion for the second quarter of 2013.
Capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2014 were $469 million.Cash and marketable securities were $13.96 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2014. Free cash flow for the second quarter of 2014 was $872 million.12:25 pm 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

ISRG (447.27 +14.05%): Reported Q2 GAAP EPS of $2.77 vs $2.80 estimate, revs fell 11.5% yoy to $512.2 mln vs $505.6 mln estimate; co sees FY14 procedures growth of +5-8% (raised from +2-8%); upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel, to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James
BIIB (338.34 +11.42%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.65 ($3.49 vs $2.84 estimate), revs rose 40.5% yoy to $2.42 bln vs $2.16 bln estimate; sees FY14 EPS of $12.90-13.10 ex items (raised from $11.35-11.45) vs $11.62 estimate, sees FY14 revs +38-41% (from +26-28%) which calcs to ~$9.57-9.77 bln vs $8.9 bln estimate; target raised to $420 from $370 at Piper JaffrayT
LM (10.89 +10.56%): Co confirmed it has been approached by Repsol (REPYY) with regards to various transactions

Large Cap Losers

XLNX (41.22 -14.38%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.01 ($0.62 vs $0.61 estimate), revs rose 5.8% yoy to $612.6 mln vs $631.53 mln estimate; sees Q2 revs flat to -4% sequentially (~$588.1-612.5 mln) vs $643.91 mln estimate; downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets, target lowered to $42 from $60; downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair; downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill
JNPR (22.38 -9.83%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.02 ($0.40 ex items vs $0.38 estimate), revs rose 6.9% yoy to $1.23 bln vs $1.22 bln estimate; sees Q3 EPS of $0.35-0.40 ex items vs $0.44 estimate, revs of $1.15-1.20 bln vs $1.26 bln estimate
GSK (50.48 -5.16%): Missed quarterly EPS by GBP 0.02 (GBP 0.19 vs GBP 0.21 estimate), revs fell 16.0% yoy to GBP 5.56 bln vs GBP 5.73 bln estimate; sees FY14 EPS of ~GBP 1.10 vs GBP 1.01 estimate

Mid Cap Gainers
PBYI (228.11 +169.08%): Announced positive top line results from Phase 3 PB272 (neratinib) trial in adjuvant breast cancer; co also amended its licensing agreement for neratinib with Pfizer
RHI (51.75 +7.37%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.03 ($0.55 vs $0.52 estimate), revs rose 9.5% yoy to $1.16 bln vs $1.14 bln estimate; target raised to $55 from $48 at Deutsche Bank
LAD (93.98 +3.93%): Beat quarterly EPS by $0.10 ($1.34 ex items vs $1.24 estimate), revs rose 21.2% yoy to $1.22 bln vs $1.18 bln estimate; sees Q3 EPS of $1.34-1.38 vs $1.31 estimate, revs of $1.2-1.3 bln vs $1.24 bln estimate; sees Q4 EPS of $1.23-1.26, revs of $1.6-1.7 bln vs $1.35 bln estimate

Mid Cap Losers

TUP (76.38 -9.87%): Missed quarterly EPS by $0.01 ($1.47 ex items vs $1.48 estimate), revs fell 2.0% yoy to $674.3 mln vs $689.15 mln estimate; sees Q3 EPS of $0.89-0.94 vs $1.08 estimate; sees FY14 EPS of $5.40-5.50 vs $6.35 estimate
KING (19.33 -6.39%): Downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill
THRX (26 -6.07%): Weakness following poor results from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK); THRX has partnership agreements with GSK

11:44 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (152) outpacing new lows (44) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AA, AAPL, AAT, ABC, ABT, ACH, ADM, AHGP, ALGT, AMT, AON, APD, APH, ARE, ARES, ARLP, ATVI, BABY, BAX, BBEP, BBL, BDN, BEE, BHP, BITA, BK, BMO, BRCM, BX, CALM, CBG, CHRW, CIB, CNI, CODE, CONE, COO, CORR, CSC, DDR, DMLP, DOW, EGAS, EMC, ENB, EPD, ESS, FCS, FET, FLT, FTI, GCI, GIL, GLNG, GPRE, GT, H, HAL, HES, HNP, HPQ, HST, HTLD, IBA, IMS, INN, INVN, IPG, ISS, ITMN, JLL, KEX, KMR, KNX, KOG, LEJU, LGCY, LLY, LMT, LNG, LRE, LSTR, LUV, LYB, MAMS, MAR, MCO, MPB, MRO, MTD, MW, MWE, NFX, NGG, NJ, NNBR, NOC, NSC, NTES, NYLD, PAA, PBYI, PEIX, PEP, PHX, PII, PLBC, PPC, PTEN, PTR, PTSI, PXLW, QCOM, QLTY, R, REG, RES, REX, REXI, RGP, RHI, SAIA, SAVE, SBGL, SE, SGC, SGK, SHW, SIAL, SLCA, SNP, SPG, SRC, SSL, STLD, TEN, THRM, TRN, TRNS, TRP, TSRA, UNP, VAR, VIPS, VNR, WCN, WIN, WLB, WLK, WLL, WRI, XEC

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ACI, ALDX, AMBT, ARO, ASNA, ASPN, BTU, CAB, CGG, CHLN, EMAN, ESI, ESNT, FMER, FREE, FULT, GEVO, GFIG, HERO, IMN, INTX, LAYN, LIQT, MRKT, NKSH, OSTK, PIKE, PIP, PNRA, PRXI, RCPI, ROYT, RTGN, SPWH, SQI, TCCO, TCS, TRC, TSE, UIS, VII, XLNX, XNY, ZA

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: AFK, AMJ, EMB, EPP, EWC, EWH, EZA, GAF, IYR, IYT, NIB, OEF, QQQ, SPY, TLT, URE, VWO, XLK

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: JJG, RJA, TBT

9:05 am SanDisk completes acquisition of Fusion-io (FIO); co expects the acquisition to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings in the near term; acquisition is expected to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings in the second half of 2015 (SNDK) : Co nnounced it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Fusion-io (FIO). Co's Q3 financial results will include the results of Fusion-io from July 23, 2014 through September 28, 2014.

Co's non-GAAP P&L results will be impacted by cash-related charges for transaction, restructuring, and integration costs as well as the reduction of support and maintenance revenue due to the effects of purchase accounting. SanDisk expects the acquisition to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings in the near term primarily due to charges for transaction, restructuring and integration costs, which are expected to be ~ $35 million in the third quarter of 2014 and ~ $15 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, as well as operating losses from Fusion-io partially offset by modest near-term synergies. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings in the second half of 2015.

8:02 am O2Micro misses by $0.04, misses on revs (OIIM) : Reports Q2 (Jun) loss of $0.12 per share, $0.04 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.08); revenues fell 7.0% year/year to $17.4 mln vs the $17.63 mln consensus.

7:29 am Micron intends to offer $750 mln aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2025 (MU) : Co announced that it intends to offer, subject to market and other considerations, $750 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2025.

Micron intends to use a portion of the net proceeds from the offering to extinguish its obligations with respect to its 1.875% convertible senior notes due 2031, which may include payments in settlement of conversions of or to repurchase or redeem such notes. The co expects to use the balance of the net proceeds for retirement of other convertible notes and debt and other general corporate purposes. Earlier today, Micron gave notice to holders of the 2031B Notes that their notes will be redeemed on August 22, 2014, except to the extent such notes are converted or repurchased by Micron prior to such date, and its current intent is to settle any such conversions entirely in cash with a portion of the proceeds from the offering.

7:03 am Microsemi acquires Cork, Ireland-based Mingoa; financial terms not disclosed (MSCC) : Co announced it has acquired Cork, Ireland-based Mingoa, a provider of semiconductor IP for hardware accelerated Ethernet OAM and embedded tests. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

7:00 am EMC reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides FY14 EPS ~in-line, reaffirms FY14 revs guidance; adds $1 bln to buyback (EMC) : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.43 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.43; revenues rose 4.7% year/year to $5.88 bln vs the $5.84 bln consensus.

Co issues guidance for FY14, sees EPS of $1.91 (from $1.90), excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.90 Capital IQ Consensus; reaffirms FY14 revs of $24.575 bln vs. $24.57 bln Capital IQ Consensus.

EMC generated $1.3 billion in operating cash flow and $930 million in free cash flow2 in the second quarter - up 2% and 10% year over year, respectively. EMC ended the quarter with $14.6 billion in cash and investments. The company repurchased ~$600 million worth of its common stock in the second quarter and returned ~$200 million to shareholders via a quarterly dividend. In addition, EMC's Board of Directors has approved an acceleration of EMC's share buyback plan for 2014 from $2 billion to $3 billion. Including the accelerated buyback and EMC's increased dividend (announced in the first quarter of 2014), EMC expects to return more than $7 billion to shareholders over the course of 2013 and 2014. Geography:EMC's consolidated second-quarter revenue from the United States was up 3% year over year at $3.1 billion, representing 52% of consolidated second-quarter revenue. Revenue from EMC's business operations outside of the United States increased 7% year over year to $2.8 billion representing 48% of consolidated second-quarter revenue. Within this, revenue from EMC's Europe, Middle East and Africa region grew 12% year over year and revenue from EMC's Latin America region grew 14% year over year. Revenue from the BRIC+13 markets grew 5% year over year.

6:29 am ReneSola sells 40 energy storage systems to Think Green Energy (SOL) : Co announced the delivery of 30 ReneSola Novaplus 2KW energy storage systems to a national distributor in Chelmsford for onward sale to Essex installation company Think Green Energy. An additional 10 units are on order for use by Think Green Energy customers in the southeast of England.

Since the start of the third quarter, no sector in the S&P 500 has done better than the information technology sector. It is up 3.6% after padding its gain on Tuesday with a 0.9% advance that kept it ahead of the broader market.

The catalysts for the positive bias boiled down largely to the following factors:

Reassuring earnings results and guidance from Texas Instruments (TXN 49.12, -0.05) and Sanmina (SANM 24.00, +1.65)New product buzz surrounding Apple (AAPL 94.72, +0.78), with reports revolving around the possible introduction of an iWatch and/or iPhones with a larger screen sizeA Wall Street Journal article, citing people familiar with the matter, said Apple is asking suppliers to produce between 70 million and 80 million iPhones with 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch displays by December 30The news preceded Apple's earnings report after Tuesday's closeThe expectation that good earnings news out of the sector would continue with earnings results from Apple, Microsoft (MSFT 44.83, -0.01), Broadcom (BRCM 38.75, +0.12), Electronic Arts (EA 38.42, unch), Linear Technology (LLTC 47.67, +0.35), Juniper Networks (JNPR 24.82, +0.37), and Xilinx (XLNX 48.15, -0.18) after Tuesday's closePrior to Monday's close, S&P Capital IQ noted that 15 companies in the information technology sector had reported results and that 73% of those companies had exceeded consensus EPS estimates
Continued price momentum of large-cap issues
Netflix (NFLX 431.09, -20.86) was a notable laggard in Tuesday's session. It tumbled after its earnings results with reports attributing the weakness to concerns surrounding the stock's valuation and higher expenses related to the company's plans to invest in international markets.

In other developments, it was reported that Yahoo (YHOO 33.60, +0.32) bought startup company Flurry in a bid to enhance its competitive position in the mobile market.

The press release indicates Flurry's analytics product sees activity from more than 540,000 smartphone and tablet apps on over 1.4 bln devices worldwide, enabling the company to have a deep understanding of mobile consumer behavior. A purchase price was not provided, although a subsequent Bloomberg News report that ran in the San Jose Mercury News, and cited people familiar with the matter, said Yahoo paid more than $300 mln.

On a related note, comScore released its June 2014 U.S. search engine rankings. Yahoo Sites placed third with 9.8% of the core search market. Google Sites (GOOG 594.74, +5.27) ranked first with 67.6% market share followed by Microsoft Sites with 19.2%.

The only ratings change of note centered on Amazon.com (AMZN 360.84, +1.08), which was downgraded by Citigroup to Neutral from Buy. The downgrade, which also carried a cut in the firm's price target to $395 from $414, was predicated in part on concerns about lingering margin pressures. Amazon, though, traded through the downgrade and logged a modest gain in Tuesday's trading. Amazon is slated to report its second quarter results after the close on July 24.

While Texas Instruments succumbed to some sell-the-news pressure after its earnings report (it had risen nearly 10% since May 15), its weakness didn't prevent the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ("SOX") from outperforming with a 0.7% gain. A 2.3% jump in Qualcomm (QCOM 81.53, +1.86), which was aided by news its Snapdragon chip will be carried in the new Xiaomi Mi 4 phone, helped the cause. Tuesday's gain left the SOX Index up a remarkable 21.4% year-to-date.

Postscript:

After the close, Apple, Electronic Arts, Broadcom, Juniper Networks, and Xilinx reported EPS results ahead of expectations. Linear Technology had not yet reported as of this posting.

Microsoft reported diluted EPS of $0.55 on a GAAP basis for its fiscal fourth quarter, which included an $0.08 per share loss tied to its acquisition of Nokia's handset business. Initial reports say the GAAP result was below expectations.