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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The major averages endured another whipsaw session that ended with a flat finish for the S&P 500 while the Russell 2000 (+1.1%) registered its second consecutive advance. The price-weighted Dow was the weakest performer of the day with a loss of 0.2%.

Equity indices tumbled out of the gate for the second day in a row amid broad-based selling pressure that also weighed on equities in Europe. The S&P 500 marked a session low near the 1,835 level during the first hour, but spiked more than 20 points following comments from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard. Mr. Bullard appeared on Bloomberg TV and said the Fed should consider delaying the end of its Quantitative Easing program, which is set to wind down at the October FOMC meeting.

The market jumped from lows in reaction to the comments, but it is worth noting that Mr. Bullard is not a voting FOMC member this year and only an alternate voter on next year's schedule. The non-voter status did not get in the way of a surge in equities while Minneapolis Fed President (and FOMC voter) Kocherlakota provided a similar view, saying there is more the Fed can do to achieve maximum employment.

The intraday rebound was paced by some of the groups that faced the most aggressive selling in recent days. The energy sector (+1.7%) led the way, trimming its October loss to 9.0%. Crude oil also rallied, climbing 1.0% to $82.61/bbl after recovering from its overnight low near $79.91/bbl. Meanwhile, the other commodity-linked group-materials (+1.0%)-followed not far behind.

Elsewhere, the industrial sector (+0.7%) advanced with help from transport stocks. Delta Air Lines (DAL 33.32, +0.94) jumped 2.9% after beating earnings estimates while the Dow Jones Transportation Average (+1.1%) extended this week's gain to 1.7%.

The three growth-sensitive sectors spent the entire afternoon in the green while other cyclical groups were a bit more reluctant in joining the rebound. Financials settled in-line with the S&P 500, but the sector was weighed down by Goldman Sachs (GS 172.58, -4.66), which fell 2.6% despite reporting better than expected earnings.

Also of note, the discretionary space (+0.2%) was underpinned by major apparel names like Nike (NKE 87.04, +1.86) and V F Corp (VFC 63.98, +1.18) with their strength masking a 19.4% plunge in the shares of Netflix (NFLX 361.70, -86.89). The video streaming service surpassed its earnings estimates, but guided Q4 results below consensus and said its recent price hike has resulted in slower user growth.

On the downside, the technology sector lost 0.6% even as chipmakers rallied broadly, sending the PHLX Semiconductor Index higher by 1.5%. Large cap listings kept the sector in the red with Apple (AAPL 96.26, -1.28) falling 1.3% after refreshing its product lineup during an afternoon press event. Similarly, Google (GOOGL 536.53, -4.20) lost 0.8% ahead of its quarterly report.

Treasuries ended on their lows after a steady slide from early morning highs. The 10-yr yield ticked up two basis points to 2.16%, which represented an 18-bps spike from the low.

Strong participation continued with more than a billion shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data included Initial Claims, Industrial Production, Philadelphia Fed Survey, and the NAHB Housing Market Index:

The weekly initial claims level fell to 264,000 from an unrevised 287,000, while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase to 290,000
The Department of Labor said there were no special factors influencing the report
Industrial production increased 1.0% in September after falling a downwardly revised 0.2% (from -0.1%) while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of 0.4%
Manufacturing production did a full 180 degree turnaround. After falling 0.5% in August, production rose 0.5% in September. That gain was in-line with the improvements in the Federal Reserve regional manufacturing surveys and the national ISM production index
The Philadelphia Fed's Business Outlook Survey Dipped to 20.7 in October from 22.5, while the Briefing.com consensus expected a decline to 19.8
Production levels softened as the Shipments Index fell to 16.6 from 21.6 in September
Employment conditions worsened with the Number of Employees Index falling to 12.1 from 21.2
The NAHB Housing Market Index for October fell to 54 from 59, while the Briefing.com consensus expected the reading to hold at 59

Tomorrow, September Housing Starts (Briefing.com consensus 1013K) and Building Permits (consensus 1030K) will be released at 8:30 ET while the preliminary reading of the Michigan Sentiment survey for October (expected 84.0) will cross the wires at 9:55 ET.

Nasdaq Composite +1.0% YTD
S&P 500 +0.8% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -2.8% YTD
Russell 2000 -6.8% YTD

DJ30 -24.50 NASDAQ +2.07 SP500 +0.27 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1924/2.15 bln/1052 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2202/1.03 bln/898

3:35 pm :

Crude's LoD of $79.78 was reached in early morning trading on light volume, and futures have since trended higher, rallying as much as 5 points hitting its HoD of $84.83 shortly after lunch.
Futures pulled back slightly following this mornings inventory data that showed inventories had a build of 8.923 mln (consensus called for a build of 2.7 mln), but recovered quickly.
Natural gas sold off sharply to its LoD of $3.744 after data natural gas inventory data showed a build of 94 bcf vs expectations for a build of ~91 bcf.
Nov crude oil closed the day 0.9% higher at $82.51/barrel, while Nov nat gas -0.3% at $3.97/MMBtu.
Despite settling in negative territory, gold trended higher during the pit session after hitting its LoD of $1235.2 ~15min before the US equity market opened.
Dec gold ultimately fell 0.3% at $1241.20/oz, while Dec silver lost 0.2% at $17.43/oz
Copper prices fell below $3/lb, finishing the day 0.9% lower at $2.98/lb

4:13 pm Super Micro Computer beats by $0.08, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS above consensus, revs in-line (SMCI) : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.46 per share, $0.08 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.38; revenues rose 43.5% year/year to $443.3 mln vs the $418.02 mln consensus.

Co issues mixed guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.44-0.50 vs. $0.44 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $440-480 mln vs. $449.35 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"With 57.7% of our revenue coming from systems based on our Storage, GPU/Xeon Phi, Twin, MicroCloud and Network Switches, we continue to improve margin through a mix of higher value system products...As we ship our latest X10 generation Haswell DP products, a brand new I/O optimized Ultra server architecture and industry-leading hot-swappable NVMe solutions, we are confident our technology innovation will continue to drive our growth momentum into the remainder fiscal 2015."

4:11 pm Broadcom beats by $0.07, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs in-line (BRCM) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.91 per share, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.84; revenues rose 5.3% year/year to $2.26 bln vs the $2.18 bln consensus.

Commentary: "Our strong performance was driven by the Broadband and Connectivity business and diligent expense management. Longer term, the company's renewed focus on its core businesses is expected to produce improved margins and cash flows, enabling increased capital return."

Guidance: Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $2.00-2.15 bln vs. $2.11 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Sees Non-GAAP product gross margin of 55%, +/- 75 basis points. Sees Non-GAAP Research & development and selling, general, and administrative expenses down $40-$60 mln from 3Q14.

4:10 pm Yahoo! beats by $0.19, beats on revs (YHOO) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.52 per share, $0.19 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.33; revenues were unchanged from the year-ago period at $1.09 bln.

Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities (excluding Investment in Alibaba Group equity securities) were $12 billion as of September 30, 2014 compared to $5 billion as of December 31, 2013, an increase of $7 billion.
Yahoo estimates that it will pay approximately $3.3 billion in cash taxes in the first quarter of 2015 related to the sale of Alibaba Group shares.
"We are pleased with our performance this quarter, demonstrating results that met or exceeded guidance on key metrics. We ended the quarter with over $12 billion in cash and marketable securities following the sale of 140 million shares of Alibaba stock in the IPO, which resulted in $9.4 billion in pre-tax proceeds," said Ken Goldman, CFO of Yahoo. "In Q3 and Q4 to date, we have bought back approximately $1.6 billion of our stock. Of this amount, we have returned $1.4 billion to shareholders as a part of our commitment to return at least half of the after-tax IPO proceeds. We are hopeful that we will finish the year strong, and we believe that the Company is well positioned for improved performance in 2015."

4:09 pm IRobot beats by $0.14, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS and revs mid point below consensus (IRBT) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.48 per share, $0.14 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.34; revenues rose 15.3% year/year to $143.5 mln vs the $134.49 mln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.26-0.31 vs. $0.36 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $158-167 mln vs. $167.95 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2014 was $29.7 million, compared with $17.2 million in the third quarter of 2013.

4:09 pm Cree misses non-GAAP EPS, revs in-line with preannouncement; guides Q2 below consensus (CREE) : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.24 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.11 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.35; revenues rose 9.4% year/year to $427.7 mln vs the $425.39 mln consensus.

Co lowered rev guidance to $428 mln from $440-465 mln on Oct 2; co also said GAAP EPS would be below $0.25-0.30 guidance; it came in at $0.09.

Co issues downside guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.20-0.24, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.38 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $400-420 mln vs. $444.60 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"We have good momentum in our Lighting and Power & RF segments, although fiscal Q1 results were below our targeted levels due primarily to lower than expected LED demand."

12:46 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
ILMN (179.82 +9.33%): Beat by $0.22, beat on revs; guided FY14 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus; Upgraded at Janney.
HOG (62.02 +6.24%): Beat by $0.09, missed on revs; reaffirmed 2014 shipments, op margin and CapEx guidance.
AAL (37.43 +6.27%): Strength attributed to positive Knighthead's Wagner mention at Robin Hood conference.

Large Cap Losers

CMG (609.98 -6.59%): Beat by $0.31, beat on revs; reiterated 2014 SSS guidance, warned comp improvement will decline in 2015.
KO (40.75 -5.87%): Reported EPS in-line, missed on revs; sees FY14 and FY15 results below long term targets (lowers top line target); expanded restructuring program.
LMT (171.87 -2.09%): Beat by $0.05, missed on revs; guided FY14 ~in-line; FY15 sales below estimates.

Mid Cap Gainers

WAT (106.54 +9.23%): Beat by $0.09, beat on revs; Maxim recommended investors buy shares following the strong results.
SBNY (116.29 +8.68%): Reported Q3 EPS of $1.52 vs. consensus estimates of $1.46; Upgraded to Outperform at Boenning & Scattergood, PT $125.
LXK (42.79 +7.99%): Beat by $0.13, beat on revs; guided Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line.

Mid Cap Losers

OCN (22.56 -14.09%): Reports out that the NY AG says the co sent backdated letters to mortgage borrowers (ASPS also lower on the news).
XRS (30.45 -9.64%): Beat by $0.04, missed on revs; guided Q3 revs below consensus.
GPK (10.93 -6.62%): Missed by $0.03, missed on revs; adjusted EBITDA increased 8.8% y/y to $190.6 mln

11:47 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (65) outpacing new lows (37) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAP, AAT, AFSI, AGIO, AHS, AKR, AKRX, ALX, AMRE, ANAC, ARE, AWK, BAH, BPY, BSET, CCI, CHD, CHDN, CLX, CMS, CNSL, CSX, CVGW, DPLO, DPZ, EIX, ELS, ENTA, EXR, FIZZ, FNHC, GPC, HAS, HCT, HNI, HSNI, HTLD, IBCA, ICUI, INN, KITE, KNX, KRC, LB, LSTR, MERC, MIK, MKL, MNST, NLS, NTES, ORC, RCPT, RDI, SFST, SHW, SONC, TE, UHT, UNH, UUU, VAC, VVC, WRB, ZOES

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ACUR, ALCS, ARMH, AXU, BGI, BNK, CASS, CFRX, CSGS, DDE, EGAN, EMITF, ENVI, EPAX, ESCR, FIVN, GBSN, GGB, GPRC, IBM, OIBR, OIBR.C, PSTR, PT, QEPM, RNO, SBS, SID, SMLR, STRM, SVT, TAOM, TEAR, VALE, VRNS, WF, XTLB

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: none

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: none

8:09 am Axcelis Tech 'Purion XE' High Energy System chosen by leading chipmaker in Asia Pacific region for DRAM manufacturing; scheduled to ship in Q4 (ACLS) : Co announced a new order for the Company's Purion XE single wafer, high energy implanter from a prominent chipmaker in the Asia Pacific region.

The Purion XE will be used in high volume production of DRAM devices.
The system is scheduled to ship in Q4.

7:32 am UTStarcom announced that it has won an expansion of a contract to provide packet optical transport technology to Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) (UTSI) : Co announced that it has won an expansion of a contract originally awarded in 2013 to provide packet optical transport technology to Chunghwa Telecom (CHT).

Through this expanded contract, UTStarcom further strengthens its relationship with Chunghwa, a leading integrated telecommunications service provider in Taiwan, to enhance their mobile backhaul network.
The 4G LTE infrastructure upgrade is part of CHT's continuing effort to utilize the most advanced technologies to launch better and faster broadband service experience for the growing mobile users in Taiwan.

7:04 am Microsemi announces collaboration with Broadcom (BRCM) to expand broadband product portfolio for Next Gen xDSL applications (MSCC) :

Co introduced at the Broadband World Forum (:BBWF) 2014 its new reverse power feed (:RPF) technology, a critical technology for FTTdp and G.fast deployments.
G.fast, the new xDSL standard for 1gbps over copper, has a maximum expected range of 250 meters (m).
In order to achieve the highest data rates with G.fast, shorter loop lengths are required which leads to the need for fiber to the distribution point, or FTTdp.

2:24 am ARM Holdings reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q4 revs above consensus (ARMH) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of GBP0.06 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of GBP0.06; revenues rose 6.3% year/year to GBP195.5 mln vs the GBP197.23 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of ~$350 mln vs. $345.00 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Progress on key growth drivers in Q3

43 processor licences signed across our target markets of mobile computing, enterprise infrastructure, and embedded intelligent devices
7 ARMv8-A processor licences signed, including three more licences for next generation designs
4 Mali multimedia processor licences signed, including another display processor license
5 POP IP licences signed including 4 for Cortex-A53 processors
Growth in shipments of chips based on ARM processor technology
3 billion ARM-based chips shipped, up 19% year-on-year
Strong growth in shipments of microcontrollers and enterprise infrastructure chips

Tuesday was another big day for the Nasdaq Composite (+2.4%), S&P 500 (+2.0%), and the S&P 500 information technology sector (+1.8%). It should have been, too, because the biggest of the bunch -- Apple (AAPL 102.46, +2.71) -- put up some big results for the September quarter and projected even bigger results for the December quarter.

Apple jumped 2.7%, which is a big-time move for a company with a $600 billion market capitalization. Its good earnings news and upbeat guidance, however, were even bigger for many of its suppliers which were shining from Apple's halo effect.

Qualcomm (QCOM 75.00, +1.73), RF Micro Devices (RFMD 10.75, +0.31), Avago Technologies (AVGO 82.38, +4.39), Skyworks Solutions (SWKS 54.70, +2.84), NXP Semiconductor (NXPI 64.64, +3.14), Jabil Circuit (JBL 19.18, +0.56), Flextronics (FLEX 9.18, +0.23), Amphenol (APH 49.67, +1.41) and Texas Instruments (TXN 46.77, +2.36) to name several all gained between 2% and 6% following Apple's report.

Texas Instruments helped its own cause with a better than expected third quarter report and reassuring fourth quarter outlook.

Gains in excess of 2.0% were normal for information technology sector components on Tuesday.

In fact, the only abnormal stock on Tuesday was IBM (IBM 163.23, -5.87). It dropped another 3.5% after shedding 7% on Monday following an earnings report that was every bit as disappointing as Apple's was encouraging.

There are 66 components in the information technology and all of them, except IBM, ended higher on Tuesday. The second worst-performing stock was EMC Corp. (EMC 27.20, +0.25), which gained "only" 0.9%.

It was that kind of day with Apple's report setting a good tone from the get-go. Other supportive factors included the S&P 500 slicing through resistance at the 1900-1905 barrier with ease, speculation that the ECB and People's Bank of China might see their way toward introducing even more stimulus, existing home sales being higher than expected in September, a tapering of Ebola contagion concerns, and quite simply the fear of missing out on further turnaround gains.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has been a poster child for the turnaround trade. Including Tuesday's 3.6% gain, it is up 10.2% over the last six sessions.

Postscript: After the close, Yahoo (YHOO 40.18, +0.90), which gained 2.3% during regular trading in part on speculation that going private might be a possibility for the company, reported third quarter earnings of $0.52 per share that were well ahead of analysts' expectations. Its revenues, excluding traffic acquisition costs, were up 1% from the year-ago period at $1.09 billion.

For the fourth quarter, Yahoo sees revenues, excluding traffic acquisition costs, ranging from $1.14 billion to $1.18 billion, adjusted EBITDA between $340 million and $380 million, and non-GAAP operating income between $190 million and $230 million.

YHOO shares were up 2.6% in after-hours trading as of this post.