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From Briefing.com: 4:18 pm Lam Research beats by $0.06, reports revs in-line; guides Q3 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (LRCX) : Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $1.19 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.13; revenues rose 6.9% year/year to $1.23 bln vs the $1.23 bln consensus.

Co issues mixed guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $1.23-1.37, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.30 Capital IQ Consensus Estimatesees Q3 revs of $1.365-1.375 bln vs. $1.34 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:18 pm MagnaChip Semi updates timeline for restatement; expects to file late quarterly and annual reports during the week of February 9, 2015; no later than February 13, 2015 (MX) :

4:10 pm Mellanox Tech beats by $0.15, beats on revs; guides Q1 revs above consensus (MLNX) : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.59 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.15 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.44; revenues rose 33.7% year/year to $141.1 mln vs the $135.2 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $140-145 mln vs. $135.12 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Non-GAAP gross margins were 72.3% vs 69.0% a year ago, non-GAAP operating margin was 20.6%."We are pleased with the results of the quarter. They were achieved by the adoption of 40 Gigabit Ethernet by some of our leading customers, the growth in high-performance computing deployments with our increased market share and additional penetration into Web 2.0, storage and cloud markets.""The need for faster interconnects continues to grow as data increases exponentially. We are very excited to see our 100 Gigabit per second InfiniBand interconnect solution go to market and expect to be utilized by multiple applications starting in [Q1]."

4:10 pm Intersil beats by $0.04, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (ISIL) : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.18 per share, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.14; revenues fell 10.1% year/year to $131.2 mln vs the $128.57 mln consensus.

Guidance: Co issues mixed guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.14-$0.16 vs. $0.15 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $131-$136 mln vs. $131.66 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Sees gross margin down 50-100 bps.Longer Term Target Model: Gross margin of greater than or equal to 60%, R&D expense of 20-21% of revenue, SG&A expense of 14-15% of revenue, and operating revenue of 25%.

4:09 pm Extreme Networks beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS below consensus, revs in-line (EXTR) : Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $0.05 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.04; revenues rose 0.4% year/year to $147.2 mln vs the $143.13 mln consensus.

Co issues guidance for Q3, sees EPS of ($0.03) - $0.02 vs. $0.03 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $129-139 mln vs. $136.79 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. GAAP gross margin is targeted between 51.0% and 52.0% and non-GAAP gross margin targeted between 55.0% and 56.0%. Operating expenses are targeted to be between $83 mln and $84.6 mln on a GAAP basis and $72.5 mln to $74.5 mln on a non-GAAP basis.

4:09 pm Flextronics beats by $0.04, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line (FLEX) :

Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.30 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.26; revenues fell 2.2% year/year to $7.03 bln vs the $6.62 bln consensus.
Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.23-0.27 vs. $0.24 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $6.0-6.4 bln vs. $6.18 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:07 pm Qualcomm beats by $0.09, beats on revs; guides Q2 in-line; lowers FY15 guidance (QCOM) : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $1.34 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.09 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.25; revenues rose 7.2% year/year to $7.1 bln vs the $6.95 bln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $1.28-1.40, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.28 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $6.5-7.1 bln vs. $6.72 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.Co lowers FY15 guidance: adj. EPS to $4.75-5.05 from $5.05-5.35 vs. $5.20 consensus; rev to $26-28 bln from $26.8-28.8 bln vs. $27.8 bln consensus.Co lowered its outlook for 2H15 in its semiconductor business, QCT, largely driven by the effects of: A shift in share among OEMs at the premium tier, which has reduced its near-term opportunity for sales of our integrated Snapdragon processors and has skewed its product mix towards more modem chipsets in this tier

Expectations that our Snapdragon 810 processor will not be in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer's flagship deviceand Heightened competition in China.4:04 pm Silicon Graphics beats by $0.12, beats on revs; guides MarQ below consensus; guides FY15 revs in-line; completes $70 mln financing (SGI) : Reports Q2 (Dec) net of breakeven, excluding non-recurring items, $0.12 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.12); revenues rose 19.0% year/year to $138.2 mln vs the $120.7 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q3 (Mar), sees EPS of $(0.10)-0.00, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.08 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $120-130 mln vs. $142.6 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co issues in-line guidance for FY15, sees FY15 revs of $540-560 mln vs. $551.7 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Co also announces that it has completed a $70 million three and a half year term loan financing. The proceeds will be used to fund working capital for large, recently-awarded customer contracts, to retire the Company's existing revolver, and for general corporate purposes.

4:04 pm Cirrus Logic beats by $0.22, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs above consensus (CRUS) : Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.97 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.22 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.75; revenues rose 36.5% year/year to $298.6 mln vs the $274.07 mln consensus with non-GAAP gross margin of 46.2 percent.

Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $220-240 mln vs. $197.55 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 GAAP gross margin is expected to be between 45 percent and 47 percent

4:15 pm : The stock market finished the midweek session on a lower note despite showing considerable strength in the early going. The S&P 500 (-1.4%) lost its 100-day moving average (2,010) and settled behind the Nasdaq Composite (-0.9%) while the Russell 2000 (-1.7%) lagged throughout the day.

Equities appeared to be on solid footing at the start with the Nasdaq up 1.0% after Apple (AAPL 115.31, +6.17) reported better than expected results for the quarter and issued strong guidance. The stock surged 5.7% and helped the technology sector (-0.1%) finish near its flat line while most of the remaining sectors struggled.

The benchmark index traded little changed ahead of the afternoon release of the latest policy statement from the Fed, but slumped into the close. Once again, the policy directive reiterated the Fed's intent to remain patient in determining the appropriate timing for the first rate hike, which helped send Treasuries to new highs. The 10-yr yield fell ten basis points to 1.73% while the 30-yr yield dropped 11 basis points to register its lowest close on record (2.28%).

The Fed described U.S. economic growth as 'solid' while categorizing job growth as 'strong.' The central bank did not spend much time discussing overseas developments, which could help explain some of the selling that developed after the statement was released. Furthermore, the FOMC showed little concern over low inflation, saying that while the price level is expected to decline in the near term, a gradual return to 2.0% should follow once the 'transitory effects of lower energy prices and other factors dissipate.'

Today, however, energy prices deteriorated further with crude oil dropping 3.6% to $44.53/bbl. The energy component continued slipping in electronic trade while the energy sector plunged 3.9% to widen its January decline to 5.7%.

The energy sector resides near the bottom of the January leaderboard with only financials (-2.0%) showing a larger decline for the month (-6.3%). Together, the underperformance of the pair serves as a reminder of the global growth concerns that have been at the forefront so far in 2015.

Elsewhere among influential sectors, consumer discretionary (-1.3%) and health care (-1.5%) finished a little behind the market while industrials (-0.9%) outperformed. Retailers and media names pressured the discretionary sector while biotechnology weighed on health care. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 318.98, -7.00) lost 2.2%.

For its part, the industrial space ended ahead of the broader market thanks to upbeat earnings and guidance from Dow component Boeing (BA 139.64, +7.16). In other earnings news, Electronic Arts (EA 54.61, +6.20) and Freescale Semiconductor (FSL 31.16, +4.81) surged 12.8% and 18.3%, respectively, after beating estimates.

The afternoon slide fueled a rush for portfolio protection, evidenced by a 17.9% spike in the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 20.30, +3.08). The near-term volatility measure returned to last week's levels with the entire move taking place after the FOMC statement.

Today's participation was a little above average with 835 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which fell 3.2% to follow the prior week's surge of 16.1%.

Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims will be reported at 8:30 ET (Briefing.com consensus 301K) while the Pending Home Sales report for December (consensus 0.6%) will be released at 10:00 ET.


Nasdaq Composite -2.1% YTD
Russell 2000 -2.5% YTD
S&P 500 -2.8% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -3.5% YTD

DJ30 -195.84 NASDAQ -43.50 SP500 -27.39 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 714/1.96 bln/2278 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 823/835.3 mln/2307 3:45 pm :

Energy futures traded lower today, led by losses by oil futures
Mar crude oil ended the day -3.6% lower at $44.53/barrel
Mar nat gas lost 8 cents to $2.85/MMBtu
Precious metals finished the day mixed.
Mar gold lost $6.50/oz to $1285.60/oz, while Mar silver rose $0.01 to $18.09/oz

12:55 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

EA (54.74 +13.08%): Beat Q3 consensus estimates by $0.30, beat on revs; guided MarQ EPS below consensus, revs below consensus; Price target raised at Stifel, Brean Capital, Needham, others.
BA (140.78 +6.27%): Beat Q4 consensus estimates by $0.21, beat on revs; guided FY15 EPS below consensus, revs above consensus.
WDC (100.77 +3.22%): Beat Q2 consensus estimates by $0.15, beat on revs; sees Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.90-2.00 vs $2.00 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, revs of $3.6-3.7 bln vs $3.73 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; Upgraded to Buy at Longbow.

Large Cap Losers

PBR (6.79 -8.93%): Reported Q3 2014 net income of R3.087 bln vs R3.387 bln last year; Q3 EBITDA of 11.735 bln vs 13.091 bln last year.
HES (67.92 -5.15%): Reported Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.18 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.21; revenues (total revs and non-op income) fell 18.7% year/year to $2.53 bln vs the $2.06 bln consensus.
VMW (76.44 -5.18%): Beat Q4 consensus estimates by $0.01, reported revs in-line; added $1 bln to buyback; Guided Q1 & FY15 EPS and Revs below expectations; Price target lowered at UBS, FBR Capital, others.

Mid Cap Gainers

FSL (31.71 +20.34%): Beat Q4 consensus EPS estimates by $0.10, reported revs in-line; guided Q1 revs above consensus; Upgraded at Needham, Price target raised at Bernstein, Barclays, others.
TUP (67.61 +13.17%): Beat Q4 consensus estimates by $0.19, beat on revs; guided Q1 below consensus; guided FY15 EPS below consensus, revs ~in-line.
TSS (36.52 +6.72%): Reported Q4 results that beat consensus estimates by $0.05, beat on revs; guided FY15 EPS in-line, revs below consensus; announced new 20 mln share buyback.

Mid Cap Losers

UPL (12.53 -8.21%): Downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman.
OTEX (55.02 -7.67%): Reported Q2 (Dec) earnings of $0.97 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.97; revenues rose 28.7% year/year to $467.8 mln vs the $485.95 mln consensus; downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
GNTX (16.13 -7.83%): Reported Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.24 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.25; revenues rose 7.2% year/year to $350.4 mln vs the $368.18 mln consensus.

6:31 am United Micro beats by NT$0.11, beats on revs; guides Q1 (UMC) : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of NT$0.36 per share, NT$0.11 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of NT$0.25; revenues rose 5.7% year/year to NT$37.23 bln vs the NT$36.43 bln consensus.

Quarter-over-Quarter Q1 Guidance: Foundry Segment Wafer Shipments: To increase by ~2-3%; Foundry Segment ASP in US$: To increase by ~3%; Foundry Segment Profitability: Gross profit margin will be in the mid-20 percentage range; Foundry Segment Capacity Utilization: ~90%; 2015 CAPEX for Foundry Segment: US$1.8bn; Guidance to New Business Segment: Revenue to be ~NT$2bn and operating loss to be ~NT$170mn