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From Briefing.com: Wednesday trading ended split as the Dow and S&P 500 was higher, but the Nasdaq dragged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average led the way higher by 183.12 points (+1.13%) to 16336.66 as March Crude Oil Futures ended today's session higher by 8% to $32.29/barrel. The S&P 500 was higher by 9.50 points (+0.50%) to 1912.53. The Nasdaq Composite was weak today, down 12.71 points (-0.28%) to 4504.24. A late session surge took all three US indices for a ride, as dovish remarks from New York Fed President and FOMC voting member William Dudley impacted the markets. President Dudley stated that conditions have tightened since the December rate increase and that additional strength from the dollar could have "significant consequences".

Market data today came in the form of the MBA Mortgage Index, which showed a seasonally adjusted decline of 2.6% in mortgage applications. Additionally, the January ADP Employment Change showed 205,000 positions were added to private sector payrolls in January. The ISM non-Manufacturing Index for January dipped to 53.5 from an upwardly revised 55.8 reading for December (from 55.3).

Technology (XLK 40.60, -0.05 -0.12%) also displayed weakness, ending just below flat lines. Shares of component Autodesk (ADSK 49.56, +3.67 +8.00%) were particularly strong today as the company announced a restructuring plan to accelerate the transition to the cloud and subscription businesses. As part of the transition, ADSK will reduce staff by 10% and as a result will taking pre-tax charges of $85 million to $95 million in connection with the restructuring. Other sectors finished the middle of the week XLE +3.56%, XLB +3.36%, XLI +1.62%, XLU +1.24%, IYZ +1.21%, XLV +0.66%, XLF +0.10%, XLP -0.22%, XLY -0.26% led by a rebound in Energy.

Networking (IGN 32.01, +0.54 +1.72%) names displayed relative strength today as component Viavi (VIAV 5.85, +0.82 +16.30%) reported better than expected Q2 results. The company also authorized a $100 million stock repurchase program. Other components which displayed relative strength included FNSR +6.2%, INFN +5.6%, PLT +5..3%, CIEN +4.6%.

Social Media (SOCL 17.98, -0.16 -0.88%) names were pressured today by component Yahoo!'s (YHOO 27.68, -1.38 -4.75%) quarterly results and guidance. The company reported in-line Q4 EPS, and better than expected revenues. However, the story of the report was the worse than expected Q1 and FY16 guidance. Other components which displayed weakness today included LNKD -5.99%, DMD -4.99%, GOOGL -4.04%, NTES -3.37%, P -3.19%, YELP -2.54%.

Action in the S&P 500 Information Technology sector (671.06, -2.52 -0.37%) displayed relative weakness as the sector finished just below flat lines. Shares of component Fiserv (FISV 94.89, +1.85 -1.99%) were modestly higher today as the company reported in-line Q4 EPS but worse than expected revenues. Also, FISV gave in-line FY16 EPS guidance. Other components which were HPQ -2.33%, MCHP -1.99%, TEL -1.84%, EA -1.73%, FB -1.68%, ACN -1.66%, MSFT -1.58%, AVGO -1.41%, TXN -0.77%.

Other news items among sector components:

Autodesk (ADSK) announced a restructuring plan that will accelerate the move to the cloud and its transition to a subscription-based business model. ADSK plans to reduce staffing levels in the near-term by about 10%, or about 925 positions, and to consolidate certain leased facilities. ADSK also expects these actions will result in additional cost savings in fiscal 2017 and beyond, while reinvesting a portion of the savings in areas critical to its platform and business model transition. ADSK anticipates taking pre-tax charges of $85 million to $95 million in connection with the restructuring. It also expects to be at the high end or exceed its guidance ranges for billings, revenue, non-GAAP EPS, and net subscription additions for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016.

IBM (IBM 124.72, +1.78 +1.45%) signed an agreement to acquire ecx.io -- a full-service digital agency headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Arista Networks (ANET 61.95, +4.31 +7.48%) responded to the Initial Determination made by the Administrative Law Judge today in their International Trade Commission Investigation No. 337-TA-944 with

Cisco (CSCO 23.10, +0.27 +1.18%).

Yahoo! (YHOO) announced an aggressive strategic plan to simplify the company, narrowing its focus on areas of strength to better fuel growth, drive revenue and increase efficiency in 2016 and beyond. The Board will pursue reverse spin concurrent with other strategic alternatives.

Corning's (GLW 18.38, +0.29 +1.60%) Board of Directors increased GLW's quarterly dividend of $0.135 from $0.12 per share.

Xilinx (XLNX 48.55, +0.05 +0.10%) announced a new Data Center Ecosystem Investment Program to be administered through its corporate venture arm, Xilinx Technology Ventures.

Accenture (ACN 102.10, -1.75 -1.69%) has completed its acquisition of Formicary, a leading provider of systems integration and technology consulting services for trading platforms in the UK and North America.

Qualcomm's (QCOM 44.73, +1.58 +3.66%) Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and Deutsche Telekom (DTEGY 17.48, +0.30 +1.75%) announced through the aggregation of licensed and unlicensed spectrum bands, recent testing demonstrated LTE Licensed-Assisted Access' (LAA) ability to extend coverage and increase network capacity, while delivering seamless mobility, for an enhanced end user experience. It also ensures a fair coexistence with Wi-Fi in unlicensed spectrum.

Salesforce (CRM 65.34, +0.82 +1.27%) introduced the next generation of its Customer Success Platform, Salesforce Lightning, and previewed its product strategy for the first half of its current fiscal year.

Elsewhere in the technology space:

Amdocs (DOX 55.56, +0.53 +0.96%) increased its quarterly dividend to $0.195 from $0.17 per share. Additionally, DOX added $750 million to the existing share repurchase plan.

Viavi (VIAV 5.85, +0.82 +16.30%) appointed Oleg Khaykin as CEO.

DragonWave (DRWI 0.08, -0.00 -4.49%) confirmed 1:25 reverse share split.

GrubHub (GRUB 19.08, +0.12 +0.63%) expanded its delivery service to Washington D.C.

Zillow (ZG 19.51, -0.30 -1.51%) to acquire Naked Apartments for $13 million in cash.

Marketo (MKTO 17.68, -0.28 -1.56%) named Jason Hoffman Chief Security Officer.

In reaction to quarterly results:

Automatic Data (ADP 82.15, -0.02 -0.02%) reported better than expected Q2 EPS of $0.74 on revenues which rose 5.8% year-over-year to $2.81 billion. The company also raised its bookings forecast for 2016 - and now sees worldwide bookings growth of at least 12% compared to the prior forecast of at least 10% growth.

Yahoo! (YHOO) reported Q4 EPS which was in-line at $0.13 on revenues which were better than expected yet fell 15.0% year-over-year to $1 billion.

Fiserv (FISV) reported in-line Q4 EPS of $1.00 on worse than expected revenues of $1.37 billion. The company also issued in-line guidance for FY16 EPS of $4.32-4.44 per share.

Amdocs (DOX) reported in-line Q1 EPS and revenues of $0.86 and $921.51 million, respectively. The company also gave in-line Q2 EPS and revenue guidance of $0.84-0.90 and $905-945 million, respectively.

Match Group (MTCH 10.66, -1.53 -12.55%) reported better than expected Q4 EPS of $0.24 on worse than expected revenues of $267.6 million.

Viavi (VIAV) reported better than expected Q2 EPS and revenues of $0.11 and $232.1 million, respectively. The company also gave in-line Q3 EPS and revenue guidance of $0.07-0.09 and $210-226 million, respectively.

Companies reporting quarterly results tonight/before the open tomorrow: HIVE BRKS CACI CDNS CSGS EXAR GLUU GPRO IMPV IVAC MCHP NXPI SPSC TTWO WSTL XCOM/ARW BCE BR CARB IT GRUB HIMX LVLT LQDT MMS RSTI SQNS TDC UTEK WILN

Analyst actions:

INTC upgraded to Neutral,
SWKS to Buy at Goldman, NPTN upgraded to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James,
ESIO upgraded to Buy from Hold at Needham,
SYNT upgraded to Buy from Hold at Maxim Group,
STWRY upgraded to Hold from Sell at Kepler;
YHOO downgraded at Rosenblatt and Axiom Capital,
ISIL downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup,
MCHP, TXN, SEMI downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman,
TER, QRVO downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman

4:16 pm Cisco Systems announces intent to acquire Jasper Technologies for $1.4 bln in cash, assumed equity awards, & retention based incentives (CSCO) : Jasper Technologies is a privately held company based in Santa Clara that delivers a cloud-based IoT service platform to help enterprises and service providers launch, manage and monetize IoT services on a global scale. Both companies will host a joint investor and press call on February 3 at 2:00 PM PST to discuss the proposed transaction.

4:11 pm Exponent beats by $0.04, beats on revs (EXPO) :

Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.36 per share, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.32; revenues rose 0.1% year/year to $73.68 mln vs the $71.2 mln Capital IQ Consensus.Exponent announced that it increased its quarterly cash dividend from $0.15 per share to $0.18 per share and reiterated its intent to continue to pay quarterly dividends. Additionally, the Company continues an active stock repurchase program with $46.8 mln currently authorized and available."Looking forward to fiscal 2016, we expect growth in revenues before reimbursements to be in the mid-single digits. We believe our underlying growth will be in the high single digits, but will be partially offset by the completion of a major project during the third quarter of 2015. We expect that 2016 EBITDA1 margin will decline approximately 50 to 100 basis points as compared to 2015, as a result of slightly lower utilization."

4:11 pm Cadence Design beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 EPS in-line, revs above consensus; guides FY16 EPS in-line, revs in-line (CDNS) :

Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.31 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.29; revenues rose 4.2% year/year to $441.1 mln vs the $440.4 mln Capital IQ Consensus. Co issues guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.26-0.28, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.26 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $440-450 mln vs. $433.7 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co issues in-line guidance for FY16, sees EPS of $1.15-1.25, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.18 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY16 revs of $1.79-1.84 bln vs. $1.81 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:10 pm Exar reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line (EXAR) :

Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.07 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.07; revenues fell 15.6% year/year to $37.4 mln vs the $37.34 mln Capital IQ Consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.08-0.10, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.09 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of +0-5% QoQ to $37.4-39.3 mln vs. $38.62 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:05 pm Westell Tech misses by $0.01, misses on revs (WSTL) :

Reports Q3 (Dec) loss of $0.05 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 worse than the single analyst estimate of ($0.04); revenues rose 43.9% year/year to $20.2 mln vs the $21.25 mln single analyst estimate."Westell's third quarter results showed continued progress in executing our growth and operational turnaround strategy. Revenue grew 44% compared to the same quarter last year, while down sequentially as expected. Additionally, Intelligent Site Management revenue grew to its highest quarterly level in two years, contributing to a CSG segment gross margin above 40%,"

4:15 pm : The stock market ended a volatile Wednesday session on a mixed note as the major averages rallied off their opening lows. Today's advance can be attributed to a lockstep rally in oil, an easing of the strong dollar, and dovish remarks from New York Fed President and FOMC voting member William Dudley. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.1%) finished ahead of the S&P 500 (+0.5%) and the Nasdaq Composite (-0.3%).

Today's session began on a lower note as equities sold off after January's reading of the ISM Service Index showed a faster than expected deceleration in the service sector. Relief from the heavy selling pressure came from an unexpected source, as oil rebounded despite bearish readings from both the API and EIA weekly inventory reports. Oil was able to rally as participants viewed a nosedive in the U.S. Dollar Index to be more beneficial to the commodity than the impact from a larger than expected inventory build. WTI crude closed its session 8.0% higher at $32.29/bbl.

Divergence in monetary policy between central banks had strengthened the U.S. dollar through 2015, but a string of poorer than anticipated economic data has called future rate increases into question. Underpinning this idea were statements from New York Fed President and FOMC voting member William Dudley, who stated that financial conditions have tightened since December's rate increases and that additional strength from the dollar could have "significant consequences" for the U.S. economy.

Commodity-sensitive materials (+3.3%) and energy (+4.0%) were able to top the leaderboard throughout the day while heavyweights financials (-0.1%), consumer discretionary (-0.3%), and technology (-0.4%) underperformed.

The energy space was able rally as strength from oil pushed the sector higher. Energy giant Exxon Mobil (XOM 78348, +3.89) outperformed in the group with a gain of 5.2% as the company recovered from yesterday's post-earnings sell off. Anadarko Petroleum (APC 42.49, +3.23) was able to continue its strong showing from yesterday's earnings report, climbing 8.2%.

The beleaguered financial sector saw early pressure but was able to shape a nice reversal in the afternoon. Supporting this move was a reversal in money center banks like Bank of America (BAC 13.03, -0.20) and Wells Fargo (WFC 47.60, -0.85), both of which were down more than 3.9% before ending their days with respective losses of 1.5% and 1.8%.

In the heavyweight technology space, Facebook (FB 112.69, -1.92) ended its post-earnings winning streak. The stock lost 2.0% today but remains up 19.3% since last Wednesday's report. Alphabet (GOOGL 749.38, -31.53) continued to struggle to capitalize on its earnings beat, declining 4.0%.

In the health care space (+0.5%), biotechnology showed early weakness but ended the day ahead of the broader sector. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 264.00, +2.99) ended its day higher by 1.2%.

Today's participation followed recent tradition with more than a billion shares changing hands on the NYSE floor.

Treasuries ended their day on their lows with the yield on the 10-yr note higher by three basis points at 1.88%.

Today's economic data included the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, the ADP Employment Change for January, and January's ISM Services Index:

The MBA Mortgage Index showed a seasonally adjusted decrease of 2.6% in mortgage applications from last week's reading of an increase of 8.8%.
The January ADP Employment Change showed 205,000 positions were added to private sector payrolls in January (Briefing.com consensus 190,000).
The job gains were centered in small and medium-sized businesses, which showed increases of 79,000 and 82,000, respectively.
They came almost entirely from the service-providing sector, which produced 192,000 new positions, including 44,000 in the professional and business sector.
The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for January dipped to 53.5 (Briefing.com consensus 55.0) from an upwardly revised 55.8 reading for December (from 55.3).
This report is bothersome from a broader standpoint since it lends weight to the notion that the manufacturing slowdown is having a spillover effect on the services side of the economy, which accounts for the vast majority of GDP.
The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index has been trending lower since last July when it peaked at 59.6.
The January reading is the lowest level for the index since March 2014, yet it still marks the 72nd consecutive month of being above 50.0.
The providers of the report indicate that a reading above 48.9 for the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy, and that the past relationship suggests the January reading of 53.5 corresponds to real GDP growth of 1.8% on an annualized basis.

Tomorrow's economic data includes the 7:30 ET release of the Challenger Job Cuts report while weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 275k), the preliminary Q4 Productivity (Briefing.com consensus -1.7%) and Unit Labor Cost (Briefing.com consensus 3.8%) will all be reported at 8:30 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of Factory Orders for December (Briefing.com consensus -2.6%).

Russell 2000 -11.1% YTD
Nasdaq -10.1% YTD
S&P 500 -6.4% YTD
Dow Jones -6.3% YTD

DJ30 +183.12 NASDAQ -12.71 SP500 +9.50 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1460/2.147 bln/1573 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1929/1.156 bln/1103

3:40 pm :

Another volatile day in commodities
WTI oil futures initially sold off a little, temporarily falling below $30/barrel following EIA storage data, which showed a build in oil and gasoline inventories
However, WTI oil quickly reversed course and ripped up near $32/barrel
Mar crude oil ended today's session +8% at $32.29/barrel
In other energy, Mar nat gas rose 1% to $2.04/MMBtu
Notable weakness in the dollar gave metals a hand
Mar silver rallied 3% to close floor trading at $14.73/oz, while Apr gold ended +1% at $1141.30/oz
Mar copper gained 2% to $2.10/lb

3:14 pm Marvell issues statement on Starboard's 13-D filing (MRVL) :

"Marvell regularly engages with our shareholders to understand their perspectives on the company and on our long-term growth strategy, and we welcome all constructive input. We will carefully review any suggestions Starboard or their advisors may have, as we would with any other shareholder."

"We are focused on executing our strategy as our Audit Committee is moving toward completion of the previously disclosed independent investigation of certain accounting and internal control matters and we progress toward regaining compliance with our SEC reporting obligations. The Board of Directors has engaged international executive search firms to conduct searches for additional board members and a permanent Chief Financial Officer."

10:21 am Corning increases quarterly dividend to $0.135/share from $0.12/share (GLW) : "Shareholders can expect to see us increase their dividend payments by at least 10% annually through 2019. We also plan to continue our aggressive share repurchase as part of the plan to sustain and increase shareholders' value."

Xilinx (XLNX) announced a new Data Center Ecosystem Investment Program to be administered through its corporate venture arm, Xilinx Technology Ventures. Investments made through this initiative will focus primarily on technologies that expand Xilinx's data center products. As part of this program, Xilinx recently completed its first data center ecosystem investment in TeraDeep. Through this investment, TeraDeep will continue to work closely with Xilinx to further optimize its solutions on Xilinx-based FPGA boards

7:07 am Silicon Labs beats by $0.15, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS in-line, revs in-line (SLAB) :

Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.63 per share (exceeded the high end of guidance), excluding non-recurring items, $0.15 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.48; revenues fell 1.2% year/year to $160.1 mln vs the $158.45 mln Capital IQ Consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.42-0.48, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.45 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $157-162 mln vs. $158.21 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate."Strong top line performance combined with favorable opex drove a solid beat in fourth quarter EPS," said Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Silicon Labs. "During 2015, we made significant progress in laying the foundation for our continued success as a leading supplier of silicon, software and solutions for a more connected world. Our strategic growth products, including IoT, Infrastructure and Broadcast automotive, all delivered record revenue in 2015."

7:00 am Kulicke & Soffa beats by $0.10, beats on revs; guides Q2 revs above consensus; announces product launch, receives market acceptance of packaging reflow system (KLIC) :

Reports Q1 (Dec) net of breakeven, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.10); revenues rose 1.0% year/year to $108.5 mln vs the $95.3 mln Capital IQ Consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $130-140 mln vs. $129.13 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.Co announced the launch of its IConn MEM PLUS High Performance Wire Bonder series.Co announced today that it has received its first purchase order for its APAMA (Advanced Packaging with Adaptive Machine Analytics) Advanced Packaging solution from a strategic, technology focused customer.