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From Briefing.com: 4:40PM Texas Instruments misses by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (TXN) 17.98 +0.33 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.43 per share, $0.01 worse than the First Call consensus of $0.44; revs fell 8% year/year to $3.39 bln vs $3.40 bln First Call consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.26-0.32, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.43 consensus; sees Q4 revs of $2.830-3.070 bln vs. $3.34 bln consensus. This Q4 EPS estimate excludes a $0.05 benefit from the reinstatement of the federal research tax credit, which was signed into law in October 2008 and was retroactive to the beginning of the year. The estimate also excludes charges of about $0.01 per share associated with the company's restructuring actions in its Wireless business. "Our outlook for the fourth quarter is for revenue to decline substantially based on weak order trends over the past few months... TI also announced today it is taking actions that will reduce expenses by about one-third, or more than $200 million annualized, in its Wireless business, especially in its cellular baseband operation. The company is also actively pursuing the sale of the merchant portion of this operation and is in discussions with potential buyers. In the custom portion of this operation, TI will continue to support select programs."

4:09PM SanDisk misses by $0.32, beats on revs (SNDK) 14.42 -1.09 : Reports Q3 (Sep) loss of $0.59 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.32 worse than the First Call consensus of ($0.27); revenues fell 20.8% year/year to $821.5 mln vs the $778.1 mln consensus. "While third quarter revenue was down year-over-year, record megabyte sales demonstrate the resiliency and breadth of our channels and the elasticity of our end markets in the face of deteriorating global macroeconomic conditions. However, excess inventories resulted in severe pricing pressures and a disappointing loss for the quarter including $109 million of inventory related charges. To further strengthen our balance sheet we are taking decisive actions including: restructuring of our Fab joint ventures, deep cuts to our 2009 fab capacity investments, and substantial expense reduction measures for 2009..."

5:25PM LSI and Seagate extend strategic relationship (LSI) 4.13 +0.06 : LSI announced that Seagate (STX) has awarded the co multiple mainstream desktop and notebook hard disk drive system-on-chip (SoC) design wins for platforms expected to ship in the 2010 and 2011 timeframes. STX has also awarded LSI a SoC design for future solid state drive products. These wins are in addition to two future generations of SoC designs targeting the enterprise space that were previously awarded to LSI and are expected to ship in 2010.

4:15PM Fairchild Semi and Alpha & Omega Semiconductor resolve patent dispute (FCS) 5.64 -0.36 : The co and Alpha & Omega Semiconductor announce that they have signed a settlement and cross license agreement, ending a patent dispute that began in 2007. The settlement encompasses actions that each party has filed in the U.S. as well as in Taiwan. The parties announced that AOS will make a one time non-material payment to Fairchild, but otherwise the terms of the settlement and cross license agreement were not released. The parties will file requests for dismissal of all outstanding lawsuits in the appropriate courts.

4:06PM Volterra Semi reports EPS in-line, beats on revs (VLTR) 9.40 +0.51 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.25 per share, in-line with the First Call consensus of $0.25; revenues rose 62.2% year/year to $30.6 mln vs the $30 mln consensus.

4:20 pm : Stocks rallied Monday as investors welcomed positive developments in the credit markets and Fed Chairman Bernanke supporting the idea of a second fiscal stimulus package.

In the end, the S&P 500 rallied 4.8%, settling at session highs thanks to a late-session surge in buying interest. Strength was mostly broad-based, with all ten sectors posting a gain. Volume, however, was on the light side with only 1.23 billion shares exchanging hands on the NYSE, compared to the one-year average of 1.49 billion.

During testimony to the House Budget Committee, Fed Chairman Bernanke said he feels the government's recent efforts will help restore the financial system, but cautioned the stabilization of the financial system will not quickly eliminate economic challenges.

Given the likelihood of a weak economy for several quarters, Bernanke said it would be appropriate for Congress to consider a second fiscal stimulus. He feels that a fiscal package should be targeted to boost overall spending and economic activity, aimed at improving credit for consumers, home buyers, business and other buyers and limit long-term effects on the government's budget deficit.

Meanwhile, overseas governments took more actions to help alleviate the financial market turmoil. India cut its key lending rate for the first time since 2004, South Korea said it will guarantee some of the foreign debt held by its banks, and the Netherlands is injecting approximately $13 billion in ING (ING 12.93, +2.28).

Credit markets continue to show improvements. Short-term interbank lending in dollars, measured by Libor, declined across all terms. The difference between what banks pay each other for three-month loans and what the government pays, known as the TED Spread, declined 65 basis points to 2.96%. The TED Spread is well off its 4.34% high reached on October 10, but levels remain substantially above the historically average of roughly 0.4%.

In corporate news, utility company Exelon (EXC 54.58, +0.08) made an unsolicited proposal to acquire NRG Energy (NRG 25.00, +5.67) for $26.43 per share, or $6.2 billion, in stock. The offer represents a 37% premium to Friday's closing level. The utilities sector as a whole climbed 8.1%.

Eaton (ETN 45.05, +0.63), Halliburton (HAL 20.80, +2.54), and Hasbro (HAS 28.79, -1.33) topped estimates for their respective latest quarters. On the negative side, Novartis AG (NVS 52.16, +1.22) and Mattel (MAT 14.07, -0.38) reported earnings that fell short of expectations.

The better-than-expected results from Halliburton, and a 3.8% gain in oil prices, helped the energy sector spike 11.2%.

The financial sector (+2.8%) underperformed on a relative basis, with notable weakness in retail (-3.4%) and industrial (-2.1%) REITs.

In economic news, September leading indicators rose 0.3%, although August's decline of 0.5% was widened to 0.9%. Economists had forecast a drop of 0.1% in September. The leading indicators report is mostly a collection of previously announced economic indicators.DJ30 +413.21 NASDAQ +58.74 SP500 +44.85 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2099/2.05 bln/696 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2657/1.23 bln/492

3:41AM LDK Solar signs seven-year wafer supply contract (LDK) 20.10 : Co announces that it has signed a seven-year contract to supply multicrystalline solar wafers to Italy-based Helios Technology. Under the terms of the agreement, LDK Solar will deliver approx 70 MW of multicrystalline silicon solar wafers over a seven-year period, commencing in 2009 and extending through 2015.

3:14AM SanDisk and Toshiba restructure flash manufacturing joint ventures (SNDK) 15.51 : Co announces that it has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Toshiba to sell approx 30% of the current manufacturing capacity of the parties' joint ventures to Toshiba. SanDisk expects to receive cash and reduce equipment lease obligations by approx $1 bln through this transaction.