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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : A late selling effort caused stocks to close a choppy session in mixed fashion. The session's lack of direction followed disappointing housing data and a pullback by financial stocks.

News that housing starts and building permits recently fell below expectations jostled participants in the early going and undermined what was a positive bias ahead of the opening bell. Housing starts during April came in at an annualized rate of 458,000, while building permits for April hit a rate of 494,000. Both marked record lows.

However, there is a silver lining to the report. Fewer housing starts and building permits means there will be fewer homes on the market, which should help clear the glut of existing homes and improve pricing.

Contrasting its performance in the prior session, financials were the worst performing sector in the S&P 500. They finished 2.6% lower amid weakness in consumer finance stocks and banking stocks.

Consumer finance companies (-4.8%) saw their shares come under increased pressure following news that the Senate has passed legislation to place new restrictions on the credit card industry. Dow component American Express (AXP 24.79, -1.34) showed particular weakness, even though the company announced plans to save $800 million this year by slashing jobs, investments, and costs.

Diversified banks dropped 4.9% as participants shrugged off news that the Fed has expanded collateral eligible under its TALF to include high-quality commercial mortgage-backed securities in order to ease balance sheet pressures. The Fed's announcement was made in the wake of a report from The Wall Street Journal that suggested commercial real-estate loans could generate $100 billion in bank losses by next year.

Meanwhile, CNBC reported that TARP repayment announcements will not be made until after June 8, and that the Treasury will announce a process for auctioning TARP warrants in the next several days.

On a similar note, Financial Times reported that Britain has begun talks with sovereign wealth funds and other investors about selling stakes in its part-nationalized banks.

Health care stocks also traded as laggards. They finished with a 0.6% loss, though AmerisourceBergen (ABC 35.96, +0.38) showed strength after it announced better-than-expected earnings, raised its guidance, hiked its quarterly dividend by 20%, and issued a 2-for-1 stock split.

There weren't many earnings reports for participants to assess this session. However, Dow component Home Depot (HD 24.63, -1.39) did post better-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter. That wasn't enough to win the company favor among participants, though. The stock surrendered nearly all of its gains from the prior session, and traded as a laggard among retailers, which finished the session 0.3% higher.

Utilities made up the best performing sector by finishing 1.7% higher. The strong performance followed a flat finish in the prior session, and losses in the three preceding sessions.

Only a handful of companies are scheduled to announce earnings results ahead of tomorrow's opening bell. The minutes from the FOMC's April 29 meeting are due at 2:00 PM ET and should help provide investors with details regarding the Fed's quantitative easing efforts.DJ30 -29.23 NASDAQ +2.18 NQ100 +0.4% R2K -0.3% SP400 +0.2% SP500 -1.58 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1348/2.13 bln/1315 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1806/1.35 bln/1219

4:13PM Hewlett-Packard reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q3 EPS in-line; reaffirms FY09 EPS guidance, see revs at lower end of prior range (HPQ) 36.58 +0.85 : Reports Q2 (Apr) earnings of $0.86 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the First Call consensus of $0.86; revenues fell 5.0% year/year to $27.35 bln vs the $27.42 bln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.88-0.90 vs. $0.89 consensus; sees Q3 revs flat to down 2% vs current consensus for roughly flat sequential revs. Co reaffirms guidance for FY09, sees EPS of $3.76-3.88 vs. $3.71 consensus. HPQ sees FY09 revs down 4-5% vs current consensus of a ~4% decline and previous guidance of down 2-5%. "Our services business continued to deliver strong profitability with an increased deal pipeline and the EDS integration tracking ahead of schedule."

4:06PM Analog Devices beats by $0.12, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (ADI) 20.58 +0.68 : Reports Q2 (Apr) earnings of $0.21 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.12 better than the First Call consensus of $0.09. ADI gross margin 55.1% vs 53.5% consensus; Q2 revenues decreased 27% y/y to $475 mln compared to First Call consensus of $427 mln. Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of 0.17-0.19 vs. $0.11 consensus; sees Q3 revs 'flat sequentially' (~$475 mln) vs. $441.76 mln consensus. Regarding the outlook for Q3 co stated, "Orders to ADI and our distributors recovered significantly in the second quarter, as customer inventory reductions subsided. Our book-to-bill ratio for the second quarter, as measured by end customer bookings, was slightly above one for the first time since the third quarter of fiscal 2008, and our third quarter opening backlog was up from last quarter. In addition, order levels were stable throughout the second quarter and have remained at these levels through the first two weeks of May. Nevertheless, our lead times remain short and we are still receiving a significant portion of new orders as turns orders, thereby limiting visibility. Given these factors, we're planning for our third quarter revenue to be approximately flat on a sequential basis. We plan to continue to reduce inventories in the third quarter, and to keep very tight control over operating expenses. As a result, we expect gross margins to be approximately 54% to 55%, depending on end market revenue mix and factory utilization, and are planning for operating expenses to remain approximately flat sequentially. In addition, we expect our tax rate to be approximately 21% for the remainder of the fiscal year. As a result, we are planning for diluted EPS from continuing operations for the third quarter to be approximately $0.17 to $0.19."

4:06PM Hewlett-Packard spiking down over a point following earnings (HPQ) 36.63 +0.90 : $35 is support, while support at $34 is even stronger. Last trade at $35.75

4:06PM Electro Scientific announces that has adopted a new shareholder rights agreement; terms of the new rights agreement are virtually identical to the terms of ESI's prior rights agreement (ESIO) 8.70 -0.04 :

4:05PM Nanometrics announces the shipment of a Lynx cluster metrology system (NANO) 1.73 +0.01 :

10:16AM VIX Volatility Index moves below the 30.00 mark to lowest level since Sept 19, 2008... VIX is currently -0.33 at 29.91 :

7:48AM JA Solar misses by $0.13, misses on revs; believes unlikely to hit prior guidance (JASO) 3.24 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.18 per share, $0.13 worse than the First Call consensus of ($0.05); revenues fell 79.4% year/year to $33.9 mln vs the $107.9 mln consensus. The first quarter results and the continuing market uncertainty are translating into less visibility for the coming quarters. At this time, JA Solar believes it is unlikely to achieve the results as given in the 2009 guidance provided on March 10, 2009, which was for revs of $830-952 mln (consensus is $734 mln) and production output of 500 MW to 550 MW. JA Solar has no plans to give further guidance on its 2009 rev or production unless and until the co has better visibility of the global solar market conditions in the coming quarters. Co says, "The global industry conditions were particularly difficult, with the market affected by worse than normal seasonality, a weak macro-economic environment and the continuing impact of the credit crisis resulting in some issues with customer project financing. However, we are actively managing our business to prepare for what we hope to be the market's recovery in the latter part of this year and we are seeing encouraging signs of market improvement in key end markets. We have sufficient liquidity to sustain the current downturn and we are positioning ourselves for growth in the second half of 2009 and beyond."

7:33AM Solarfun Power beats by $0.15, reports revs in-line (SOLF) 5.07 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.02 per share, $0.15 better than the First Call consensus of ($0.17); revenues fell 41.5% year/year to $100.1 mln vs the $100.1 mln consensus. Gross margin improved to 7.2% from negative 33.7% in 4Q08. Average selling price (ASP) declined further, as expected, to US$2.78 from US$3.37 in 4Q08 due to the competitive environment. The co previously announced signed contracts with key customers totaling 200 MW and is actively negotiating others. Excluding the aforementioned manufacturing services agreement with Q-Cells, Solarfun has an ongoing dialogue with other customers to ensure that both partners find a sustainable way forward on these contracts. They note, however, that this is a very fluid business environment and their ability to predict is less certain. The co continues to expect full-year demand to exceed these levels as markets rebound and begin to build momentum, particularly in the latter half of 2009. Co says, "We continue to remain optimistic for the remainder of 2009 and beyond. With both module and raw material prices declining, we think volume growth is imminent. Incentives already in place, and new ones from the United States and China in particular, bode well for a resumption of healthy growth in the long term."

7:02AM Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft expand alliance in unified communications and collaboration (HPQ) 35.73 : Co and Microsoft (MSFT) announce a four-year strategic global initiative to deliver an end-to-end unified communications and collaboration solution. As part of their Frontline Partnership, the two companies expect to invest up to an additional $180 mln in product development, professional services, as well as joint sales and marketing, to help organizations lower costs and improve productivity.

09:41 am Microchip initiated with a Buy at Caris & Company; tgt $26: . Caris & Company initiates MCHP with a Buy and price target of $26. The firm believes that the co is a unique microcontroller pure play possessing one of the highest quality chip business models. The firm notes that they expect increasingly-visible 16-bit MCU rev growth in 2009, a rebound in analog, and emerging 32-bit MCU growth in 2010. The firm believes that competitors TXN, SLAB, and ATML bear watching, though fieldwork suggests MCHP software, training, and online resource advantages are powerful tailwinds, while the combination of competitors NEC and Renesas create a share gain opportunity. Additionally, mgmt team stability and experience lend ballast to execution prospects while small technology and product deals enhance 2-3 year growth prospects.