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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Stocks spent most of the session moving sideways in choppy fashion as participants allowed the heady gains from earlier this week to consolidate. However, follow-through buying in tech helped offset weakness among financials and helped hand stocks another positive finish.

Financial stocks failed to provide leadership as participants took a breather after watching the sector climb more than 10% during the three previous sessions. That run left the sector looking ripe for some profit taking since it seemed that good news was largely priced into the sector. In turn, JPMorgan Chase (JPM 36.13, -0.13) grappled with selling pressure for virtually the entire session, even though it posted this morning better-than-expected second quarter earnings. Still, the sector was able to recover from a near 2% loss to finish with a modest 0.2% loss.

Other earnings announcements this morning were mixed. Global handset maker Nokia (NOK 13.46, -2.22) posted in-line earnings, but expects 2009 industry volumes to decline approximately 10% from 2008 levels. Baxter International (BAX 54.74, +1.65) topped earnings estimates. Marriott (MAR 20.44, -1.36) did, too, but it issued downside guidance.

Tech gets credit for providing a boon to the broader market. While the major indices were stuck in sideways movement, tech saw some follow-through from the previous session's advance and logged a 1.7% gain. What's more, many tech issues that typically lag were able garner continued support, which supports the notion that the market's overall bias has improved.

Typical tech leaders IBM (IBM 110.64, +3.42) and Google (GOOG 442.60, +4.43) were able to garner support of their own. Both companies reported their latest quarterly results after the closing bell (Note: Both firms announced earnings that topped expectations within minutes of the close). Bank of America (BAC 13.17, -0.25), Citigroup (C 3.03, -0.14), and General Electric (GE 12.40, +0.16) all report Friday morning.

With tech looking strong and buyers willing to step in, the Nasdaq registered its seventh straight gain. Such a feat hasn't been made in more than one year. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and the Dow were able to log their fourth straight gain, which hasn't been done in more than one month.

Though tech showed leadership in the latest advance, the upward move was generally broad-based as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by nearly 4-to-1 in the S&P 500.

Some of the most encouraging jobless claims data in months was met with a muted response this morning and failed to induce more than a modest, temporary uptick in stock futures ahead of the opening bell. Initial claims for the week ended July 11 came in at 522,000, which is the lowest since January. Continuing claims pulled back sharply from record highs of 6.9 million to less than 6.3 million, which is the lowest tally since April. DJ30 +95.61 NASDAQ +22.13 NQ100 +1.2% R2K +1.2% SP400 +1.4% SP500 +8.06 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1660/2.10 bln/961 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2113/1.18 bln/881

4:11PM IBM beats by $0.30; guides FY09 EPS above consensus (IBM) 110.64 +3.42 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $2.32 per share, $0.30 better than the First Call consensus of $2.02; revenues fell 13.3% year/year to $23.25 bln vs the $23.59 bln consensus. Gross profit margin was 45.5% in Q2 compared with 43.2% in 2Q08, led by improving margins in services and software. Co issues upside guidance for FY09, sees EPS of "at least $9.70" vs. $9.15 consensus and vs prior guidance of $9.20"... We are optimistic about how IBM is positioned to make the most of current growth opportunities as well as those that emerge as the economy recovers. We are well ahead of pace for our 2010 roadmap of $10 to $11 per share."

4:06PM Google beats by $0.27, reports revs in-line (GOOG) 442.60 +4.43 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $5.36 per share, ex items, $0.27 better than the First Call consensus of $5.09; revenues (after deducting traffic acquisition costs ) rose 4.5% year/year to $4.07 bln vs the $4.06 bln consensus. International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $2.91 bln, representing 53% of total revenues in the second quarter of 2009, compared to 52% in the first quarter of 2009 and second quarter of 2008. Paid Clicks - Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 15% over the second quarter of 2008 and decreased approximately 2% over the first quarter of 2009. Operating Income - GAAP operating income in the second quarter of 2009 was $1.87 bln, or 34% of revenues. This compares to GAAP operating income of $1.58 bln, or 29% of revenues, in the second quarter of 2008. Non-GAAP operating income in the second quarter of 2009 was $2.17 bln, or 39% of revenues. This compares to non-GAAP operating income of $1.85 bln, or 34% of revenues, in the second quarter of 2008.

12:43PM Cymer joint venture receives first purchase order for crystallization tool for flat panel display manufacturing (CYMI) 30.52 -0.16 : TCZ, a joint venture of Cymer and Carl Zeiss SMT AG announces that it has received its first order--from a large Korean display maker--for the TCZ-900A, TCZ's production tool for flat panel display fabrication.

10:50AM Palm announces Mojo Software Development Kit is available; 1.8 mln apps downloaded so far (PALM) 14.54 -0.38 : Co announces via their corporate blog that Palm's Mojo Software Development Kit is available to all interested app developers. Any interested developer with a valid email address can access the SDK, its associated documentation, and new Mojo developer forums. Co says the initial response to Palm webOS apps -- from both developers and customers -- has been enthusiastic. Co announces that over 1.8 million apps have been downloaded from the beta App Catalog since Palm Pre was released less than six weeks ago.

9:26AM STEC Inc signs a $120 mln supply agreement for ZeusIOPS SSDs for 2H09 and now forecasts sales of ZeusIOPS SSDs to exceed $220 mln in 2009 (STEC) 27.59 : Co announces that it has signed an agreement with one of its largest enterprise storage customers for sales of $120 mln of ZeusIOPS SSDs in 2H09. STEC believes that this agreement reflects the enterprise storage manufacturer's continued commitment to integrate STEC's SSD technology into the manufacturer's systems and validates significant storage system performance improvements enabled by STEC's ZeusIOPS SSDs in these enterprise systems. With this agreement signed, STEC now forecasts revenue from the sale of its ZeusIOPS drives will exceed $220 mln in 2009. "We are pleased to see that sales of our customer's enterprise storage systems utilizing our ZeusIOPS drives have grown significantly over the past few years," said Manouch Moshayedi, Chairman and CEO of STEC. "Our customers have helped evangelize this technology and we are glad to be partnered with them as we expect that they will help drive further innovation in SSD usage in the highest-end of the enterprise storage markets."

8:37AM PC outlook improves as consumer spending stabilizes shipments, according to IDC : As in the first quarter of 2009, global PC shipments again came in slightly ahead of expectations in the second quarter (2Q09), lessening fears over the extent of the PC market slump. Worldwide PC shipments (including Desktop and Portable PCs, but excluding x86 Servers) were down 3.1% from the second quarter of 2008 - a notable improvement over an expected decline of 6.3%, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. All regions either met or surpassed expectations. Although the global downturn is still making its effects felt in the PC industry, the slump has been mitigated by a PC market which has seen the computing experience evolve to be more personal, portable, and cost-oriented rather than performance-driven. Portable PCs continue to be the primary driver of volume and growth with all regions seeing strong Portable shipments. "These results are a very positive indicator for the second half of the year," said Loren Loverde, program director for IDC's Tracker Program. "We are seeing continued demand from consumers and limited impact from supply chain factors such as inventory balancing. New product launches in the second half of the year combined with seasonal growth and greater economic confidence resulting from factors such as government stimulus, a more liquid housing market, relatively stable stock market and interest rates, and progress in the auto and financial industries, should support the expected return to growth by year-end." While the market has outperformed expectations for a second consecutive quarter, the lack of commercial activity remains a drag on growth. The commercial segment remains more conservative with spending, focusing on other priorities and preserving cash. As a result, the segment has not been as motivated by falling prices and new portable designs as the consumer segment.

8:01AM Cypress Semi beats by $0.06, beats on revs; sees "above-average seasonal revenue growth" in Q3 (CY) 9.66 : Reports Q2 (Jun) loss of $0.03 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 better than the First Call consensus of ($0.09); revenues fell 25.7% year/year to $155.8 mln vs the $152.5 mln consensus. Non-GAAP consolidated gross margin was 44.2%, up 9.5 percentage points from the previous qtr due mainly to increased factory utilization, better product mix, and continued cost reductions. "Our book-to-bill ended Q2 at 1.28 with all divisions above unity. Ordering patterns have begun to stabilize, leading to increased backlog. Our Q2 backlog grew 51% quarter-on-quarter to $184 mln. The macro environment seems to have stabilized but longer term visibility continues to remain limited and we remain cautiously optimistic on the pace of the economic recovery. We are projecting that we will have above-average seasonal revenue growth in Q3..."

7:36AM Fairchild Semi beats by $0.08, beats on revs; guides Q3 revs above consensus (FCS) 8.69 : Reports Q2 (Jun) loss of $0.03 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.08 better than the First Call consensus of ($0.11); revenues fell 33.6% year/year to $277.9 mln vs the $264.8 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of $300-325 mln vs. $288.89 mln consensus. "We delivered strong sequential sales and margin growth even as we further improved our inventory position in the second quarter. Distribution sell-through was better than expected which helped us to again reduce channel inventory while still posting sales higher than our original expectations entering the quarter. Order rates improved throughout the quarter across a broad range of end markets enabling us to significantly increase our backlog position from a quarter ago. Overall product pricing was down about three percent sequentially which is slightly weaker than prior quarters, but we believe the trend is now moderating as order rates improve. We maintained lead times within a stable range of five to six weeks during the quarter. Our scheduled backlog for third quarter shipments is currently about $300 million which is roughly $50 million higher than this point a quarter ago. Included in this amount is approximately $25 million of backlog that we booked in the first two and a half weeks of this quarter. Assuming we continue to record positive backlog fill consistent with the current order patterns, we believe sales in the range of $300 to $325 million are possible for the third quarter. For this range of revenue, we anticipate adjusted gross margin to be between 25-27%. Adjusted gross margin for Q2 was 24.8%, up nearly 10 percentage points sequentially and 4 percentage points lower than in the second quarter of 2008."

7:01AM Research In Motion and Visto Corporation sign definitive agreement to settle outstanding litigation (RIMM) 70.15 : The co and Visto Corporation announce they have entered into a definitive agreement to settle all outstanding worldwide patent litigation between the companies. The key terms of the settlement involve RIMM receiving a perpetual and fully-paid license on all Visto patents, a transfer of certain Visto intellectual property, a one-time payment by RIMM of $267.5 mln and the parties executing full and final releases in respect of all outstanding worldwide litigation. The settlement is expected to be completed during the week of July 20, 2009 and is subject to certain closing conditions.

6:52AM Nokia reports EPS in-line, misses on revs (NOK) 15.68 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of EUR 0.15 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the First Call consensus of EUR 0.15; revenues rose 6.9% year/year to EUR 9.91 bln vs the EUR 10.3 bln consensus. Nokia reports mobile device volumes of 103.2 mln units, down 15% year on year and up 11% sequentially. Nokia estimated mobile device market share of 38% in Q2 2009, down from 40% in Q2 2008 and up from 37% in Q1 2009. Nokia mobile device ASP of EUR 62, down from EUR 65 in Q1 2009. Co expects industry mobile device volumes in the third quarter 2009 to be at approximately the same level or up slightly sequentially; expects its mobile device market share in the third quarter 2009 to be approximately at the same level sequentially. Nokia continues to expect 2009 industry mobile device volumes to decline approximately 10% from 2008 levels. Nokia now expects its market share in mobile devices to be approximately flat in 2009, compared with 2008. This is an update to Nokia's earlier target to increase its market share in mobile devices in 2009. Nokia now expects its non-IFRS operating margin in Devices & Services in the second half 2009 to be at approximately the same level as in the first half 2009.

09:52 am Nokia (NOK)

Nokia (NOK 13.71, -1.97) reported second quarter earnings this morning that were in-line with consensus while revenue fell short.

The company reported second quarter earnings of euro 0.15 per share, which excluded nonrecurring items and was in-line with the euro 0.15 First Call consensus.

Revenues rose 6.9% to euro 9.91 billion, below the euro 10.3 billion consensus.

Nokia reported mobile device volumes of 103.2 million units, down 15% year-over-year and up 11% sequentially. Estimated mobile device market share of 38% in the second quarter 2009 was down from 40% in the second quarter 2008 and up from 37% in the first quarter 2009.

Nokia mobile device ASP of euro 62 was down from euro 65 in the first quarter of 2009.

The company expects industry mobile device volumes in the third quarter 2009 to be at approximately the same level or up slightly sequentially. For its part, Nokia expects its mobile device market share in the third quarter 2009 to be approximately at the same level sequentially. Additionally, Nokia continues to expect 2009 industry mobile device volumes to decline approximately 10% from 2008 levels.

The mobile device maker updated its market share targets for 2009. Nokia said it now expects its market share in mobile devices to be approximately flat in 2009 compared to 2008. The company's earlier target called for market share in mobile devices to increase in 2009.