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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The major indices started the session with modest losses, but that was met by buyers looking to extend the stock market's recent gains. Stocks did hand back a chunk of their gains following a disappointing Fed Beige Book, but participants shrugged off the commentary and pushed stocks broadly higher into the close.

There weren't many news items to drive action in the early going, but that didn't stop participants from looking to continue the stock market's recent ride higher. Their efforts helped take the stock market back above last week's highs, but gains stalled as the S&P 500 came within close range of 2009 highs near 1039.

Industrial stocks showed leadership for the entire session. As a group, they settled 1.6% higher.

Financials had lagged in the early going, but managed to make their way to a 1.4% gain and provide support to the broader market. AIG (AIG 38.89, +3.04) was a primary leader as it bounced back from a two-session slide. Capital One (COF 37.47, +2.03) was also a leader in the financial sector. It benefited from an upgrade by analysts at Citigroup. Citigroup's analysts also upgraded shares of MasterCard (MA 210.31, +2.86), while JPMorgan upgraded Morgan Stanley (MS 28.55, +0.75).

Thanks to a late rebound by the broader market, energy and materials stocks were able to close with strength. They had faltered after energy prices and precious metals prices finished in weak fashion. Gold prices closed pit trade at $997.10 per ounce, down nearly 0.3%, and silver prices settled down 0.2% at $16.47 per ounce. Crude oil prices showed considerable strength early on, but finished with a 0.5% gain at $71.49 per barrel. The gyrations came ahead of the latest OPEC meeting, which is expected to culminate with oil output unchanged. Meanwhile, natural gas prices settled 1.2% higher at $2.84 per contract after being up nearly 7%.

Consumer staples stocks struggled for the entire session. They closed with a 0.1% loss. Utilities stocks were also weak and finished with a 0.1% loss.

Stocks showed little reaction to the results of a $20 billion 10-year Note auction, which showed a high yield of 3.51% and a bid-to-cover ratio of nearly 2.8, which is well above the 2009 auction average of 2.5. The benchmark 10-year Note moved lower a while after the results were released, but it eventually made its way to a fractional gain before the closing bell.

The only positive news from the Beige Book came from the manufacturing sector, which has seen an increase in orders, but improvements for the rest of the economy have largely been mediocre and show a slowing decline in economic activity, not an increase. The Fed's commentary also indicated that downward pressure on home prices continued in most districts.

Though stocks were initially let down by the Fed's commentary, it didn't take long for participants to brush the report aside to support a broad-based rebound, which ensured a fourth straight gain for the stock market. DJ30 +49.88 NASDAQ +22.62 NQ100 +0.9% R2K +1.7% SP400 +1.4% SP500 +7.98 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1896/2.49 bln/772 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2182/1.24 bln/842

4:07PM Photronics announces offering of 6,275,000 shares of its common stock and $50,000,000 convertible senior notes maturing in 2014 (PLAB) 4.87 +0.09 :

2:07PM Apple confirms new product releases (AAPL) 172.43 -0.52 : Co confirms it introduced iTunes 9, the latest version of software application to purchase, manage and play media, packed with features such as iTunes, Home Sharing and Genius Mixes, as well as a redesigned store and improved syncing. Co also confirms it introduced the new iPod nano, adding a video camera, mic and speaker. The new iPod nano is available today in an 8GB model for $149 and a 16GB model for $179. Co also confirms it announced that iPod shuffle available starting at just $59.

8:31AM Diodes Incorporated increases Q3 revenue guidance; sees revs +13-17% vs prior guidance of +10-15%, consensus +13.2% (DIOD) 21.80 : Co's guidance equates to revs of roughly $117.4-121.6 mln vs $117.6 mln consensus. growth. The Company is maintaining its guidance for gross margin at the previous level of approximately 28 to 32 percent. The revenue increase is driven primarily by demand for the Company's products utilized in equipment such as LCD televisions and panels, set-top boxes, mobile handsets and netbooks.

Informatica (INFA) announces that it has partnered with Intel (INTC) to embed Informatica B2B Data Transformation software as an integral part of the Intel SOA Expressway.

7:03AM Palm cuts price of Palm Pre by $50 to $149 with 2 yr agreement; announces Palm Pixi (PALM) 14.98 : Co announces that, effective today the Palm Pre phone from Sprint (S) is available for $149.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $150 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate. Co also introduced its next WebOS phone, the Palm Pixi, which will be available from Sprint in time for the holidays.

3:45AM On The Wires : LDK Solar (LDK) announces that it has successfully completed the first production run and initiated production ramp-up of operations of its first 5,000 metric ton train in its 15,000 MT annualized capacity polysilicon plant in Xinyu, China on September 5, 2009...

1:21AM Tessera Tech: Federal Circuit denies stay of ITC wireless orders (TSRA) 25.37 : Co announces that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied the respondents' motion to stay the U.S. International Trade Commission's Limited Exclusion Order and Cease and Desist Orders in Investigation No. 337-TA-605 (Wireless ITC Action). Under the Federal Circuit's order denying a stay, the ITC's LEO and CDOs will remain in full effect while the Federal Circuit considers the respondents' appeal.

09:33 am Cisco Systems: Positive momentum in Q4 has extended into 1Q10 - Credit Suisse: . Credit Suisse's checks indicate that the positive momentum CSCO experienced in its 4Q09 has extended into its current 1Q10. While only the first month of the quarter, and the slowest month of the year to boot, they are hearing of favorable Aug order book trends both in general and spanning a number of different key product lines including enterprise switching, carrier routing, and Cisco's newly launched Unified Computing Services integrated virtualized storageserver-networking data center solution. While they are leaving their ests unchanged at present given the early stage of the quarter, they believe CSCO is on track to deliver operating performance in-line to ahead of their 1Q10 $8.72 bln and $0.28 (incl. ESO) ests (consensus $8.71 bln and $0.30). Longer term, they believe there could be meaningful incremental upside to their $25 tgt.

09:30 am Intel: Core notebooks strong; atom dominates, but CULV has less followers - ThinkEquity: . ThinkEquity's Taiwan checks indicate the notebook market is very strong, though the key drivers have changed. Core notebooks are growing faster than CULV (Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage) and netbooks. ODMs indicating 3Q09 notebook unit shipments growing 20% QoQ and another 10% QoQ in 4Q09. But key is that the majority of the 3Q09/4Q09 builds will be concentrated in Sept-Oct ahead of the Oct. 22 Win7 launch, potentially creating concerns of inventory creep and demand. They note netbooks have been slowing, flat into Q4, a positive for Intel, in their view, while CULV appears to be more overhyped. Nonetheless, they believe strength in core Notebooks playing well for INTC.