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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Despite a weaker dollar and a strong third quarter report from pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, the S&P 500 saw its six-session streak of gains come to an end Tuesday.

A weaker greenback has been a strong underpinning of the stock market's recent gains, but its affect on stocks this session was mitigated by caution among participants ahead of a flurry of upcoming earnings announcements. The Dollar Index returned to 52-week lows early this session, but participants paid more attention to the third quarter report from Dow component Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 61.01, -1.52), which brought in better-than-expected third quarter earnings of $1.20 per share and offered an increased earnings outlook of $4.54 to $4.59 per share for fiscal 2009. Those accomplishments were tainted by a softer top line, however. Johnson & Johnson's report came as a reminder that earnings for the latest quarter could very likely be driven by cost cutting rather than resurgent demand.

Participants get a better feel for things when JPMorgan Chase (JPM 45.66, -0.42) reports tomorrow morning and Goldman Sachs (GS 187.23, -2.92), IBM (IBM 127.02, -0.02), and Google (GOOG 526.11, +2.04) report Thursday. Bank of America (BAC 17.81, -0.22) and General Electric (GE 16.39, +0.06) lead the list for Friday.

Market participants were also unsettled this session by news that shares of Goldman Sachs were downgraded by Meredith Whitney Advisors, which was founded by analyst Meredith Whitney, who is credited with calling out many of the troubles facing banks and the broader financial sector during the last couple of years. The call on shares of GS weighed on the financial sector, which finished the session with a 1.1% loss, worse than any other sector.

Financials weighed on trade for virtually the entire session, though the broader market did manage to finish in mixed fashion after recovering from morning lows

Telecom stocks finally showed some strength after underperforming in each of the previous four sessions. The sector tacked on 0.4%.

Retailers saw some of the best gains, though. As a group, retailers advanced 0.9%.

Meanwhile, materials stocks settled 0.5% higher, helped by higher commodity prices.

Gold prices jumped to new record highs of $1069.70 per ounce in early trade, but saw some of those gains pared before finishing with a 0.7% gain at $1064.60 per ounce. Oil futures prices opened the session with a gain of roughly 1%, but reversed into the red as the U.S. dollar worked its way up from its lows. However, oil contracts garnered support and finished with a 1.2% gain at $74.15 per barrel.

Advancing Sectors: Materials (+0.5%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.1%), Health Care (-1.0%), Utilities (-0.6%), Consumer Staples (-0.2%)
Unchanged: Energy, Industrials, TechDJ30 -14.74 NASDAQ +0.75 NQ100 unch.% R2K -0.3% SP400 -0.4% SP500 -3.00 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1192/2.05 bln/1463 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1289/1.14 bln/1706

4:45PM Intel jumps to 21.65 upon resumption of trading (INTC) 20.49 +0.09 : See 16:19 and 16:38 comments for details of co's Q3 earnings.

4:19PM Intel beats by $0.05, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs and gross margins above consensus (INTC) 20.49 +0.09 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.33 per share, $0.05 better than the First Call consensus of $0.28; revenues fell 8.0% year/year to $9.4 bln vs the $9.04 bln consensus. Intel reports Q3 gross margin 57.6% vs 55.5% consensus and prior guidance to upper half of 51-55% range. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $9.7-10.5 bln vs. $9.51 bln consensus. Intel guides Q4 gross margin 59-65% vs 56.7% consensus... Full Year Capital spending is expected to be $4.5 billion plus or minus $100 million, down from the prior expectation of $4.7 bln plus or minus $200 mln. The average selling price (ASP) for microprocessors was slightly down sequentially. "Intel's strong third-quarter results underscore that computing is essential to people's lives, proving the importance of technology innovation in leading an economic recovery... This momentum in the current economic climate, plus our product leadership, gives us confidence about our business prospects going forward. As we look ahead, Intel's game-changing 32nm process technology will usher in another wave of innovation from new, powerful Intel Xeon server platforms to high-performance Intel Core processors to low-power Intel Atom processors." From the close of business on Nov. 25 until publication of the company's fourth-quarter earnings release, Intel will observe a "Quiet Period" during which the Business Outlook disclosed in the company's news releases and filings with the SEC should be considered as historical, speaking as of prior to the Quiet Period only and not subject to an update by the company... Stock is halted.

4:18PM Semiconductor stocks trading aggressively higher following INTC's earnings report (SMH) : SMH is up about $0.60 or more than 2%. Last trade at $26.80

4:16PM Altera reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q4 revs above consensus (ALTR) : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.19 per share, in-line with the First Call consensus of $0.19; revenues rose 2.7% year/year to $286.6 mln vs the $284.5 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $303-314 mln vs. $291.50 mln consensus. Co sees gross margins of 67-68% vs. 67.1% consensus.

4:15PM LDK Solar announces changes to its management team (LDK) 8.35 -0.09 : The co announces organizational changes to its management team. Mr. Xingxue Tong, President and Chief Operating Officer will temporarily take over all manufacturing operation functions, including polysilicon and wafer production, as a result of the resignation of Mr. Nicola Sarno, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing. Mr. Sarno will leave the Company on October 16, 2009 to pursue personal interests.

4:08PM Canadian Solar expects 3Q 2009 shipments to exceed prior guidance; sees 3Q09 revs of $210-$215 vs $202.7 mln consensus (CSIQ) 17.54 -0.50 : Co announced that based on selected unaudited financial results, it expects shipments for the third quarter of 2009 will exceed the high-end of its prior guidance. The Company also announced it is raising its guidance for the full year of 2009. Based on its selected unaudited financial results, Canadian Solar believes that its net revenues for the third quarter of 2009 will be approximately $210 million to $215 million (First Call consensus $202 mln), with shipments of approximately 101 MW to 103 MW, compared to prior guidance for shipments of approximately 90 MW to 100 MW. We expect to report a gross margin of 16% to 17% for the third quarter of 2009. Based on the high level of interest in Canadian Solar's products at the Hamburg trade show and subsequent purchase orders, the Company is raising its guidance for full year 2009 shipments to approximately 295 MW to 305 MW, including expected shipments of 127 MW to 137 MW for the fourth quarter of 2009. This compares to prior guidance for shipments of approximately 260 MW to 270 MW for the full year 2009, and earlier full year 2009 guidance of 200 MW to 220 MW. The Company continues to make improvements in its cost structure, which it expects will positively impact ongoing profitability. Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO said: "Demand has continued to be strong among our core customer group as well as among new customers. We anticipate that Q4 2009 will be even stronger than Q3 2009 in terms of shipments and we expect to maintain similar gross margins. We plan to increase our solar module manufacturing capacity to 1 GW, our solar cell capacity to 700 MW and our ingot and wafer capacity to 350 MW by the end of 2010 to meet demand levels."

9:40AM Fitch says no improvement for U.S. RMBS roll rates; 60% performing borrowers underwater : With a majority of borrowers in U.S. RMBS transactions owing more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth, negative home equity is preventing sustained improvement in U.S. mortgage performance, according to the new monthly report 'Fitch RMBS Performance Metrics." Fitch estimates approximately 60% of the remaining performing borrowers from the 2006-2007 vintages are in a negative home equity position, or 'underwater'. According to Senior Director Grant Bailey, 'negative equity reduces a borrower's incentive to pay their mortgage and limits their options when faced with financial difficulties.' After notable improvement through the first half of this year, the percentage of previously performing borrowers rolling into a delinquency status stabilized at an elevated level through the summer months and increased modestly in the month of September. The sustained negative pressure on the remaining performing borrowers has also been driven in part by the continued rise in unemployment, which has reached 9.8% nationally and a record level of 12.2% in California, where the greatest percentage of RMBS borrowers is located. As projected in its Oct. 1 'Global Economic Outlook', Fitch projects U.S. unemployment will continue to rise and peak at 10.3% in the middle of 2010.

Emulex (ELX) and Ixia (XXIA) have partnered to produce a definitive guide to the technological characteristics of Converged Network Adapters and the proper methodology for testing these new devices.

09:42 am EMC Corp ests and target raised to $22 at Credit Suisse ahead of Q3 results: . Credit Suisse raises their EMC tgt to $22 from $19 as it believes the co had a healthy qtr, with rev upside likely. Firm is modestly raising Q3 forecast to revs of $3.45 bln and EPS of $0.21 from $3.43 bln/$0.20, and consensus of $3.44 bln/$0.21. After facing a challenging demand environment and uncertain macro conditions in the first half, firm believes storage utilization rates have continued to exceed optimal levels. Firm believes that this positions networked storage for a V-shaped recovery as macro pressures ease, and expect to get initial confirmation of this in EMC's earnings report. EMC is scheduled to report results on Thursday, October 22 before the market opens.

09:38 am Juniper Networks upgraded to Buy at Jefferies & Co; tgt raised to $34: . Jefferies & Co upgrades JNPR to Buy from Hold and raises their tgt to $34 from $21 saying Juniper is well positioned to benefit from secular growth trend in service provider routing as well as from market share gains in high-end switches. Firm says nNew product cycles in edge routing and modular switching should help competitive position. They are also increasing their estimates to reflect improvement in demand and project activity

09:44 am Cisco Systems (CSCO)

Cisco Systems (CSCO 23.75, -0.03) and Starent Networks (STAR 34.24, +5.21) announced a definitive agreement for Cisco to acquire Starent Networks. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay $35 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Starent Networks and assume outstanding equity awards for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.9 billion.

The acquisition has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies. The acquisition is expected to close during the first half of calendar year 2010; however, the close date is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory reviews.

Cisco expects the acquisition to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 and accretive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2012.