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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The major stock indices extended their 2009 highs late this session by overcoming losses that stemmed from a sell-the-news reaction to quarterly reports from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

The broader market spent most of the session with modest losses, which came amid considerable weakness in the financial sector. Financials were down as much as 1.7% following better-than-expected earnings from Goldman Sachs (GS 188.63, -3.65) and Citigroup (C 4.75, -0.25), both of which benefited in the previous session from an upbeat report from JPMorgan Chase (JPM 47.16, +0.00). However, the gains during the previous session effectively priced in this morning's positive surprise, prompting participants to sell the shares and take profits as the news hit.

Weakness in the financial sector weighed on the broader market for the entire session, but a late lift helped the sector pare its losses so that it finished with a loss of 0.7%.

The late lift was led by the energy sector, which settled with a 2.0% gain. That is more than twice the gain of the next best performing sector (utilities, +0.9%). Energy's advance came as refiners (+8.0%) surged and oil and gas equipment stocks (+3.4%) and oil and gas driller stocks (+3.2%) spiked with a sharp rise by oil prices. News that weekly oil inventories increased by a smaller-than-expected 334,000 barrels helped send oil futures prices to new 2009 highs of $77.97 per barrel. Oil prices settled at $77.58 per barrel with a 3.2% gain.

Energy's strength helped the broader market finish at session highs, which extended the gains made in the previous session. The broader market is now up more than 21% year-to-date. Despite that accomplishment, the S&P 500 is just now at levels first seen in 1998.

Market participants were generally unfazed by the latest batch of economic data, which featured a 0.2% increase in consumer prices and core consumer prices for September. The consensus called for a 0.2% increase in CPI and a 0.1% increase in core CPI. Initial jobless claims for the week ending October 10 totaled 514,000, which was a bit below the consensus forecast of 520,000 initial claims and down 10,000 from the previous week. Continuing claims slipped below 6.0 million for the first time since March by coming in at 5.99 million. The consensus called for an even 6.00 million continuing claims.

The Empire State Manufacturing Index for October came in at 34.57, which topped the 17.25 that was widely expected, while the Philadelphia Fed Index for October came in at 11.5, which is fractionally below the 12.0 reading that was expected. Still, the Philly Fed Index has showed three straight positive readings, which hasn't happened for roughly two years.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+2.0%), Utilities (+0.9%), Consumer Staples (+0.8%), Telecom (+0.7%), Health Care (+0.6%), Materials (+0.4%), Industrials (+0.3%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.7%)
Unchanged: Tech DJ30 +47.08 NASDAQ +1.06 NQ100 -0.1% R2K -0.1% SP400 +0.3% SP500 +4.54 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1162/2.18 bln/1508 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1509/1.36 bln/1502

4:20PM Advanced Micro beats by $0.24, beats on revs (AMD) 6.19 -0.06 : Reports Q3 (Sep) loss of $0.18 per share, $0.24 better than the First Call consensus of ($0.42); revenues rose 17.9% year/year to $1.4 bln vs the $1.26 bln consensus. Third quarter 2009 AMD gross margin was 42% compared to 37% in the prior quarter. AMD expects its Product Company revenue to be up modestly for the fourth quarter of 2009; consensus calls for 7.3% sequential rise on revs. "Strong demand for our product and platform offerings combined with disciplined execution resulted in AMD Product Company achieving profitability in the third quarter. Growth in microprocessor and graphics unit shipments drove an 18 percent sequential revenue increase, while improved factory utilization rates, higher microprocessor average selling price and an increase in 45nm product shipments resulted in a gross margin improvement from the prior quarter."

4:10PM IBM beats by $0.02, reports revs in line; guides FY09 EPS above consensus (IBM) 127.98 -0.37 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $2.40 per share, $0.02 better than the First Call consensus of $2.38; revenues fell 6.9% year/year to $23.57 bln vs the $23.4 bln consensus. IBM reports Q3 gross margin of 45.1% vs 45.2% consensus. Co raises guidance for FY09, sees EPS of $9.85 vs. $9.78 consensus (up from $9.70 prior guidance). Remains well ahead of pace for 2010 roadmap of $10 to $11 per share (consensus is for 2010 EPS of $10.76). Total Global Services revenues decreased 7% (5%, adjusting for currency); pre-tax income increased 11%. Global Technology Services segment revenues decreased 4% (2%, adjusting for currency) to $9.4 bln. Global Business Services segment revenues decreased 11%(11%, adjusting for currency) to $4.3 bln. IBM's tax rate in the third-quarter 2009 was 26.5% compared with 27.5% in the third quarter of 2008. "Our long-term strategic shift to higher-value businesses again enabled us to deliver outstanding margin, earnings and cash flow growth in the third quarter... We also saw improved revenue trends in our business and share gains in software and hardware... We continued to invest for growth in areas where clients see potential for value creation including Smarter Planet solutions, cloud computing and advanced business analytics. We are optimistic about 2009 as we again raise our full-year expectations and we remain well ahead of pace for our 2010 roadmap of $10 to $11 per share."

4:05PM Google beats by $0.47, beats on revs (GOOG) 529.91 -5.41 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $5.89 per share, $0.47 better than the First Call consensus of $5.42; revenues rose 8.4% year/year to $4.4 bln vs the $4.24 bln consensus. Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 14% over the third quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 4% over the second quarter of 2009. Briefing Note: Street expectations were for paid clicks to increase about 15% or better. Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, decreased approximately 6% over the third quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 5% over the second quarter of 2009. Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $3.14 billion, representing 53% of total revenues in the third quarter of 2009, compared to 53% in the second quarter of 2009 and 51% in the third quarter of 2008. Co states, "While there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future."

4:02PM Brooks Automation sees Q4 revs of $64 mln ( $56.1 mln consensus) (BRKS) 8.05 : Co announces that pending the completion of the fiscal 2009 year-end audit it expects to report revenues for the fourth quarter ended September 30, 2009 of approximately $64 million, a sequential quarterly increase of about 45%. At the time of the Company's third quarter earnings release in early August, Brooks said it expected sequential revenue growth of at least 25% in the September quarter.

8:16AM Ultratech beats by $0.05, beats on revs (UTEK) 15.44 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.04 per share, $0.05 better than the two analyst estimate of ($0.01); revenues fell 27.6% year/year to $24.9 mln vs the $20.1 mln estimate. "Demand for our advanced-packaging products during the quarter drove the performance of the company, as evidenced by Ultratech's increase in new orders... As our customers continue to pursue advanced technologies to produce new semiconductor and semiconductor-related products, Ultratech is demonstrating the capabilities to move customers' ideas to market."

8:01AM Cypress Semi beats by $0.04, beats on revs (CY) 10.28 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.10 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.04 better than the First Call consensus of $0.06; revenues rose 14.7% year/year to $178.7 mln vs the $174.4 mln consensus.

Flextronics (FLEX) announced that it will expand its presence in China through the development of a new facility in Wuzhong. The new facility will support the growing demand for computing products in China and will include a design center and extended manufacturing capabilities in the Wuzhong Export Processing Zone. The design center will be completed by the end of 2009 and the manufacturing facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2010...

Vodafone (VOD) and Research In Motion (RIMM) introduced the BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone for customers in seven European countries as well as South Africa... Jazz Semiconductor, a Tower Group Company (TSEM) announced their SERDES solution has been selected by NASA for its Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer mission...

7:36AM Fairchild Semi beats by $0.05, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs above consensus (FCS) 9.62 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.12 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the First Call consensus of $0.07; revenues rose 19.4% year/year to $331.8 mln vs the $321.9 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $333-343 mln vs. $328.96 mln consensus. Co sees Q4 gross margin of 28-30% vs the 27.5% consensus. Q3 adjusted gross margin was 26.9%, up 2 percentage points sequentially and 3 percentage points lower than in the third quarter of 2008. "Our scheduled backlog for fourth quarter shipments is currently about $333 million which is roughly $33 million higher than this point a quarter ago. Included in this amount is approximately $20 million of backlog we booked in the first two and a half weeks of this quarter... We under-shipped distribution sell-through again in the third quarter resulting in about an $11 million reduction in channel inventory. Our channel inventory is now at a record low 9.6 weeks. Order rates were solid throughout the quarter across a broad range of end markets enabling us to increase our backlog position from a quarter ago. Overall product pricing in Q3 improved to down about 2 percent sequentially which we believe marks the inflection point for prices in this cycle. Stronger demand caused lead times to increase to a more normal range of 6 to 8 weeks during the quarter."

10:15 am Xilinx (XLNX)

Xilinx (XLNX 23.43, -0.57) reported second quarter earnings after the close Wednesday that topped estimates.

The company reported second quarter earnings of $0.25, excluding nonrecurring charges, $0.03 better than the First Call consensus of $0.22.

Revenues fell 14.2% year-over-year to $415 million, which was above the consensus of $410.2 million. Also during the quarter, the company reported gross margins of 61.9% vs. the 61.04% consensus and previous guidance of 61%.

Looking ahead to the third quarter, the company is forecasting sequential revenue growth of 6% to 10%, which equates to approximately $439.9 million to $456.5 million, well above consensus estimates of $422.5 million. Also, for the third quarter the company provided its gross margin expectation of 62% to 63%, in-line with the 62% consensus.

10:02 am Nokia (NOK)

Nokia (NOK 13.84 -1.55) reported third quarter earnings this morning that beat Wall Street estimates.

The company reported third quarter earnings of EUR 0.17, 0.04 better than the First Call consensus of EUR 0.13. Revenue declined 19.8% year-over-year to EUR 9.81 billion, below the EUR 10.02 billion consensus.

In the quarter, estimated industry mobile device volumes of 288 million units were down 7% year-over-year and up 7% sequentially, while Nokia mobile device volumes of 108.5 million units were down 8% year-over-year and up 5% sequentially.

Nokia's estimated mobile device market share of 38% in the third quarter of 2009 was at the same level as in the third quarter in 2008 and in second quarter 2009. Mobile device average selling prices (EUR 62) remained at the same level as the second quarter.

Looking into the fourth quarter, Nokia expects industry mobile device volumes to be up sequentially and expects its mobile device market share in the same quarter to be approximately at the same level sequentially.

For the industry, Nokia expects mobile device volumes to be approximately 1.12 billion units in 2009, down approximately 7% from approximately 1.21 billion units Nokia estimated for 2008. This is an update to Nokia's earlier estimate of industry mobile device volumes declining approximately 10% in 2009 from 2008 levels.

Nokia expects its non-IFRS operating margin in Devices & Services in the fourth quarter 2009 to be up by one percentage point or more sequentially.