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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Stocks spent the session in a sideways chop, but managed to settle with solid gains. The advance came in the face of modest strength in the U.S. dollar, weakness among financial issues, and a mixed weekly jobless claims report. Participation lacked for most of the session, though.

Trade was choppy for the entire session, but that didn't take stocks out of a relatively narrow range, nor did it derail a broad-based advance. There was a flurry of selling late in the session that caused stocks to surrender some of their gains, but the broader market was able to garner support as the S&P 500 came in contact with the 1100 mark.

In the end, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by more than 2-to-1. As broad as the advance was, it was even more impressive since it came despite a stronger dollar. Gains by the greenback have most often led to selling in the stock market, due to the drag of a stronger dollar on commodity prices and repatriated profits from multinationals, but stocks were able to hold their gains as the Dollar Index worked its way to a 0.1% gain.

Though the broader market showed resolve, financials lagged for the entire session. The sector settled with a 0.2% loss as ongoing chatter about a potential equity raise by Citigroup (C 3.87, +0.01) to repay its TARP funds failed to attract support for the sector. Citi has yet to unveil an official plan.

On a related note, Treasury Secretary Geithner appeared before the Congressional Oversight Panel to make a case for extending the $700 billion TARP plan. Geithner expressed that TARP will help the U.S. maintain the capacity to address potential threats to its financial system and decrease the need for future intervention.

Some market watchers consider it unclear why Treasury wants to extend TARP, but has reportedly let some financial outfits entertain the prospect of TARP repayment.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 5 totaled 474,000, which is worse than the 455,000 initial claims that had been widely expected and is up from the previous week's tally of 457,000 initial claims. However, continuing claims made a sharp move down to 5.16 million from 5.46 million. The consensus had called for 5.45 million continuing claims.

The trade deficit for October totaled $32.9 billion, which is less than the $36.8 billion deficit that had been widely expected. It is also an improvement from the upwardly revised $35.7 billion deficit that was registered in September. Meanwhile, the November Treasury Budget was expected to show a shortfall of $131.6 billion, but it was less steep at $120.3 billion.

An auction of 30-year Bonds attracted a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.45, which is largely in-line with the recent average of 2.41. A lot of commentary focused on the fact that yield had to reach 4.52% to spur interest, but half the bidders were willing to take a yield below 4.42%. Still, Treasuries turned lower in the wake of the announcement. The benchmark 10-year Note finished roughly 14 ticks lower, but the 30-year Bond dropped more than one full point. Their yields stand at 3.49% and 4.49%, respectively.

Stocks came under a bit of pressure following the midday announcement, but the move was contained as buyers continued to provide support.

Shares of retailers (+1.5%) were among the best performers; that helped the consumer discretionary sector post a 1.4% gain, which was the best of any major sector.

Health care stocks were close behind with an impressive 1.2% gain, which came even though Eli Lilly (LLY 35.02, -1.54) showed considerable weakness after it reaffirmed downside guidance for fiscal 2009 and in-line guidance for fiscal 2010.

Participation had lacked for most of the session, but a late surge in trading volume sent the number of shares exchanged on the NYSE above 1 billion. Still, that level is well below the 50-day moving average of 1.2 billion.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (+1.4%), Health Care (+1.2%), Utilities (+1.2%), Energy (+0.9%), Telecom (+0.7%), Consumer Staples (+0.5%), Industrials (+0.4%), Tech (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: Materials (-0.3%), Financials (-0.2%)DJ30 +68.78 NASDAQ +7.13 NQ100 +0.5% R2K -0.4% SP400 +0.6% SP500 +6.40 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1040/1.96 bln/1640 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1832/1.06 bln/1197

4:11PM National Semi beats by $0.06, beats on revs; issues upside Q3 rev guidance (NSM) 15.28 -0.22 : Reports Q2 (Nov) earnings of $0.20 per share, $0.06 better than the First Call consensus of $0.14; revenues fell 18.2% year/year to $345 mln vs the $336.7 mln consensus. Reports Q2 gross margins 65.3% vs consensus of 62.9%. Co sees Q3 revs flat sequentially vs. $345 mln in Q2, compared to $331.18 mln First Call consensus.

7:12AM Akeena Solar's Andalay AC solar panels now available at Lowe's Home Improvement Stores (AKNS) 0.99 :

7:05AM Methode Electronics beats by $0.12, beats on revs (MEI) 7.95 : Reports Q2 (Oct) earnings of $0.10 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.12 better than the First Call consensus of ($0.02); revenues fell 18.8% year/year to $98.5 mln vs the $84.7 mln consensus. Consolidated gross margins as a percentage of sales increased to 22.1% in the fiscal 2010 second quarter from 20.2% in the comparable period of fiscal 2009 despite an 18.8% drop in sales, largely due to the restructuring actions previously taken to reduce the cost structure, in part as a result of the sustained change in the global economic environment. Excluding the $0.7 mln Delphi asset write-down and the $1.7 million reversal of one-time pricing contingencies included in net sales, consolidated gross margins as a percentage of sales was 21.5% for 2Q10.

7:04AM Ciena misses by $0.05, beats on revs; sees 1Q10 rev increase of up to 5% (CIEN) 13.23 : Reports Q4 (Oct) loss of $0.12 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 worse than the First Call consensus of ($0.07); revenues fell 1.9% year/year to $176.3 mln vs the $167.7 mln consensus. "We're excited about the prospect of our combination with the Nortel MEN business, and also about the market entry of significant new products like our CoreDirector FS and 5400 family. We believe the combined company will be well positioned to capture additional market share with a product portfolio and vision that is aligned with market direction." Until the Nortel transaction has closed, any guidance provided by Ciena will be specific to Ciena as a standalone entity and will not include pro-forma estimates for combined company expectations. "While cautious customer spending seems likely to continue as we enter 2010, our fourth quarter order flow gives us confidence in our ability to deliver sequential revenue growth in our fiscal first quarter 2010. We currently expect a sequential increase in our fiscal first quarter revenue of up to 5%." (consensus calls for a 2.4% QoQ sales increase).

6:40AM General Electric receives $1.4 bln contract to supply turbines for largest wind farm ever built in the US (GE) : Co announces that it has received a $1.4 bln contract from independent power producer Caithness Energy to supply wind turbines and provide services for an 845-megawatt wind farm project to be located in Oregon. The wind farm, called Shepherds Flat, has received the majority of the necessary government permits to operate and is ready to be built. When completed it will be larger than any wind farm currently in operation around the globe.

6:07AM Lattice Semi raises Q4 rev guidance (LSCC) 2.66 : Co announces Q4 revenue is now expected to increase by approx 10% to 13% sequentially. This upward revision compares to previous guidance that Q4 revenue would be up 6% to 10% sequentially. This calculates to ~$54.01-55.483 mln vs. $53.13 mln First Call consensus. The revision is based on stronger than expected turns business across most of our products. Co says "As the final planned step of our previously announced efforts to transition certain of our distributors from sell-in to a sell-through distribution model, in December 2009 we commenced the termination of two additional sell-in distributors in Asia. We estimate that this process will reduce revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009 by approximately an additional $1.0 mln. This is in addition to the previously announced approximate $1.0 mln revenue impact from the conversion of two other distributors from sell-in to sell-through. The guidance announced today includes the anticipated effect of these conversions. Gross margin percentage is expected to be approx 53% to 55% of revenue, unchanged from prior guidance. Total operating expenses are now expected to be approx $26.9 mln. The increase compared to prior guidance of $26.0 mln is due to $0.9 mln of restructuring charges related to our previously- announced July 2009 headcount reductions, the move of our warehouse to Singapore and the planned opening of an operations center in Singapore. Pursuant to a public tender offer, we have tendered $14.0 million par value of corporate bonds subject to credit default risk auction rate securities. The fair value of these securities as of the end of the third quarter 2009 was approx $6.6 mln. Should all of the tendered securities be accepted, we would realize a gain of approx $2.8 mln. However, we cannot guarantee that all or any of the securities will be accepted under the tender offer. We continue to expect to return to profitability for the fourth quarter of 2009..."