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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : A weaker dollar helped put stocks in higher ground in the early going, but broader market support faded in the wake of the latest statement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

Early gains were broad based as the dollar dipped as much as 0.4% against a basket of foreign currencies in the early going. The Nasdaq was even able to log a fresh 52-week high.

However, support for stocks started to fade ahead of the latest FOMC directive and then buckled in the report's wake.

The FOMC stated that economic activity has continued to pick up and that deterioration in the labor market is abating. The FOMC also expressed that conditions in the financial markets are improving, so some of the Fed's special liquidity facilities will soon end as planned.

More notably, the FOMC indicated that the target range for the federal funds rate will remain at 0.00% to 0.25% and that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period. The overall language in the statement is consistent with previous statements, so it helped calm concerns that the Fed may look to raise interest rates sooner than later.

Despite that, the greenback advanced against competing currencies and gave the Dollar Index a momentary gain. The Dollar Index settled with a fractional loss.

Though the dollar was able to improve its position, support for commodities remained strong. That gave the CRB Commodity Index a 1.6% gain, its best by percent in three weeks, and helped the materials sector outperform. Materials stocks advanced 1.0%, led by diversified metals and miners (+1.7).

Energy stocks also looked strong. They advanced 0.5% as oil prices closed 2.8% higher at $72.68 per barrel. Early weakness in the dollar and a larger-than-expected weekly inventory draw of 3.69 million barrels underpinned oil's strength.

Financials also showed strength in the face of the broader market's afternoon downturn. The sector settled with a 0.7% gain, though regional banks (-0.6%) traded with continued weakness.

Homebuilders were among this session's best performers. They climbed 5.0% amid data that indicated housing starts for November hit an annualized rate of 574,000 units, which matched the consensus and marked an increase from the rate registered the previous month. Building permits for November hit an annualized rate of 584,000, which bested the rate of 570,000 that had been widely forecast. It also topped the rate of 551,000 that was registered in October.

The November Consumer Price Index increased 0.4% month-over-month, which matches the consensus estimate. Excluding food and energy, consumer prices were flat for the month, but they had been expected to rise 0.1%. Since the CPI data generally matched expectations, it didn't cause any meaningful stir in the broader market.

Advancing Sectors: Materials (+1.0%), Financials (+0.7%), Energy (+0.5%), Tech (+0.4%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Utilities (-0.4%), Consumer Staples (-0.4%), Health Care (-0.4%) Telecom (-0.3%), Industrials (-0.3%)DJ30 -10.88 NASDAQ +5.86 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +0.8% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +1.25 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1568/2.02 bln/1128 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1967/1.16 bln/1058

4:42PM Newport retires $20.2 million of its convertible subordinated notes (NEWP) 8.39 +0.17 : Co reported that it has used $18.7 million of cash to retire $20.2 million of its convertible subordinated notes. As a result of this transaction, the company's results for the fourth quarter of 2009 will be positively impacted by a total of $0.5 million due to the gain on extinguishment of debt and the lower interest expense for the period. In addition, due to the reduction in the company's total debt, it expects to incur lower interest expense in 2010 and beyond. Newport estimates that this reduction will result in approximately $0.03 of incremental earnings per diluted share in 2010.

4:15PM LDK Solar partners with GPR-SBTFC for developing and constructing 100 MW of PV plants in Europe in 2010 (LDK) 9.20 +0.08 : Co has signed an agreement with Global Power Resources to develop and construct PV plants totalling 100 megawatts in 2010. LDK Solar will provide engineering, procurement, construction services and supply the solar modules. GPR will acquire the final ownership of the PV plants. The targeted 100MW of PV plants is expected to be completed by the end of 2010. The project pipeline, which will be carried out by LDK Solar, will involve all the European countries currently participating in national feed-in tariff subsidies, such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

4:05PM UTStarcom appoints Kenneth Luk Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately (UTSI) 2.03 +0.13 :

4:01PM Nanometrics announces it intends to offer shares of common stock (NANO) 12.44 +0.05 :

3:09PM SEMI reports third quarter 2009 worldwide semiconductor equipment figures, billings of us $4.54 bln : SEMI today reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached $4.54 billion in the third quarter of 2009. The billings figure is 69% percent higher than the second quarter of 2009 and 31% less than the same quarter a year ago. SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) jointly collect the data from 110 global equipment companies that provide input on a monthly basis. Worldwide semiconductor equipment bookings were US$5.83 billion in the third quarter of 2009. The figure is 4% more than the same quarter a year ago and 98% greater than the bookings figure for the second quarter of 2009.

9:15AM Intel: FTC confirms suit against Intel (INTC) 19.80 : The Federal Trade Commission today sued INTC charging that the company has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals' competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation in the microchips that comprise the computers' central processing unit, or CPU. These chips are critical components that often are referred to as the "brains" of a computer. According to the FTC complaint, Intel's anticompetitive tactics were designed to put the brakes on superior competitive products that threatened its monopoly in the CPU microchip market. Over the last decade, this strategy has succeeded in maintaining the Intel monopoly at the expense of consumers, who have been denied access to potentially superior, non-Intel CPU chips and lower prices, the complaint states... The FTC's administrative complaint charges that Intel carried out its anticompetitive campaign using threats and rewards aimed at the world's largest computer manufacturers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, to coerce them not to buy rival computer CPU chips. Intel also used this practice, known as exclusive or restrictive dealing, to prevent computer makers from marketing any machines with non-Intel computer chips. In addition, allegedly, Intel secretly redesigned key software, known as a compiler, in a way that deliberately stunted the performance of competitors' CPU chips. Intel told its customers and the public that software performed better on Intel CPUs than on competitors'

8:57AM Seagate Tech initiated with a Outperform at Wedbush Morgan; tgt $22 (STX) 16.41 : Wedbush Morgan initiates STX with a Outperform and price target of $22 based on expectations for continued favorable supply-demand conditions, share gains in the 2.5" drive segment and expanding margins. The firm believes that 2010 should be a very good year for HDD vendors as demand is likely to be very strong, driven by a tech refresh in businesses and an improved consumer spending environment. In addition, the industry has consolidated and the companies are now focusing on profitability rather than market share gains. The firm understands that a lot of the forward optimism is priced into the stock. Still the firm believe that there is plenty of room for upside to the Street's forward estimates and to the stock price. The firm believes that HDD stocks will still trade below their peers in the storage systems and IT hardware segment and thus they believe that a multiple of 9x is justified, which is significantly below their peers in IT hardware.

8:53AM Western Digital initiated with a Outperform at Wedbush Morgan; tgt $49 (WDC) 39.56 : Wedbush Morgan initiates WDC with a Outperform and price target of $49 based on expectations for continued favorable supply-demand conditions, share gains in the enterprise drive segment and expanding margins. The firm believes that 2010 should be a very good year for HDD vendors as demand is likely to be very strong driven by a tech refresh in businesses and an improved consumer spending environment. In addition, the industry has consolidated and the companies are now focusing on profitability rather than market share gains.

8:32AM Mattson received multiple orders for the its Suprema photoresist strip system (MTSN) 2.91 : Co announced it received multiple orders for the its Suprema photoresist strip system. The Company noted that the Suprema systems would be used for all dry strip applications including the high dose implant strip (HDIS), which is the most difficult dry strip process. The tool shipments will start in the current quarter and continue into the first half of 2010.

7:31AM KVH Industries receives $6.4 mln order for fiber optic gyro-based inertial measurement units (KVHI) 13.26 :

7:14AM Kulicke & Soffa corrects financial results for its Q4 2009 (KLIC) 5.30 : Co issued a release announcing its financial results for its Q4 2009. Subsequent to the issuance of its press release, the Company identified an error in calculating income tax expense included in net income for the Company's fourth fiscal quarter. The correction of the error reduced income tax expense by $750,000, which resulted in an increase to net income after tax of $750,000, and increased other assets by $750,000. On a non-GAAP basis for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, the Company's corrected income from continuing operations of $10.9 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, resulted in an increase of $0.02 per share. Net revenue from continuing operations of $110.5 million is unchanged.

3:18AM LDK Solar and Uni Land S.p.A. to construct PV plants totaling 20 MW in 2010 and 2011 (LDK) 9.12 : Co announces that it has signed an agreement with Uni Land S.p.A. to develop and construct PV plants totaling 20 MW in 2010 and 2011.