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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The stock market moved higher for the third straight session; a fresh 52-week high was set along the way. Though the latest advance was broad based, the stock market surrendered part of its gain after an encounter with near-term technical resistance.

Momentum from recent advances carried over into early action and positioned stocks to extend their gains. The upward trend only seems to have begotten more buying.

A positive bias among broader market participants has taken volatility down considerably. As such, the Volatility Index dropped to a 22-month low. It closed down 5.0%.

The upbeat tone in the broader market lifted advancing issues at a rate of more than 2-to-1 in the S&P 500. Financials and natural resource plays were steady leaders during the session.

Financials finished 1.1% higher. The sector's strength was underpinned by banks, especially regional banks, which tacked on 2.4% to extend their year-to-date gain to 29.8%.

Meanwhile, oil and gas equipment stocks advanced 1.7% to help the energy sector secure a 1.1% gain. A 1.5% rise in oil prices to $82.93 per barrel helped. Oil's climb came in the face of a smaller-than-expected inventory build of 1.01 million barrels for the week ended Mar. 12. In other oil-related news, OPEC opted to keep output unchanged at its latest meeting, as had been expected.

Metal mining giant Alcoa (AA 14.46, +0.66) helped the materials sector stage a 0.7% gain. Reuters reported that the Italian parliament has approved a decree that offers favorable conditions to some industrial consumers after Alcoa had recently threatened to idle smelters in the country.

While buyers kept stocks in positive territory for the entire session, they couldn't propel the S&P 500 past near-term resistance at the 1170 line. Stocks tried twice to overtake the technical line, but they rolled over after they failed on both attempts. Still, stocks were able to close the session with solid gains.

Overseas markets, including those in both Europe and Asia, also made strong gains in their latest showing. Their advances followed better-than-expected employment data out of Britain and minutes from a recent Bank of England meeting that showed committee members voted unanimously to keep interest rate targets unchanged. Japan's central bank voted in its latest meeting to keep its own interest rates low and doubled the amount available under its short-term lending program to 20 trillion yen.

Current Fed Chairman Bernanke and former Fed Chairman Volcker testified about banking regulation to the House Committee on Financial Services this afternoon, but neither made any stark comments.

U.S. data did little for participants this session. Producer prices for February fell 0.6%, which was a sharper drop than expected, but core prices climbed a tame 0.1%, as expected.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.1%), Energy (+1.1%), Materials (+0.7%), Telecom (+0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.5%), Consumer Staples (+0.5%), Tech (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.4%), Industrials (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: (None) DJ30 +47.69 NASDAQ +11.08 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +0.7% SP400 +0.7% SP500 +6.75 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1577/2.22 bln/1093 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2161/1.02 bln/886

5:25PM TSL drops 3.7% to $22.24 following news on follow-on public offering of 7,900,000 American Depositary Shares :

5:23PM Trina Solar announces follow-on public offering of 7,900,000 American Depositary Shares (TSL) 23.08 +0.19 : Co announced that it intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, 7,900,000 American depositary shares ("ADSs"), each representing 50 ordinary shares of the Company. Trina Solar intends to grant the underwriters an option to purchase up to additional 1,185,000 ADSs. Trina Solar plans to use the net proceeds of the offering to expand manufacturing facilities for the production of PV cells and modules, for research and development purposes, including the expansion of its research and development center, and for downstream projects and general corporate purposes. The Company's management will retain broad discretion over the use of proceeds, and the Co may ultimately use the proceeds for different purposes than what it currently intends.

5:00PM Sunpower to build 1-megawatt solar power system for Yolo County (SPWRA) 21.90 +0.66 : Co announces that SunPower will design and construct a 1-megawatt solar power system at the Yolo County Justice Center in Woodland, Calif. Yolo County, which will own the system and associated renewable energy credits, is financing the purchase using multiple funding sources, including clean renewable energy bonds and qualified energy conservation bonds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. "With the funding we secured as a result of the federal stimulus bill and the California Energy Commission loan, Yolo County has no out-of-pocket expenses to build the project, and will be net cash flow positive from the first day of the system's operation, expected to be later this year," said Yolo County General Services Director Ray Groom. "We estimate that savings over the next 25 years will be about $8.8 million, directly benefiting Yolo County residents and businesses. State and federal funding has helped make solar power an easy, affordable means to reduce county operational costs as well as our dependence on fossil fuels."

9:01AM NVIDIA announces extension of its stock repurchase program (NVDA) 17.75 : Co announced an extension of its existing stock repurchase program, under which it may purchase up to $2.7 billion of its common stock through May 2013. Prior to this three-year extension, the program had been set to expire in May 2010. Since initially authorizing its stock repurchase program in August 2004, NVIDIA has spent $1.46 billion to repurchase 90.9 million shares of its common stock.

7:03AM Aehr Test Systems receives order for its new advanced burn-in and test system (AEHR) 2.38 : Co announces it has received an order for its new Advanced Burn-in and Test System from a leading Japanese semiconductor integrated device manufacturer. The system is configured for burning-in and testing advanced logic devices. The system is expected to ship during the second half of calendar 2010.

6:38AM Actel sees Q1 revs up sequentially four percent to eight percent; up from two percent to six percent previously (ACTL) 13.90 : Co announces first quarter 2010 revenues are expected to be up sequentially four percent to eight percent. The previous guidance was up two percent to six percent. (This calculates to ~$51.68- $53.68 mln vs $51.7 mln single analyst est) Gross margin is expected to be at the previous guidance of 62%. Operating expenses are anticipated to come in at approx $27.5 mln, which excludes an estimated $2.1 mln of stock-based compensation expense and $0.6 mln associated with the acquisition of Pigeon Point Systems. The previous guidance was approx $27.0 mln. Other income is expected to be about $0.5 mln, which is unchanged from previous guidance. The non-GAAP tax rate for the quarter is expected to be about 30%, which is unchanged from the previous guidance.