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From Briefing.com: 4:34PM Texas Instruments beats by $0.02, beats on revs, both in-line with narrowed guidance; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line (TXN) 28.98 +0.32 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.71 per share, $0.02 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.69; revenues rose 29.9% year/year to $3.74 bln vs the $3.69 bln consensus. Q3 operating margin 32.8% vs 32.8% consensus Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.59-0.67 vs. $0.63 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 revs of $3.36-3.64 bln vs. $3.51 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co sees FY10 R&D expense: $1.6 bln, up from the prior expectation of $1.5 bln; capital expenditures: $1.2 bln; depreciation: $0.9 bln. "Demand from industrial markets was especially strong, while consumer demand cooled, impacting markets such as computing and televisions. Across a wide array of markets, our Analog and Embedded Processing products and Wireless smartphone chips continued to gain share... As we move into the fourth quarter, we expect sequentially lower revenue reflecting a combination of seasonal patterns, continued soft demand in computing and consumer markets, and slowing growth in the industrial market."

4:25PM MIPS Tech beats by $0.07, beats on revs (MIPS) 10.65 +0.25 : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.17 per share, $0.07 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.10; revenues rose 50.0% year/year to $22.5 mln vs the $19.7 mln consensus. "Our financial performance in the first quarter continues to demonstrate our momentum across all of our target markets. This momentum includes the addition of new licensees in the quarter that are developing chips for mobile solutions. Both our royalty revenue and our license revenue exceeded our expectations during the quarter."

4:12PM Zoran beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 well below consensus (ZRAN) 7.56 -0.15 : Reports Q3 (Sep) loss of $0.02 per share, $0.03 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of ($0.05); revenues fell 14.0% year/year to $99.3 mln vs the $99.8 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of ($0.39)-($0.43) vs. ($0.06) Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 revs of $60-65 vs. $95.17 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. "DTV was impacted by share loss by our customers to tier-1 brands combined with severe price erosion in the segments they serve. We were also impacted by one of our customers' decision to add a second source supplier, causing additional share loss for Zoran. In addition, we are seeing rising channel inventory and softening consumer demand. DVD is also showing signs of weakening demand, causing a modest inventory build of red-laser products.... As a result of these developments, we are reducing our outlook for the remainder of 2010 and are carefully evaluating our current strategies against existing and potential growth opportunities. We are also in the process of working on restructuring alternatives with an emphasis on operating expenses to right size the business. Management remains committed to returning Zoran to a growing and profitable business with a sound financial model, and we are working to take whatever steps are necessary to achieve this objective."

4:09PM Veeco Instruments beats by $0.20, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line (VECO) 39.94 +0.86 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $1.46 per share, $0.20 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.26; revenues rose 271.0% year/year to $277.1 mln vs the $275.2 mln consensus. Co shipped 'over 100' MOCVD systems, guidance was for 100; Q3 bookings were $278 mln and end backlog was $569 mln (prior quarter was $347 mln and $597 mln, respectively which included Metrology business). Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $1.46-1.74 vs. $1.47 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 revs of $285-320 mln vs. $310.50 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co state Q4 bookings will be equal to or better than Q3.

4:07PM Volterra Semi expands share repurchase plan by $15 mln (VLTR) :

4:06PM Veeco Instruments: Epistar of Taiwan places multi-tool order for Veeco MOCVD systems (VECO) 39.94 +0.86 : Co announces that Epistar Corporation, headquartered in Taiwan, placed a multi-tool order for Veeco's TurboDisc K465i gallium nitride Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) Systems for high volume light emitting diode production.

4:02PM Integrated Device beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line (IDTI) 5.95 -0.04 : Reports Q2 (Sep) earnings of $0.19 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.16; revenues rose 19.6% year/year to $166.9 mln vs the $166 mln consensus.

4:30 pm : An overnight drop in the dollar and some strong existing home sales data sent stocks to five-month highs, but technical resistance and a slide by financials caused the broader market to surrender a good deal of that gain.

The dollar dropped 1.0% overnight so that it traded at a 15-year low against the yen. Its weakness was widely attributed to the inability of the G-20 to devise a specific plan supportive of the greenback in global trade.

The decline by the dollar drove buyers to action in the early going. Their efforts were emboldened with the release of existing home sales for September. Sales reportedly surged at an unprecedented pace of 10% to an annualized rate of 4.53 million units, which is greater than the annualized rate of 4.25 million units that had been widely expected among economists polled by Briefing.com.

Buyers took the S&P 500 to its highest level since May, but it lost momentum as it approached the psychologically significant 1200 line. Resistance in that region caused some to sell.

An upturn in the dollar, which settled with a 0.5% loss, led stocks to surrender even more of their gains.

Financials failed to provide any sustainable support to the broader market. The sector was actually up almost 1% in the opening minutes, but finished with a 0.4% loss as bank stocks were backed down. Financials have been largely absent from the stock market's recent advances.

Utilities make up the only other sector to slide to a loss. They finished the day 0.3% lower.

Positive breadth helped keep the major equity averages in positive ground all session. Fading support left the stock market to finish at its session low, though. The rather underwhelming finish caused the Volatility Index to climb about 6% at the close.

Despite the broader market's downward drift, materials stocks still booked big gains. They advanced 1.7% as participants poured money into diversified metals (+2.2%) and fertilizer and agricultural chemicals (+2.2%). While basic materials stocks were strong, commodities were too. Commodities collectively gained 1.0%, according to the CRB Commodity Index.

Treasuries had been up nicely in the early going, but pulled back. Their slide steepened following results from a $10 billion auction of 5-year TIPS. The auction drew a yield of -0.55%, which is the first negative yield on record. It was widely expected, though.

Advancing Sectors: Materials (+1.7%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.6%), Health Care (+0.5%), Telecom (+0.4%), Tech (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.2%), Industrials (+0.2%), Energy (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.4%), Utilities (-0.3%)DJ30 +31.49 NASDAQ +11.46 NQ100 +0.4% R2K +0.6% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +2.54 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1599/1.76 bln/1043 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1793/1.01 bln/1181

4:57PM PLX Tech misses by $0.01, misses on revs; guides Q4 revs below consensus (PLXT) 4.26 +0.02 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.07 per share, $0.01 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.08; revenues rose 39.8% year/year to $30.2 mln vs the $31.3 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $28-31 mln vs. $32.53 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Gross margins are expected to be approximately 57% vs. 56% consensus.

1:23PM Flextronics expands operations in Europe and India to support customer demand (FLEX) 6.30 +0.07 : Flextronics Global Services opened two new facilities in Milan, Italy and Delhi, India to better support increased market demand for existing OEM customers. The 240,000 square feet Milan facility is the first operation for forward logistics and value added services in this region, while the newly opened 20,000 square feet Delhi facility offers fulfillment and managed logistics support for OEMs expanding their operations in Northern India.

7:04AM General Electric wins contracts over $750 mln for 2,400-Megawatt Samalkot power plant expansion in India (GE) 16.05

3:26AM LDK Solar signs polysilicon agreement with BYD (LDK) 10.74 : Co announces that it has signed a two-year polysilicon sales agreement valued at ~$300 mln with BYD which is a China-based co that is 10% owned by Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A). Under terms of the agreement, co will supply polysilicon with monthly shipments expected to commence in January 2011 and extend through the end of 2012. A deposit for this two-year contract has already been received.

ANADIGICS (ANAD) announced an upgrade to its ACA2604 RF amplifier supporting operation to 1 GHz. The improved ACA2604 enables cable MSOs and telco service providers to increase data rates as well as the number of channels available to consumers. Additionally, co introduced its latest upstream path RF amplifier optimized for use in DOCSIS-compliant cable modems, CATV set-top boxes (STBs), residential gateways and Embedded-Multimedia Terminal Adapter (E-MTA) applications...