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From Briefing.com: 4:35 pm : Stocks settled mixed with the major equity averages near the neutral line. The lack of direction came despite encouraging data and a sharp drop by the dollar, but preceded the advance GDP report for the third quarter.

The S&P 500 was up about 0.6% at its session high and down about 0.5% at its session low before it muddled its way to a flat finish. Early gains were helped by a positive reaction to initial jobless claims for the week ending October 23. They totaled 434,000, which is well below the 458,000 initial claims that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. The tally was also the smallest since July. More impressive is that continuing claims fell to 4.36 million, which is a near two-year low.

It took little time before the stock market's early gain was dashed, even though the dollar was under stiff pressure. The dollar, which has had an inverse relationship with stocks for several months, dropped to a 1.1% loss.

While the greenback was less of a factor than in recent sessions, stocks worked their way out of the red to finish slightly above the neutral line.

Actual leadership was limited, but health care managed to book a 0.5% gain, one of the better performances. That came amid strength in Cardinal Health (CAH 34.33, +0.92) and Celgene (CELG 61.20, +1.80). Both had upbeat earnings reports.

Industrials were at the other end of the scope as 3M (MMM 85.07, -5.30) dropped precipitously despite an upside earnings surprise. However, the sector pared losses into the close to finish just 0.3% into the red.

Market participants had varied reactions to earnings Akamai (AKAM 51.11, +0.72), Visa (V 76.45, -3.47), Colgate-Palmolive (CL 74.92, -0.58), Norfolk Southern (NSC 60.79, -0.56), Las Vegas Sands (LVS 44.63, +3.57), Noble Energy (NE 34.32, -0.11), Zimmer Holdings (ZMH 49.41, -2.48), Motorola (MOT 8.13, +0.04), and Dow Chemical (DOW 30.86, -0.35), all of which had better-than-expected earnings. To be fair, though, revenue results remain less impressive.

Outside of earnings, Halliburton (HAL 31.68, -2.74) ran into stiff selling on heavy volume following reports regarding the stability of the cement mixture foundation of the Deepwater Horizon well.

Treasuries finally caught a bid after slumping earlier this week. They were helped by strong results from a $29 billion auction of 7-year Notes. Yields settled a bit above session lows.

Tomorrow brings the advance GDP report for the third quarter. It will be released ahead of the market's open and is likely to be a major trading event. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com pegs growth at 2.0%.

Advancing Sectors: Health Care (+0.5%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.4%), Consumer Staples (+0.3%), Telecom (+0.3%), Utilities (+0.2%), Tech (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Industrials (-0.3%), Materials (-0.1%), Financials (-0.1)
Unchanged: EnergyDJ30 -12.33 NASDAQ +4.11 NQ100 +0.2% R2K -0.5% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +1.33 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1088/2.02 bln/1504 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1498/1.01 bln/1442

4:53PM AXT Inc reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (AXTI) 7.04 -0.03 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.13 per share, ex-items, in-line with the two analyst estimate of $0.13; revenues rose 15.5% year/year to $26.8 mln vs the $25.5 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.15-$0.17 vs. $0.14 two analyst estimate; sees Q4 revs of $28-$29 mln vs. $26.69 mln two analyst estimate.

4:25PM Tessera Tech beats by $0.04, beats on revs (TSRA) 19.40 -0.04 : Reports Q3 (Sep) GAAP earnings of $0.38 per share, $0.04 better than the GAAP Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.34; revenues rose 24.2% year/year to $82.1 mln vs the $80.9 mln consensus.

4:24PM Varian Semi beats by $0.05, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 EPS above consensus, revs in-line (VSEA) 30.22 -0.59 : Reports Q4 (Sep) earnings of $0.79 per share, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.74; revenues rose 120.3% year/year to $258.8 mln vs the $256.9 mln consensus. Co issues guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.84-0.89 vs. $0.83 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q1 revs of $270-280 mln vs. $279.74 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. "With the introduction of Trident, our new high current tool and Solion, our solar ion implant tool, we expect to strengthen our current market position and develop new markets in fiscal year 2011."

4:23PM Oracle issues statement regarding SAP (ORCL) 29.36 +0.66 : "SAP management has insisted for three and a half years of litigation that it knew nothing about SAP's own massive theft of Oracle's intellectual property. Today, SAP has finally confessed it knew about the theft all along. The evidence at trial will show that the SAP Board of Directors valued Oracle's copyrighted software so highly, they were willing to steal it rather than compete fairly."

4:23PM SolarWinds beats by $0.03, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line (SWI) 17.98 +0.38 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.21 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.18; revenues rose 27.4% year/year to $41.2 mln vs the $38 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.18-0.19 vs. $0.19 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 revs of $39.0-41.5 mln vs. $40.84 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.

4:18PM KLA-Tencor beats by $0.13, beats on revs (KLAC) : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.99 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.13 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.86; revenues rose 98.8% year/year to $682 mln vs the $647.3 mln consensus. "... Orders were strong, backlog increased and we delivered outstanding gross and operating margins in the quarter."

4:18PM TranSwitch misses by $0.04, reports revs in-line (TXCC) 2.45 -0.05 : Reports Q3 (Sep) loss of $0.04 per share, $0.04 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of ($0.00); revenues fell 9.2% year/year to $12.8 mln vs the $12.8 mln two analyst consensus.

4:17PM Power-One beats by $0.17, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs above consensus (PWER) 11.13 0.00 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.40 per share, $0.17 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.23; revenues rose 213.6% year/year to $314 mln vs the $264.7 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $340-360 mln vs. $297.94 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.

4:13PM Microsoft beats by $0.07, beats on revs (MSFT) 26.28 +0.23 : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.62 per share, $0.07 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.55; revenues rose 25.3% year/year to $16.2 bln vs the $15.8 bln consensus. Co reports Q1 operating margins of 44.0% vs 39.8% Thomson Reuters consensus. Co reaffirms operating expense guidance of $26.9 bln reaffirms operating expense guidance of $26.9 billion to $27.3 billion for FY11.

4:05PM First Solar beats by $0.26, beats on revs; guides FY10 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (FSLR) 151.15 +0.85 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $2.21 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.26 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.95; The third quarter net income excludes a one-time tax expense of $14.7 million, or $0.17 per fully diluted share, relating to the Company's decision to repatriate $300 million of earnings from certain of its foreign subsidiaries revenues rose 65.9% year/year to $797.7 mln vs the $778.5 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for FY10, sees EPS of $7.50-7.65 vs. $7.46 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees FY10 revs of $2.58-2.61 bln vs. $2.58 bln Thomson Reuters consensus.

4:04PM Maxim Integrated beats by $0.06, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS above consensus, revs in-line (MXIM) 19.66 -0.02 : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.43 per share, $0.06 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.37; revenues rose 39.4% year/year to $626.1 mln vs the $614 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.39-0.44 vs. $0.35 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs of $595-625 mln vs. $603.76 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.

MIPS Technologies (MIPS) announced that long-time MIPS licensee Cavium Networks has reaffirmed its commitment to the MIPS architecture by renewing its license of the high-performance MIPS64 architecture...

8:10AM Celestica misses by $0.02, misses on revs (CLS) 8.84 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.20 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.22; revenues fell 0.6% year/year to $1.55 bln vs the $1.6 bln consensus. "Our fourth quarter outlook reflects strong sequential revenue growth of approximately 15% at the midpoint of our guidance, fueled primarily by recent program wins in our server and consumer end markets and a stable demand forecast for the balance of our customer portfolio." 15% sequential increase equates to $1.78 bln as the midpoint, Thomson Reuters consensus $1.754 bln.

8:10AM Sunpower and Iberdrola Renewables sign contract to build 30 MW solar power plant in Colorado (SPWRA) 13.77 : Co announces an agreement with Iberdrola Renewables to design and build a 30-megawatt photovoltaic solar power plant, the San Luis Valley Solar Ranch, on 216 acres of private, former agricultural land in Colorado's Alamosa County. Expected to be fully operational by the end of 2011, construction will begin this year and create approximately 100 jobs.

8:03AM MIPS Tech: Cavium Networks extends MIPS architecture license (MIPS) 14.34 : MIPS announces that long-time licensee Cavium Networks (CAVM) has renewed its license of the high-performance MIPS64 architecture. Cavium's OCTEON multi-core processor family is based on the MIPS64 architecture. These processors have been widely adopted in routers, switches, storage networking equipment, security appliances, data-center equipment, and a broad range of 3G, WiMAX and LTE infrastructure equipment.

7:54AM Jabil Circuit intends to offer $300 mln of Senior Notes (JBL) 14.31 : Co announces its intention to offer $300 mln of senior unsecured notes due 2020. Co expects to use the net proceeds from the Offering to fund the repayment of a portion of its borrowings under the term loan portion of its senior credit facility.

Xilinx (XLNX) announced the Spartan-6Q family and Virtex-6Q family, its newest generation of field programmable gate arrays qualified for meeting the rigorous requirements of the aerospace and defense market... KVH Industries (KVHI) announced a new distribution agreement with Furuno Electric for KVH's mini-VSAT BroadbandSM service. Under the terms of this arrangement, Furuno will begin marketing and selling mini-VSAT Broadband airtime service and supporting equipment along with a compatible 1-meter antenna system on a global basis through its established distributor and dealer channels...

09:27 am Seagate Tech downgraded to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus: . Stifel Nicolaus downgrades STX to Hold from Buy given the risk/reward profile associated with the ongoing negotiations of a potential private equity takeout. Firm continues to believe that there is a high probability that a deal does get done. From a valuation perspective, they maintain our prior takeout EV/EBITDA multiple assumption of 5-6x EV/EBITDA C2011 estimates as a fair takeout valuation range (mid-point of historical 4-7x), leading to their expectation of a go-private consideration of $17/sh.

10:07 am MOT Guides Q4 In-line (MOT)

Motorola (MOT 8.64 +0.54) reports third quarter earnings of $0.16 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.11.

Revenues rose 6.4% year/year to $5.8 billion versus the $5.66 billion consensus.

For the fourth quarter, the company guided earnings in the range of $0.14 to $0.16 per share, excluding non-recurring items, versus the $0.15 Thomson Reuters consensus.

Shipped 3.8 million smartphones with a total of 22 smartphones introduced during 2010.