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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Financials put on another strong performance, but the broader market was slow to follow. Even after a late lift, the S&P 500 finished the day with only a modest gain.

The broader market moved higher in the early going with help from news that initial jobless claims for the week ended December 4 fell to 421,000, which is less than the 429,000 claims that had been predicted by economists polled by Briefing.com, and that continuing claims declined to a two-year low of 4.09 million.

However, early buying lacked the conviction necessary to extend the S&P 500 past its two-year high of 1235, which was set earlier this week. The loss of momentum near that point coincided with a bounce by the dollar. That ultimately fed into a flurry of selling.

Sellers tried to send the S&P 500 into the red a couple of times, but support limited both the depth and duration of those declines. Though the benchmark index was able to move back into positive territory, most of the afternoon was spent session chopping along with a narrow gain. The Nasdaq did the same, but the Dow spent most of the day down with a slight loss.

Financials displayed leadership for the second straight session, but the broader market refused to rally around it. Financials finished the day with a 1.3% gain, which puts it on pace for a weekly gain of 2.9%.

Banks have backed most of the financial sector's recent gains. The KBW Bank Index added to the prior session's 2.9% spike by booking a 2.2% gain today. It is up 4.8% week-to-date.

Although gains by the greenback acted as a headwind in the early going, the dollar's strength dwindled into the close. At the end of the day the dollar was only up fractionally against a basket of competing currencies. Waning support for the greenback came at the same time that Bloomberg TV reported that PIMCO raised its estimate for U.S. growth based on the Fed's second quantitative easing effort. Stocks responded positively, but the S&P 500 stalled near its session high. The Dow finished at the flat line.

Treasuries caught a bid after two straight sell-offs. They set their highs following the release of results from a $13 billion auction of 30-year Bonds. The auction's results generally indicated that there is a market for Treasuries at current interest rates.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.3%), Telecom (+1.1%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Materials (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.3%), Energy (+0.3%), Industrials (+0.2%), Health Care (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: (None)
Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary, TechDJ30 -2.42 NASDAQ +7.51 NQ100 +0.0% R2K +0.5% SP400 +0.4% SP500 +4.72 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1528/1.92 bln/1069 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1673/1.01 bln/1336

4:04PM National Semi beats by $0.02, misses on revs; guides Q3 revs below consensus (NSM) 14.97 +0.23 : Reports Q2 (Nov) earnings of $0.34 per share, $0.02 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.32; revenues rose 13.3% year/year to $390.4 mln vs the $399.5 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of $344-359 mln vs. $382.34 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. NSM's total co bookings decreased 24 percent sequentially in the second quarter of fiscal 2011. Distributors reduced their order rates as lead times across the industry have generally declined, and product availability has improved. Bookings were also down from wireless handset customers as they adjusted their backlog coverage to reflect lower build activity following the holiday season. During the second quarter of fiscal 2011, billings exceeded bookings. Gross margin of 68.9 percent decreased from 70.9 percent in 1Q11, which had set a record for the co. National reported gross margin of 65.3 percent in the second quarter of fiscal 2010. "Revenues in our Q2 were impacted by two factors. First, although distributor resales of our products were about flat sequentially, we shipped ~$25 mln less to them than in the preceding quarter. Secondly, we saw, in aggregate, slower demand from mobile phone customers than we typically see in this seasonally strong, pre-holiday season quarter. As this inventory correction by our customers and distributors works its way through our business this quarter, we will continue to invest in our rev growth initiatives. This should position us to show amplified revenue growth as we emerge from what we see as a temporary supply chain adjustment."

4:02PM Plexus announces expansion and SFDA certification in Xiamen, China (PLXS) 28.54 +0.21 : Co announces that it has entered into an agreement to purchase land for the construction of a new manufacturing facility in the Xiamen Xiangyu Free Trade Zone, adjacent to its current facility. This new facility will operate under the existing management team and will add approximately 180,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity. Construction is expected to begin in March 2011 with production to commence in the second half of calendar 2012. In addition, Plexus' current Xiamen, China manufacturing facility has received State Food and Drug Administration, P.R. China (SFDA) certification to support customers in the Medical industries. This certification allows Plexus to manufacture finished Class I and II medical devices for our customers that sell into China end-markets.

4:02PM Diodes reiterates revenue and gross margin guidance; lowers operating expense expectations (DIOD) 27.05 : The Company is maintaining its revenue and gross margin guidance for the fourth quarter of 2010 as it anticipates revenue to range between $160 million and $168 million (Thomson Reuters consensus $164 mln), or between a decrease of 2% and an increase of 3% sequentially, and gross margin is expected to be comparable to the third quarter of 2010 level of 37.4 percent. In addition, the Company is revising its guidance for operating expenses and tax rate. The Company now expects operating expenses as a percent of revenue to decrease 50 to 100 basis points from third quarter 2010 level versus its previous guidance of comparable to third quarter 2010. Also, the Company now projects its fourth quarter tax rate to be approximately 20 to 24 percent due to an operating expense improvement in higher tax rate jurisdictions versus its previous guidance of 17 to 23 percent. Shares used to calculate GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter are anticipated to be approximately 46.3 million, the same as the prior guidance.

4:01PM Kopin authorizes the repurchase of up to $15 million of common stock (KOPN) 4.16 +0.08 :

Amonix announced that it has selected Flextronics (FLEX) as a manufacturing partner for its industry-leading CPV utility-scale solar systems.

AgigA Tech, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor (CY), announced multiple safety and compliance certifications have been granted for their family of intelligent battery-free energy modules. Among the approvals received are compliance to UL 60950-1, CSA C22.2 No. 60950-01-07, and CB Certification to IEC 60950-01 and/or EN 609050-1.

Symmetricom (SYMM) announced that its SCi 2000 Embedded Software Clock has been selected by Broadcom (BRCM) for integration into its 1588-enabled processor, switch and PHY system platforms. The combined product offerings are intended for service providers, carriers and enterprises that require a high-performance, precise timing solution with significant cost and integration efficiencies.

7:07AM Ciena misses by $0.03, beats on revs; guides Q1 revs in-line (CIEN) 15.92 : Reports Q4 (Oct) loss of $0.18 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of ($0.15); revenues rose 136.9% year/year to $417.6 mln vs the $405.3 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $410-430 mln vs. $414.42 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Q4 performance includes $255.6 mln in rev from the acquired assets of the Metro Ethernet Networks business of Nortel, reflecting the second full quarter of combined operations since the close of the transaction on March 19, 2010. "While current macroeconomic conditions are still causing some caution in customer spending, the continuing strength in the fundamental demand drivers of our business and progress on our integration gives us confidence in our ability to achieve our operating targets. We expect fiscal first quarter 2011 revenue to be in the range of $410 million to $430 million and adjusted gross margin to be in the low 40s range."

6:57AM SemiLEDs prices 5.25 mln share IPO at $17 per share, above the $14.50-16.50 expected range (LEDS) :

6:06AM Lattice Semi reiterates Q4 rev guidance, inline with consensus (LSCC) 5.46 : Co issues in-line guidance for Q4 (Dec), sees Q4 (Dec) revs of down 2-7% to ~$71.7-75.6 mln vs. $73.59 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co sees Gross margin percentage is expected to be ~58-60% of revenue; total operating expenses are expected to be ~$34.0 mln. The majority of the sequential increase is related to new product launch expenses and associated mask costs. Also co reiterates its expectation for continued profitability in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) ,announced that Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMI) has adopted Cadence Silicon Realization products for the design-for-manufacturing and low-power technology at the core of SMIC's 65-nanometer Reference Flow 4.1. Using Cadence Encounter Digital Implementation System as the foundation, the companies collaborated to provide an integrated end-to-end Silicon Realization flow for 65-nanometer system-on-chip designs.

2:07AM ASML Holding increases Q4 2010 bookings guidance; sees Q4 bookings to be above EUR2 bln (ASML) 35.17 : Co sees sees stronger than expected demand for lithography equipment, coming from most semiconductor market segments; while DRAM lithography demand is weakening less than originally planned, NAND Flash memory investments for the high volume ramp of new technologies and Foundry/Logic commitments for new strategic fab projects are driving brisk lithography demand for 2011. As a result of this demand, co is increasing the expectation for fourth quarter system order intak and now expects Q4 bookings to be above EUR 2 billion, and above its previous forecast that Q4 bookings to exceed the Q3 level of EUR 1.3 billion worth of systems.

10:15 am CIEN Guides Q1 Revs In-line (CIEN)

Ciena (CIEN 17.80 +1.88) reported fourth quarter ($0.18) per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of ($0.15).

Revenues rose 136.9% year-over-year to $417.6 million versus the $405.3 million consensus.

For the first quarter, the company guided revenues in the range of $410 million to $430 million, in-line with the $414.42 million Thomson Reuters consensus.

Fourth quarter performance includes $255.6 million in revenues from the acquired assets of the Metro Ethernet Networks business of Nortel, reflecting the second full quarter of combined operations since the close of the transaction on March 19, 2010.

The company said, "While current macroeconomic conditions are still causing some caution in customer spending, the continuing strength in the fundamental demand drivers of our business and progress on our integration gives us confidence in our ability to achieve our operating targets. We expect fiscal first quarter 2011 revenue to be in the range of $410 million to $430 million and adjusted gross margin to be in the low 40s range."