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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Broad-based buying on the back of better-than-expected earnings took both the Dow and S&P 500 to their best level in almost three years. The Nasdaq actually extended its three-year high.

Although there is some uncertainty about what might be said in tomorrow's FOMC policy statement, market participants were in the mood to buy today. In turn, stocks were up more than 1% at session highs and advancing share volume was more than double declining share volume. Overall trading volume, about 900 million shares on the NYSE, still wasn't very impressive, though.

Buying interest was generally broad, but industrial stocks put together some of the best gains. The sector's 1.8% surge was led by Illinois Tool Works (ITW 57.73, +3.32), which posted an upside earnings surprise then complemented the report by issuing a strong revenue forecast. The stock surged to a new three-year high in response. In a similar vein, 3M (MMM 95.94, +1.82) shares recorded a new all-time high following its quarterly results and increased forecast.

Strong guidance, the implementation of a $0.25 cash dividend, and the designation of $1 billion for share repurchases made Humana (HUM 76.69, +4.01) a top performer. Its leadership spread to other managed care providers and propped up the overall health care sector, which achieved a 1.1% gain.

UPS (UPS 74.30, +0.66) benefited from a nice bid on the back of its latest quarterly report and forecast. Ford (F 15.66, +0.12) also found favor following its latest quarterly announcement. Ford's Japanese competitors Honda (HMC 37.61, -0.22), Toyota (TM 78.66, -0.85), and Nissan (NSANY 18.76, +0.31) received less favorable treatement amid news that their rating outlooks were lowered by analysts at S&P due to the impact of the massive earthquakes in Japan last month.

Airline stocks were some of today's top performers. Higher oil prices have weighed on the space in recent weeks, but the space ascended sharply with news that earnings from both Delta Air Lines (DAL 9.99, +0.99) and US Airways (LCC 8.80, +0.52) exceeded what had been expected on Wall Street.

Not every quarterly announcement was treated positively. Blue chip IBM (IBM 168.49, +0.82) mustered a modest gain, but actually lagged the overall market after it announced a 15% hike to its dividend and the designation of $8 billion for share repurchases. Fellow Dow component Coca-Cola (KO 66.93, -0.81) fell after its earnings came short of the consensus estimate.

Netflix (NFLX 228.91, -22.76) dropped precipitously in high volume to probe monthly lows as participants shunned the stock because of its disappointing forecast, which overshadowed an upside earnings surprise. Under Armour (UA 69.64, -8.83) also took a dramatic dive, even though the company reported richer-than-expected earnings and issued strong sales guidance.

Treasuries attracted buying interest in the face of the stock market's strength and a relatively unimpressive auction of 2-year Notes. The auction drew a bid-to-cover of 3.06, dollar demand of $107.1 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 37.9%.

As for the dollar, it continues to descend against a basket of major foreign currencies. In turn, it logged a new 52-week low and was quoted with a 0.3% loss at the close of today's trade.

Commodities failed to benefit from the dollar's downturn. More specifically, oil prices settled with a 0.1% loss at $112.11 per barrel. Gold prices closed with a fractional loss at $1501.40 per ounce and silver settled with a 0.8% loss at $44.70 per ounce.

Advancing Sectors: Industrials (+1.8%), Telecom (+1.5%), Energy (+1.2%), Health Care (+1.1%), Materials (+1.0%), Utilities (+0.9%), Tech (+0.8%), Financials (+0.6%), Consumer Staples (+0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.3%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +115.49 NASDAQ +21.66 NQ100 +0.5% R2K +1.0% SP400 +1.0% SP500 +11.99 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1648/2.06 bln/941 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2188/906 mln/837

5:25PM STMicroelectronics misses by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 revs in-line (STM) 12.43 +0.28 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.19 per share, $0.01 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.20; revenues rose 9.0% year/year to $2.54 bln vs the $2.55 bln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of -2% to +5%, which calculates to ~$2.48-2.66 bln vs. $2.66 bln Thomson Reuters consensus. "Following the March 11th earthquake in northern Japan, ST quickly moved to ensure the safety of its employees and their families and to help its customers and partners. While the impacts to date have been manageable from ST's perspective, we remain vigilant and prepared to adjust to and support any shifts in demand or changes to the semiconductor supply-chain in the near-term." The co expects Q2 2011 revenues to evolve sequentially in the range of about -2% to +5% after taking into account ST-Ericsson's anticipated sequential net sales decline. As a result, gross margin in Q2 is expected to be about 38.7%, plus or minus 1 percentage point.

4:26PM Altera beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 revs above consensus (ALTR) 46.59 +0.85 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.68 per share, $0.03 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.65; revenues rose 33.2% year/year to $535.8 mln vs the $536.5 mln consensus. ALTR reports Q1 gross margin of 72.5% vs. the 71.5% consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs growth of flat to up 5%, which calculates to ~$535.8-562.6 vs. $532.43 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.

4:21PM MIPS Tech misses by $0.01, misses on revs (MIPS) 10.68 +0.05 : Reports Q3 (Mar) earnings of $0.09 per share, $0.01 worse than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.10; revenues rose 14.3% year/year to $20 mln vs the $21.7 mln consensus.

4:18PM LDK Solar lowers Q1 guidance; reaffirms FY11 rev guidance (LDK) 11.42 +0.36 : Co provided an updated outlook for the first quarter 2011 and reiterated its guidance for the full year 2011. For the first quarter of 2011, LDK Solar expects to report revenue in the range of $745 to $755 mln down from $800-850 mln consensus vs $819.15 mln consensus, wafer shipments of 625 to 635 megawatts (MW), module shipments of 109 MW to 114 MW, in-house polysilicon production of 2,450 MT to 2,470 MT, in-house cell production between 44 MW and 46 MW, and gross margin between 30.0% and 31.0%. The Company's prior guidance for the first quarter was wafer shipments of 610 MW to 660 MW, and module shipments of 120 to 140 MW, in-house polysilicon production between 2,300 MT and 2,400 MT, in-house cell production between 45 MW and 50 MW, and gross margin between 27.0% and 29.0%. Co also reiterates its 2011 guidance of revenue in the range of $3.5 to $3.7 bln vs. $3.29 bln consensus, gross margins between 24% and 29%, wafer shipments to be between 2.7 and 2.9 GW, module shipments to be between 800 and 900 MW, polysilicon production to be between 10,000 and 11,000 MT, and in-house cell production to be between 500 and 600 MW.

4:12PM Broadcom beats GAAP ests by $0.05, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 revs below consensus (BRCM) 40.41 +0.25 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.40 per share, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.35; revenues rose 24.2% year/year to $1.82 bln vs the $1.81 bln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $1.75-1.85 bln vs. $1.9 bln Thomson Reuters consensus, with product gross margin up ~50 bps QoQ from 48.9%. non-GAAP operating margin of 22.6% vs. the 21.3% consensus; gross margin: 50.7% product gross margin: 48.9%. "In addition, momentum continues to build around our innovative solutions. Following a record year in 2010, we had record design wins in the first quarter, which speaks to the continued underlying strength of our integrated solutions for the Home, Hand and Infrastructure markets."

4:07PM FormFactor beats by $0.10, beats on revs (FORM) 10.70 +0.78 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.32 per share, ex-items, $0.10 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of ($0.42); revenues fell 8.0% year/year to $40.4 mln vs the $36.9 mln consensus.

4:03PM Emcore enters into $9.6 mln common stock private placement (EMKR) 2.46 +0.04 : Co announced that it entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement to sell an aggregate of 4,407,603 shares of its common stock to Shanghai Di Feng Investment Co. Ltd. in a private placement. The transaction, which represents 4.9% of the total number of shares outstanding, is expected to raise a total of approximately $9.6 million. The purchase price per share for the shares sold in such private placement will be $2.19, representing a discount of approximately 5.3% based on a 15-day volume-weighted average price as of April 25, 2011. EMCORE did not issue any warrants or pay any broker fees or commissions in connection with the transaction. The closing of the private placement is subject to the completion of customary closing conditions for transactions of this type, including approval of applicable Chinese government agencies.

10:20AM IBM approves 15% increase in quarterly cash dividend to $0.75; authorizes $8.0 bln for stock repurchase (IBM) 168.80 1.18 : Co declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.75 per common share, payable June 10, 2011 to stockholders of record May 10, 2011. Today's dividend declaration represents an increase of $0.10, or 15% higher than the prior quarterly dividend of $0.65 per common share. The board also authorized $8 bln in additional funds for use in the company's stock repurchase program. This amount is in addition to ~$4.7 bln remaining at the end of March from a prior authorization.

8:57AM Sanmina-SCI intends to offer $500 mln of senior notes due 2019 (SANM) 11.45 : Co intends to use the net proceeds of this offering, together with cash on hand, to fund the tender offer for any and all of its outstanding 6 3/4% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2013 and to fund the tender offer for up to $200 mln aggregate principal amount of its 8.125% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2016.

Trina Solar (TSL) announced that its subsidiary has signed a sales agreement to supply solar modules to US-based FRV AE Solar, a subsidiary of Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, in which co is expected to supply FRV with ~35 MW of the co's powerful utility-scale solar modules during 2011, at predetermined prices. Delivery is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2011 for one of the largest solar PV systems located just outside of Austin, Texas.

ARM (ARMH) announced a new licensing agreement with LG Electronics that provides access to the high performance, low-power ARM Cortex processor and ARM Mali GPU families.

09:47 am O2Micro initiated with a Buy at Brigantine; tgt $10: . Brigantine initiates OIIM with a Buy and price target of $10 saying they believe O2Mirco is well positioned to benefit from the near-term LED backlighting adoption trend and emerging solid state lighting (SSL) market. Outside of lighting, the firm believes that the power management segment is expanding with design wins from consumer products such as camcorders and power tools and developing activity with electric transportation (e-bikes and HEV/EV), as well as potential revenue upside from the adoption of USB 3.0, where OIIM is the Intel reference standard.