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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 29-Apr-11The S&P 500 gained 1.9% as most companies continue to top earnings expectations and first quarter GDP grew at a slightly faster-than-expected pace. As stocks gained, the dollar fell, gold hit a new record and oil prices rose to a fresh multiyear high.

Buying interest was broad-based with all 10 sectors advancing at least 1%.

Commodity prices rallied, with silver spiking 3.8%, crude advancing 1.2% and gold gaining 3.7%. Meanwhile, the dollar index fell 1.2%. Year-to-date gold is up 10%, oil is up 24% and silver has rallied 55%. Meanwhile, the dollar has fallen 7.7%.

The week was extremely earnings heavy, with nearly 150 S&P 500 companies releasing their quarterly results. 3M (MMM) hit an all-time high following its upside report and forecast.

Amazon.com (AMZN) rallied to a new record following its earnings beat. Exxon Mobil (XOM) garnered attention after posting a $11 bln quarterly profit, which was slightly ahead of estimates.

Research In Motion (RIMM) took a pounding as the maker of BlackBerry devices lowered its profit forecast.

About 300 S&P 500 components have reported first quarter earnings, 74% have posted an upside surprise. Earnings are now expected to grow 16% this quarter, an increase from the 11.5% estimate at the beginning of the quarter.

In economic news, first quarter GDP rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.8%, slightly ahead of the Briefing.com consensus of 1.7%. An increase in imports, a slowdown in personal spending growth and a decrease in federal government spending resulted in the deceleration of GDP growth relative to prior quarters.

The FOMC left the benchmark unchanged at between 0.00% and 0.25%, as expected. The Federal Reserve trimmed its 2011 growth forecast range by about 40 basis points. On a positive note, the Fed also decreased its unemployment expectations, now forecasting a range of between 8.4% and 8.7%.

 
 Index	  Started Week	Ended Week  Change  % Change  YTD % 
 DJIA	    12505.99	 12810.50   304.51	2.4  10.6 
 Nasdaq	     2820.16	  2873.54    53.38	1.9   8.3 
 S&P 500	     1337.38	  1363.61    26.23	2.0   8.4 
 Russell 2000  845.38       865.29    19.91	2.4  10.4

10:18AM LDK Solar reports its intention to offer, subject to market and other conditions, U.S. dollar-denominated senior notes (LDK) 11.48 +0.32 : LDK Solar intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to repay certain of its existing indebtedness with remaining maturities of up to one year.

2:23AM Advanced Semi beats by NT$0.07; beats on revs (ASX) 5.90 : Reports Q1 (Mar) EPS of NT$0.65 vs NT$0.58 Thomson Reuters consensus; revs increased 23% YoY to NT$46.01 bln vs NT$43.28 bln consensus.

09:51 am MEMC Elec upgraded to Buy at Wunderlich; tgt raised to $16: . Wunderlich upgrades WFR to Buy from Hold and raises their tgt to $16 from $12 saying the co is developing its own line of super-efficient solar panels that are certain to impact 2012 revenue in a positive way. They believe having its own panel line will make WFR a more attractive takeover contact.

09:52 am Apple target raised to $415 at Argus following last week's results: . Argus notes AAPL delivered its usual terrific results in fiscal 2Q11, but the strong showing did not boost the stock. While iPhone sales rose to record levels, making AAPL the largest mobile phone vendor by rev, iPad unit sales slipped sharply on a sequential basis. The co's desktop Mac computers also declined more than it modeled, though the sequential decline in mobile Macs was moderate. Firm notes that the iPhone had some middling quarters before global growth sent the product into hyperdrive. Firm thinks a similar trajectory awaits the iPad, and on that basis it's raising its target price to $415 from $375.

10:16 am RIMM Lowers Q1 EPS Guidance (RIMM)

Research In Motion (RIMM $48.60 -7.99) lowered its first quarter earnings guidance to $1.37 to $1.45, below the previous guidance of $1.47-1.55 and below the Thomson Reuters consensus $1.48.

This shortfall is primarily due to shipment volumes of BlackBerry smartphones that are now expected to be at the lower end of the range of 13.5-14.5 million forecasted in March and a shift in the expected mix of devices shipped towards handsets with lower average selling prices.

Gross margin for the first quarter is expected to be similar to the 41.5% previously guided. This mix shift is also expected to result in revenue that is slightly below the range of $5.2-5.6 billion guided on March 24, Thomson Reuters consensus $5.43 bln.

Expected shipments of BlackBerry PlayBook in the quarter continue to be in line with our previous expectations and we have not experienced any significant supply disruptions in Q1 due to the impact of the Japan earthquake.

RIM expects to achieve full year fully diluted earnings per share of approximately $7.50 (consensus $7.53), which reflects anticipated strong revenue growth in the third and fourth quarters of the fiscal year driven primarily by the launches of new BlackBerry smartphone products and prudent cost management.

10:08 am MSFT Tops Q3 Expectations (MSFT)

Microsoft (MSFT $25.89 -0.82) reported third quarter earnings of $0.61 per share, including a $0.05 tax benefit primarily related to an agreement with the IRS to settle a portion of their audit of tax years 2004 to 2006, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.56.

Revenues rose 13.3% year-over-year to $16.43 billion versus the $16.19 billion consensus.

Microsoft Business Division revenue grew 21% year-over-year. Server & Tools revenue grew 11% year-over-year, the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Online Services Division revenue grew 14% year-over-year primarily driven by increases in search revenue.

Bing's US search share increased to 13.9% this quarter. Entertainment & Devices Division grew 60% year-over-year, fueled by Kinect for Xbox 360, the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history, continued strong Xbox 360 console sales and growth of Xbox Live.

Microsoft reaffirmed its operating expense guidance of $26.9 billion to $27.3 billion for the full year ending June 30, 2011. Microsoft also offers preliminary FY12 operating expense guidance of 3% to 5% growth from the mid-point of fiscal year 2011 guidance, or $28.0 billion to $28.6 billion.

"Office had another huge quarter, again exceeding everyone's expectations, and the addition of Office 365 will make our cloud productivity solutions even more compelling. We continue to see strong adoption of our cloud-based services among the Fortune 500."