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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : After falling for four straight sessions, the stock market has put together a string of three straight gains. The climb has been underpinned by the buy-the-dip mentality that traders have followed for the past couple of years.

Despite uncertainty about the future of monetary policy, the fiscal health of the eurozone states, growth and interest rates in China, and geopolitical tensions at various points across the globe, the tone of trade has turned decidedly upbeat during the course of the past few sessions. Participants have been confident that buying stocks following a series of losses will ultimately lead to gains, given that the market's resilience has made it quick to recover from any short-term setbacks ever since it bottomed in early 2009.

Strong earnings have been a source of fundamental support for the stock market's climb up from its bear market low, although it can be conceded that reports in recent weeks have had less of an influence over broad market action, given the lack of blue chips and bellwethers in the reporting lineup.

Microsoft (MSFT 25.67, -0.16) came out today to announced that it will pay $8.5 billion to acquire Skype. However, the stock failed to find favor. Evidently investors would have preferred different use of the firm's cash hoard, which included $7 billion in cash and equivalents and another $43 billion in short term investments at the end of the first quarter.

In other corporate news, Boston Scientific (BSX 7.02, -0.69) President and CEO, Ray Elliott, will retire at the end of this year. That announcement dropped the stock to a new one-month low.

Treasuries managed to limit their losses in the face of a stronger equity market. Their recovery came after session lows were set following solid auction results for $32 billion in 3-year Notes. The auction drew a bid-to-cover of 3.29, dollar demand of $105.3 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 34.4%.

After advancing solidly this last Thursday Friday, the dollar has ended lower in each of the past two trading days. Today's loss was only about 0.2%.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (+1.3%), Utilities (+1.3%), Telecom (+1.1%), Financials (+0.9%), Tech (+0.9%), Industrials (+0.8%), Materials (+0.7%), Consumer Staples (+0.6%), Health Care (+0.6%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +75.68 NASDAQ +28.64 NQ100 +0.9% R2K +1.6% SP400 +1.1% SP500 +10.87 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1910/2.02 bln/648 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2448/831 mln/563

5:03PM JinkoSolar Holding announces $30 mln share repurchase program; announces proposed offering of $125 mln convertible senior notes (JKS) 27.19 +0.75 : Co announced that its board of directors approved a share repurchase program on May 6, 2011, which authorizes the Company to repurchase up to $30 million of its ordinary shares represented by American depositary shares within 12 months. Co announced its plans to issue, subject to market and other conditions, US$125 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2016. The terms and timing of the offering have not been finalized. The Company will use a portion of the proceeds of the offering to pay for the capped call and associated expenses described below. The Company intends to use the remaining net proceeds from the offering for expansion of its silicon wafer, solar cell and solar module production capacity.

4:24PM Mattson announces proposed public offering of common stock (MTSN) 2.22 +0.02 : Needham & Company, LLC is acting as sole book running manager and Rodman & Renshaw, LLC and Roth Capital Partners are acting as co-managers for the offering. Co intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, which may include working capital, capital expenditures, other corporate expenses, and acquisitions of complementary products, technologies or businesses.

4:23PM Sanmina-SCI announces early settlement for its previously announced tender offers and consent solicitation (SANM) 12.01 +0.45 : Co announces that, as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on May 9, 2011, it had received tenders and consents from holders of $279,340,000 in aggregate principal amount of its 6 3/4% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2013, representing ~73.51% of the outstanding 2013 Notes, and tenders from holders of $257,484,000 in aggregate principal amount of its 8.125% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2016, representing ~42.91% of the outstanding 2016 Notes, in connection with the Company's previously announced cash tender offer and consent solicitation for any and all of the 2013 Notes and cash tender offer for up to $200.0 million aggregate principal amount of the 2016 Notes.

4:10PM Amtech Systems beats by $0.26, beats on revs; guides Q3 revs above consensus; guides FY11 revs above consensus (ASYS) 21.07 +0.81 : Reports Q2 (Mar) earnings of $0.77 per share, $0.26 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.51; revenues rose 280.7% year/year to $61.3 mln vs the $59 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees Q3 revs of $63-66 mln vs. $60.27 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. Co updates guidnace for FY11, now sees FY11 revs surpassing $240 mln (vs. $235.19 mln Thomson Reuters consensus), prior the co had guided for revenue to surpass $230 mln.

4:09PM STEC Inc drops almost 13% to $17.50 after hours following Q1 results and downside Q2 EPS and revs guidance (see 16:08 comment) (STEC) 20.07 +0.09 :

4:08PM STEC Inc reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (STEC) 20.07 +0.09 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.32 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.32; revenues rose 144.6% year/year to $94.9 mln vs the $91.6 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.21-0.30, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.31 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q2 revs of $80-90 mln vs. $93.74 mln Thomson Reuters consensus.

2:01PM GT Solar commences lawsuit against ARC Energy for misappropriation of trade secrets (SOLR) 11.30 +0.31 : Co announces that its subsidiaries, GT Crystal Systems, LLC and GT Solar Hong Kong, Limited have filed a lawsuit in the Hillsborough County Superior Court in New Hampshire against Advanced RenewableEnergy Company, Kedar Gupta, its Chief Executive Officer and Chandra Khattak, an ARC employee, for the misappropriation of trade secrets relating to sapphire crystallization processes and equipment. The complaint alleges that ARC and the named individuals misappropriated trade secrets relating to GT Crystal Systems' technology for manufacturing sapphire crystals, as a means of entering the sapphire crystallization equipment business. The complaint further alleges civil conspiracy, unfair competition, breach of contract and interference with contractual relations.

9:38AM GT Solar receives $91 million in orders from customers in Asia for its advanced sapphire furnaces (SOLR) 11.00 +0.01 :

8:09AM Trina Solar expects its solar module shipments in Q1 to be in the range of 320-322 MW, compared to previous guidance of slightly higher than the ~351 MW shipped 4Q10 (TSL) 26.78 : Co announces the following updates to its previous guidance made for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. Due to impacts to module demand and order flow linked to Italy's solar regulatory revisions, the Company expects its solar module shipments in the first quarter to be in the range of 320 MW to 322 MW, compared to the Company's previous guidance of slightly higher than the approximately 351 MW shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010.For the full year 2011, the Company reiterates its expectation for total PV module shipments of between 1.75 GW to 1.80 GW, representing an increase of 65.6% to 70.3% from 2010.

8:03AM Microsoft confirms it has entered into an agreement to purchase Skype for $8.5 bln in cash (MSFT) 25.83 : Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The parties hope to obtain all required regulatory clearances during the course of this calendar year... conference call at 11am ET.

7:42AM Taiwan Semi says net sales for April 2011 were approximately NT$36.23 billion, a decrease of 0.4% YoY (TSM) 13.69 : Co announced its net sales for April 2011: On an unconsolidated basis, net sales were approximately NT$36.23 bln, a decrease of 0.4% over March 2011 and an increase of 10.9% over April 2010. Revenues for January through April 2011 totaled NT$138.78 bln, an increase of 13.9% compared to the same period in 2010. On a consolidated basis, net sales for April 2011 were approximately NT$ 37.13 bln, a decrease of 0.5% over March 2011 and an increase of 9.8% over April 2010. Revenues for January through April 2011 totaled NT$142.5 bln, an increase of 13.1% compared to the same period in 2010.

* First Solar (FSLR) and China Power International New Energy Holding Limited signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to collaborate on solar photovoltaic projects in China, the United States and other international markets.

6:10AM JA Solar beats by $0.09, reports revs in-line (JASO) 6.10 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.41 per share, $0.09 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.32; revenues fell 5.5% year/year to $556.4 mln vs the $552.1 mln consensus. Total shipments in the first quarter of 2011 were 451MW, compared with shipments of 463MW in the fourth quarter of 2010, representing a sequential decrease of 2.6%. Compared with the same period last year, shipments grew 65.8% from 272MW. With regard to co's outlook, co states: "Due to changes in the market environment as result of the recent solar policy changes in Italy, solar cell and module shipments in the second quarter are expected to exceed 400MW. The co's current estimate for total cell and module shipments for full year 2011 remains unchanged at 2.2GW."

1:22AM Vishay prices $150 mln of 2.25% Convertible Senior Debentures due 2041 (VSH) 16.91 : Co announces Vishay intends to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with cash on hand, to repurchase shares of its common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $150 mln as follows: 1) Approximately $100 mln to repurchase shares of co's common stock from institutional investors in negotiated transactions and 2) Approximately $50 mln to repurchase additional shares of co's common stock through an agreement with an affiliate of the initial purchaser concurrently with the pricing of this offering.