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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The major equity averages rebounded from a sharp loss in the prior session to book strong gains. Underlying share volume was on par with recent trends.

Following the worst one-day drop for the S&P 500 in nearly three months market participants came back with a strong bid. Financials became the favorite sector, but had actually seemed a bit groggy in the early going as the sector tried to work through a hangover from the 2.5% drop that it suffered in the prior session. Financials settled trade today with a 1.3% gain.

The Consumer Discretionary sector scored a 1.0% gain as shares of retailers continued their climb. Even American Eagle (AEO 15.54, +0.91) rallied hard despite a disappointing quarterly report and forecast.

Industrials also advanced 1.0%. The group was led by General Electric (GE 18.77, +0.35), which benefited from word ahead of its Investor Day that expectations are still in place for double-digit revenue growth in the company's global growth regions.

Apple (AAPL 530.69, +0.43) shares set session highs in the opening minutes of trade, but responded negatively to the company's unveiling of its latest iPad. The stock was able to recover from the red and eke out an incremental gain, though.

Utilities fell early, but finished at the flat line. They were the only sector that failed to book a gain.

The dollar benefited from a flight to safety in the prior session, but it experienced some modest selling today. That left it to lose about 0.2% against a collection of competing currencies. The Volatility Index was down about 8% by session's end. Its drop came a day after it had spiked to trade near its one-month high.

Data today didn't do a whole lot to induce trade. Still, market participants took note that the latest ADP Employment Change reading indicated that private payrolls climbed in February by 216,000, which is on par with the increase of 218,000 that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. The February figure also came as an improvement over the upwardly revised increase of 173,000 private payrolls reported for January.

Fourth quarter productivity and labor cost data both experienced some substantial revisions from the preliminary readings. The latest report indicated that productivity increased by 0.9%, which is an improvement over the 0.7% increase reported previously. Many had expected the revised reading to show an increase of 0.8%. Unit labor costs climbed 2.8%, which is far greater than the 1.2% increase featured in the preliminary reading and sharper than the 1.1% increase that had been widely anticipated.

Consumer credit climbed to $17.8 billion in February from a downwardly revised $16.3 billion in the prior month. Economists polled by Briefing.com had forecasted, on average, a decline to $12.0 billion.

Barely 800 million shares traded hands today on the NYSE. Although that's not very impressive by historical averages, it is in stride with recent trends.

Tomorrow's calendar of events is weighted toward the early morning. The Bank of England will announce its latest decision on interest rates at 7:00 AM ET. The European Central Bank will follow at 7:45 AM ET. Domestic economic data is limited to the latest weekly jobless claims tally at 8:30 AM ET. Tomorrow also marks the deadline for the Greece's planned Bond swap.

Advancing Sectors: Financials +1.3%, Industrials +1.0%, Consumer Discretionary +1.0%, Tech +0.7%, Energy +0.6%, Telecom +0.5%, Health Care +0.4%, Materials +0.4%, Consumer Staples +0.1%
Unchanged: Utilities
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +78.18 NASDAQ +25.37 NQ100 +0.7% R2K +1.1% SP400 +1.0% SP500 +9.27 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1859/1.57 bln/643 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2375/801 mln/645

4:32PM Semtech beats by $0.02, misses on revs; guides Q1 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (SMTC) 28.14 +0.55 : Reports Q4 (Jan) earnings of $0.32 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.30; revenues fell 10.6% year/year to $104 mln vs the $105.17 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.28-0.32, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.36 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $102-108 mln vs. $111.70 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:15PM Semtech acquires wireless long range IP provider Cycleo for ~$5 mln in cash (SMTC) 28.14 +0.55 : Co announced it acquired Cycleo SAS and all of its assets, related companies and operations. Under the terms of the agreement, Semtech paid the stockholders of Cycleo $5 million in cash at closing. The stockholders will be able to earn up to an additional $16 million in cash based on the achievement of revenue and operating profit goals over the next four years. The transaction was funded from Semtech's existing international cash reserves. Semtech estimates the transaction will have no material impact to earnings in its current fiscal year.

TranSwitch (TXCC) announced that its Atlanta 2000 LTE Gateway Reference Design has been selected by coM.sat GmbH Kommunikationssysteme for the coM.sat 2012 LTE.

TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) officially opened TriQuint International Pte, its new International Headquarters in Singapore.

7:05AM Ciena misses by $0.13, misses on revs; guides Q2 revs in-line (CIEN) 13.44 : Reports Q1 (Jan) loss of $0.17 per share, $0.13 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.04); revenues fell 3.8% year/year to $416.7 mln vs the $426.27 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $435-460 mln vs. $449.63 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 adjusted (non-GAAP) gross margin percentage in the low 40s range, adjusted (non-GAAP) operating expense in the low $180s million range. "Our first quarter revenue reflects the combined effects of seasonality and longer customer deployment and revenue recognition cycles as a result of our greater mix of international and solutions-oriented sales... However, our first quarter revenue does not reflect the underlying strength of the business and ongoing customer demand. We expect sequential revenue growth in the fiscal second quarter, and we anticipate that our operating results for the second half of fiscal 2012 will be stronger than the first half."

Pericom Semiconductor (PSEM) announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously adopted a new shareholder rights plan, effective March 6, 2012. The Rights Plan was adopted following the expiry of the Company's previous shareholder rights plan.

Cypress Semi (CY $15.67 -0.34) provided an update to its guidance for the first quarter of 2012 that was previously issued on January 26, 2012. The company says they have recently seen some order decreases, mostly in certain wire line and handset customers. In addition they are seeing weaker than expected revenues from their distribution channel, mainly due to lower turns business in Europe and Asia. These factors are resulting in a negative impact to previously expected Q1 2012 revenue. The company also says "Customer backlog and bookings stabilized in January and we have seen improvements for the last six weeks. We continue to believe that first quarter will be the bottom for revenue and bookings, and at this point expect Q2 revenue to grow sequentially. However the macro environment and order patterns remain very fluid and lead-times are near historical lows, impacting visibility, any estimate in this environment has a high degree of risk and current estimates could differ materially from actual results. We continue to remain very optimistic about our competitive positioning, our design-win penetration and our new product offerings, in particular our Gen4 TrueTouch? touch-sensing solutions, PSoC 3 and 5 programmable-systems-on-chip, USB 3.0 controllers and trackpad solutions." The company issued downside guidance for the first quarter with EPS of $.08-0.11 versus the $0.16 consensus and revenues of $180-190 million versus $205.92 million consensus.

11:32 am S&P Tech Sector Higher, Just Ahead Of The S&P 500
The tech sector is trading higher today, slightly ahead of gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative strength in the tech space with the Philly Semi Index trading 1.3% higher. SPRD (6.5%) is a notable leader in the chip index. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.4% higher, while the NASDAQ is trading 0.7% higher and the QQQ is 0.6% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, TXN (+1.4%) is showing notable strength today, while only CSCO (-0.2%) is under pressure.
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In earnings, CY (-1.4%) lowered its Q1 guidance. This morning, CIEN (+8.3%) posted a Q1 miss, but issued inline guidance.

In news, NUAN (+2.4%) announced a definitive agreement to acquire TRCR (+39.5%) for $29.50/share. Among rumors, there's renewed RIMM (0.0%) takeover chatter making the rounds.

Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, GCA (+21.6%) was upgraded to Buy at Compass Point. Also, ADP (+1.2%) was added to the U.S. Focus List at Credit Suisse.

Among downgrades, CCIH (-12.0%) was downgraded to Sector Perform at Pacific Cres

09:42 am Ciena shares trade higher by over 7% despite missing on earnings and issuing in line guidance

Ciena (CIEN $14.42 +0.98) reported a fourth quarter loss of $0.17 per share, $0.13 worse than the Capital IQ consensus of ($0.04), while revenues fell 3.8% year/year to $416.7 million versus the $426.27 million consensus. The company issued in-line guidance for the second quarter with revenues of $435-460 million versus $449.63 million consensus.

The company also sees adjusted gross margin percentage in the low 40s range. "Our first quarter revenue reflects the combined effects of seasonality and longer customer deployment and revenue recognition cycles as a result of our greater mix of international and solutions-oriented sales... However, our first quarter revenue does not reflect the underlying strength of the business and ongoing customer demand. We expect sequential revenue growth in the fiscal second quarter, and we anticipate that our operating results for the second half of fiscal 2012 will be stronger than the first half."