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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The major market averages fell in excess of 1% as the euro descended to a near two-year low, but support in afternoon action helped the broad market rally out of the red.

The tone ahead of the open was firmly negative as participants responded to renewed weakness abroad – the bourses of Europe had already closed when comments were made on Monday regarding possible plans by Greece to exit the euro. The averages of Asia also had to account for that headline, along with Monday’s announcement that Japan’s long-term debt rating was cut by analysts at Fitch. More recently, the World Bank trimmed its growth forecast for China to a rate slightly above 8%.

Talks today among European leaders about the need for stability were widely credited for helping the euro firm up this morning. The euro even made an incremental gain against the greenback, but eventually sellers renewed their efforts. The ensuing slide sent the euro to less than $1.26, or its lowest level in nearly two years. It eased up from there, but was still down about 0.6% against the greenback at the close of the session.

Energy stocks were a heavy drag on trade for most of the session, down nearly 2% at their lowest level of the day. The sector rallied to a 0.4% gain.

Materials stocks made an even more impressive swing into positive territory. The sector was also down almost 2%, but rallied all the way to a gain of more than 1%.

The swings by natural resource plays were more impressive in light of the losses suffered by commodities. Overall weakness in the commodity complex left the CRB Index to fall 1.8%, which stands as its worst single-session slide since early April. Oil fell to a new 2012 low of $89.28 per barrel before closing at $89.80 per barrel.

Short covering likely helped fuel the stock market’s afternoon reversal. Given the stretch of losses suffered by stocks in recent weeks and persistently precarious conditions in the eurozone, many market participants had placed bets that the path of least resistance would be downward. Once stocks stabilized and started to turn higher, many were prompted to exit their positions so as to take profits or protect against additional upside action.

Although the broad market was able to rebound in impressive fashion, Dell (DELL 12.49, -2.59) still endured its worst one-day drop in more than a decade to set a new 52-week low. The stock’s precipitous drop was owed to a disappointing quarterly report. Fellow Tech outfit Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 21.08, -0.70) suffered a marked loss ahead of its latest earnings announcement.

New home sales numbers for April made up the only dose of domestic data today. They hit an annualized rate of 343,000, which is up from the prior month rate of 332,000, and a little better than the rate of 339,000 that had been broadly expected.

Advancing Sectors: Materials +1.1%, Industrials +0.6%, Consumer Discretionary +0.6%, Energy +0.4%, Financials +0.4%, Tech +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Telecom -0.2%, Consumer Staples -0.3%, Health Care -0.6%, Utilities -0.7%DJ30 -6.66 NASDAQ +11.04 NQ100 +0.3% R2K +0.7% SP400 +0.6% SP500 +2.23 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1362/1.92 bln/1143 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1826/863 mln/1182

4:12PM Hewlett-Packard beats by $0.07, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS below consensus; guides FY12 EPS above consensus; announces restructuring (HPQ) 21.08 -0.70 : Reports Q2 (Apr) earnings of $0.98 per share, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.91; revenues fell 3.0% year/year to $30.69 bln vs the $29.91 bln consensus. Hewlett-Packard launches multi-tear restructuring to fuel innovation and enable investment; expects to save $3.0-3.5 bln exiting FY14. Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.94-0.97, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.02 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co issues upside guidance for FY12, sees EPS of $4.05-4.10, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $4.04 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate and at least $4.00 previously.

Q2: Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue was flat YoY with a 5.5% operating margin. Commercial revenue increased 3%, and Consumer revenue declined 4% while Workstations revenue was down 1% YoY. Desktop units were up 5%, notebook units were down 6% and total units were down 1%. Services revenue declined 1% YoY with an 11.3% operating margin. Technology Services revenue was flat YoY, Application and Business Services revenue grew 1% and IT Outsourcing revenue declined 3% YoY. Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) revenue declined 10% YoY with a 13.2% operating margin. Commercial hardware revenue was down 4% YoY with commercial printer units down 7%. Consumer hardware revenue was down 15% YoY with a 13% decline in printer units. Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking (ESSN) revenue declined 6% YoY with an 11.2% operating margin. Networking revenue was up 2%, Industry Standard Servers revenue was down 6%, Business Critical Systems revenue was down 23%, and Storage revenue was up 1% YoY. HP Financial Services revenue grew 9% YoY driven by a 4% increase in net portfolio assets and a 5% increase in financing volume. The business delivered a 9.9% operating margin. Software revenue grew 22% YoY with a 17.7% operating margin, including the results of Autonomy. Software revenue was driven by 7% license growth, 17% support growth, and 72% growth in services. Autonomy saw a significant decline in license revenue.

Co also outlined plans for a multi-year productivity initiative designed to simplify business processes, advance innovation and deliver better results for customers, employees and shareholders. The restructuring is expected to generate annualized savings in the range of $3.0 to $3.5 billion exiting fiscal year 2014, of which the majority will be reinvested back into the co. HP expects to use the savings to boost investment in innovation around its three areas of strategic focus: cloud, big data and security, as well as in other segments that offer attractive growth potential. As part of the restructuring, HP expects ~27,000 employees to exit the co, or 8.0% of its workforce as of Oct. 31, 2011, by the end of fiscal year 2014. The co is offering an early retirement program, so the total number of employees affected will be impacted by the number of employees that participate in the early retirement plan. In addition to these restructuring actions, HP expects to achieve additional savings from non-headcount cost reductions, including supply chain optimization, SKU and platform rationalization, go-to-market strategy simplification and business process improvement.

4:03PM Semtech postpones earnings by one day, they were due tonight but will be released tomorrow after the close, cites accounting complexities (SMTC) 32.86 -0.44 : "Due to complexities of certain purchase accounting determinations related to Semtech's acquisition of Gennum Corporation, it has taken longer than anticipated to finalize our interim financial statements."

7:20AM Suntech Power misses by $0.26, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 shipments and gross margin higher QoQ; reaffirms FY12 shipments (STP) 1.98 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.74 per share, $0.26 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.48); revenues fell 53.3% year/year to $409.5 mln vs the $413.49 mln consensus. Q1 gross profit was $2.4 million and gross margin was 0.6% compared to $62.3 million and 9.9%, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2011; and $182.7 million and 20.8% in the first quarter of 2011. Gross profit and gross margin in the first quarter of 2012 were impacted by a provision for preliminary U.S. countervailing and anti-dumping duties of $19.2 million, or 4.7% of revenues. The sequential decline in gross margin was further impacted by sales price declining faster than the cost of production. "First quarter shipments were 27% lower than our fourth quarter shipments, which is better than our previous projection of a 30% decline. The sequential decrease in shipments was primarily due to limited inventory on hand early in the quarter and a planned reduction in our production level over Chinese New Year. During the quarter, we reduced our total production cost by 6% sequentially, despite lower utilization, and maintained a healthy cash balance." Guidance: Suntech expects shipments in Q2 to increase by more than 20% from the first quarter of 2012. Gross margin in the second quarter of 2012 is expected to be in the range of 3% to 6%. For FY12, Suntech maintains the guidance for shipments to be in the range of 2.1GW to 2.5GW. Suntech expects to maintain cell and module production capacity at 2.4GW and wafer capacity at 1.6GW in 2012. Full year 2012 capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of $120 million to $150 million. Capital expenditures will primarily be related to payments for equipment and services already received, and technology upgrades to production lines.

7:01AM LTX-Credence beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS, revs above consensus (LTXC) 6.18 : Reports Q3 (Apr) loss of $0.10 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.13); revenues fell 47.5% year/year to $30.8 mln vs the $30.51 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.00-0.04, excluding non-recurring items, vs. ($0.04) Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $42-46 mln vs. $37.03 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Our recent product introductions, the Diamondx and DragonRF, are key components of the Company's growth strategy, and we are excited about the positive feedback we have received from customers. Over the next fiscal year we expect Diamondx and DragonRF to account for approximately 20-30% of our product revenues, as customers who have already adopted these new technologies ramp in volume, and additional customers come on board. As fourth quarter guidance suggests, the new cycle is gaining momentum as business is expanding beyond the mobility markets. The Company is well positioned as we enter the next growth phase due to a broadening of our customer base and our strong lineup of products."

Dell (DELL $13.06 -2.01) reported first quarter of $0.43 per share, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.46, while revenues fell 4.0% year/year to $14.42 billion versus the $14.91 bln consensus. The company issued downside guidance for the second quarter with revenue growth of 2-4% quarter over quarter (calculating to about $14.7-15.0 billion) vs. $15.47 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Dell Enterprise Solutions and Services revenue grew 2% y/y to $4.5 billion and contributed half of Dell's gross margin; The ESS revenue grew 5% excluding third-party storage. Dell Services revenue was $2.1 billion, up 4%. Services backlog increased 9% to $15.4 billion. Dell-owned storage grew 24% to $423 million. Server and networking revenue grew 2%. Large Enterprise revenue was $4.4 billion in the quarter, a 3% decline. Operating income for the quarter was $402 million, or 9.1% of revenue. Public revenue was $3.5 billion, a 4?crease. Operating income for the quarter was $271 million, or 7.8% of revenue. Small and Medium Business revenue grew 4% to $3.5 billion. Enterprise Solutions and Services revenue increased 17%, led by services revenue growth of 23% and servers and networking of 16%. SMB had $389 million in operating income, or 11.2% of revenue. Consumer revenue was $3 billion, a 12% decline. Operating income was $32 million or 1.1 percent of revenue. Asia-Pacific and Japan revenue was flat but China increased 9 percent. EMEA revenue was down 1 percent in the quarter. Americas was down 7 percent. Revenue in the BRIC countries increased 4 percent.

Trina Solar (TSL $5.05 -0.27) reported first quarter loss of $0.42 per share, $0.12 worse than the Capital IQ consensus of ($0.30), while revenues fell 36.5% year/year to $349.9 million versus the $389.72 million consensus. Solar module shipments were ~380 MW for the first quarter of 2012, compared to the Company's previous guidance of between 400 MW to 430 MW, representing a decrease of 10.6% sequentially. Gross margin was 5.8% in the first quarter of 2012, compared to the Company's previous guidance of low teens in percentage terms, compared to 7.1% in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 27.5% in the first quarter of 2011. The sequential decrease in gross margin was due primarily to anti-dumping and countervailing duty provisions offsetting reduced costs, while the year-on-year decrease in gross margin was due primarily to module average selling price declines in excess of reduced costs. Guidance: For Q2, the Company expects to ship between 500 MW to 520 MW of PV modules. The co believes its overall gross margin for the second quarter, including the impact of provisions for potential countervailing and anti-dumping duties, will be ~10%. This figure takes into account wafer and cell requirements outsourcing to third party suppliers to meet demand in excess of its internal capacity. Such guidance is based on the exchange rate between the Euro and U.S. dollar as of May 23, 2012. For the full year 2012, the co expects total PV module shipments between 2.0 to 2.1 GW, representing an increase of 32.5% to 39.1%, respectively, from 2011.

09:08 am Facebook initiated with a Buy at Needham; tgt $40: . Needham initiates FB with a Buy and price target of $40. With over 900m monthly unique users, they believe FB is an option on the World. The best question for FB is how to value it. Their point of view is that FB should be valued based on rev potential from total minutes spent on FB times its powerful margin expansion engine. FB represents ~14% of time spent online globally (comScore), suggesting that its rev potential is $14B globally and $6B from the US alone. They note large cap growth stocks are rare.

09:07 am Dell downgraded to Neutral at Mizuho; tgt $15: . Mizuho downgrades DELL to Neutral from Buy with a $15 tgt saying results clearly disappointed on the top-line and earnings fronts and believes that the macro uncertainty combined with its sales execution issues could continue to weigh on its performance for the next few quarters. Despite an attractive valuation relative to its historical range, they believe a more back-end loaded FY13 combined with lack of near-term catalysts and continued macro uncertainty will make the stock range-bound in the near term.