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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : Stocks began today's session sharply higher, and added to their gains throughout the opening hour of trade. The remainder of the day was spent hovering near session highs. The bullish sentiment was sparked after Mario Draghi confirmed yesterday's reports of a European Central Bank plan to buy bonds of troubled sovereigns who ask for aid. The program will be limited to bonds maturing within three years. Better-than-expected U.S. economic data also added to the upbeat tone which resulted in a broad market rally. The Nasdaq closed at a 12-year high while the S&P 500 settled at levels not seen since January 2008. The two indices finished higher by 2.2% and 2.0%, respectively.

With monetary policy as this morning's theme, financials rallied broadly. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 15.52, +0.36) added 2.4%. Bank of America (BAC 8.35, +0.40) was the top performer with a 5.0% gain. Citigroup (C 31.12, +1.35), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 38.69, +1.58) followed closely and posting gains near 4.5%. Shares of JPMorgan Chase shrugged off a Bloomberg TV report which indicated that the company is facing an escalating senate probe related to its CIO losses. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley (MS 16.25, +0.57) and Goldman Sachs (GS 113.54, +3.60) finished higher by 3.6% and 3.3%, respectively.

U.S. listings of European financials showed even bigger gains as Deutsche Bank (DB 37.61, +2.48) and Barclays (BCS 12.31, +0.79) jumped 7.1% and 6.9%, respectively.

The materials sector gained 2.6% as it outperformed the broader market. Within the group, AK Steel (AKS 5.37, +0.48) surged 9.8% after being upgraded from ‘neutral' to ‘buy' by Longbow Research. Elsewhere in the sector, Randgold Resources (GOLD 108.70, +6.31) advanced 6.2% after JPMorgan upgraded the stock from ‘neutral' to ‘overweight.'

Amazon (AMZN 251.38, +5.16) gained 2.1% after unveiling the newest version of its Kindle Fire tablet at an event in Los Angeles. Today's buying lifted the shares of the online retailer to a fresh all-time high. Amazon's peer eBay (48.91, +1.75) added 3.7% as it traded at levels not seen since January of 2005.

Solid state drive maker, OCZ Technology (OCZ 4.35, -1.01) slumped 18.8% after lowering its second quarter revenue expectations. The lowered guidance was followed by downgrades at Needham and FBN Securities. After lowering OCZ from ‘buy' to ‘hold,' Needham also downgraded Seagate (STX 31.70, -0.83) from ‘strong buy' to ‘hold' and maintained its ‘strong buy' rating on Western Digital (WDC 43.11, +1.27). Seagate slipped 2.6%, while Western Digital finished higher by 3.0% in reaction to the comments.

For-profit education stocks showed considerable strength as they outperformed the broader market. The group rally was led by Career Education (CECO 3.61, +0.27), which surged 8.1%. Corinthian Colleges (COCO 2.35, +0.19) jumped 8.6% while Apollo Group (APOL 30.39, +2.20) and ITT Educational Services (ESI 35.84, +1.99) finished higher by 7.8% and 5.9%, respectively.

The August ISM Services index was reported at 53.7, which was above the 52.4 Briefing.com consensus, and up from July's 52.6 reading.

According to the ADP National Employment Report, employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose 201K in August. This was above the 143K expected by Briefing.com consensus. In addition, the previous month's reading was revised up to 173K from 163K.

Separately, the latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 365,000, which was lower than the 373,000 that had been expected. The tally was below the revised prior week count of 377,000. As for continuing claims, they fell to about 3.322 million from 3.328 million.

Tomorrow's economic data will be headlined by the much anticipated August nonfarm payrolls report and the unemployment rate. In addition nonfarm private payrolls, hourly earnings, and average workweek will be reported. All of the data points will be released at 8:30 ET.DJ30 +244.52 NASDAQ +66.54 SP500 +28.68 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1938/1.85 bln/541 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2413/736.5 mln/623

3:30 pm : Crude oil and precious metals rose in morning pit trade following the ECB's decision to leave rates unchanged and Mario Draghi's confirmation of yesterday's reports of an ECB plan to buy bonds with maturities shorter than three years.

Action also came on a number of U.S. economic data. Crude popped to its session high of $97.71 per barrel on better-than-anticipated inventory data that showed a draw of 7.426 mln barrels when a draw of 5.0 mln barrels was widely expected. However, prices pulled-back and crude oil inched lower for the remainder of the session. It brushed a session low of $95.19 per barrel moments before closing 0.2% higher at $95.59 per barrel.

Gold came off its pit session low of $1698.80 per ounce and traded up to a session high of $1711.90 per ounce. It pulled-back slightly in afternoon action but still settled 0.6% higher at $1705.00 per ounce. The yellow metal rose to its highest level since March, brushing a high of $1716.90 per ounce in overnight trade. Silver dipped to a session low of $32.38 per ounce but quickly advanced to a session high of $32.99 per ounce. Like gold, it pulled-back in afternoon action and settled with a 1.1% gain at $32.69 per ounce.

Natural gas rallied to its session high of $2.87 per MMBtu in reaction to stronger-than-expected inventory data that showed a build of 28 bcf when a build of 30 bcf was anticipated. The move was short-lived, however, as prices quickly fell into the red. Although it recovered some gains in late morning and afternoon action, a sell-off heading into the close had natural gas settle 0.7% lower at $2.78 per MMBtu.DJ30 +215.93 NASDAQ +62.35 SP500 +25.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1901/1551.4 mln/566 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2366/487 mln/668

4:09PM Rambus' Cryptography Research and Sigma (SIGM) will collaborate to integrate the CRI CryptoFirewall security technology into its multimedia set-top box (RMBS) 4.59 +0.23 : Cos announced that Sigma Designs will collaborate with CRI to integrate the CRI CryptoFirewall(TM) security technology into its multimedia set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions. The advanced CryptoFirewall security core will help Sigma Design provide its customers with the ability to provide robust hardware security in their digital entertainment solutions.

United Microelectronics (UMC) announced a collaborative effort with STMicroelectronics (STM) for 65nm CMOS image sensor technology using backside illumination.

6:00AM Trina Solar responds to the European Commission's initiation of an anti-dumping investigation concerning certain solar energy products originating in China (TSL) 4.19 : The European Commission announced the initiation of an anti-dumping investigation concerning imports into the European Union of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules and key components originating in China. Trina Solar is one of the China-based suppliers of these products to the EU. Trina Solar believes the allegations made by Germany's Solarworld AG and other, thus far anonymous, petitioners of the so-called EU ProSun group will eventually prove to be unfounded, and that Trina Solar's transactions with its EU customers were and are made in accordance with international fair trade practices. These allegations threaten the ability of EU consumers to receive the benefits of clean and innovative solar energy products at a fairly-traded, market-competitive price. Trina plans to contest the allegations vigorously. "We are cooperating with the European Commission to ensure it receives all required information to arrive at a balanced and fair conclusion. Additionally, we welcome Chancellor Merkel's constructive approach to a dialogue and are ready to participate in any dialogue which may be initiated," said Ben Hill, President of Trina Solar Europe.

Tessera Tec (TSRA $14.71 -0.09) announced today that Tessera, Inc. has received an initial payment of ~ $20 million from Amkor Technology related to the interim award the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce issued on July 6, 2012, in favor of Tessera in its dispute with Amkor.

Sigma Designs (SIGM $6.78 +0.02) reported a second quarter loss of $0.12 per share, may not be comparable to the Capital IQ consensus of ($0.31), while revenues rose 46.3% year/year to $68.3 million versus the $64.88 mln consensus. The primary reason for the increase in revs over the previous quarter was the addition of DTV revenues of $26.6 million as a result of the acquisition of the DTV business from Trident Microsystems. Non-GAAP adjustments for the second quarter consisted of $2.0 million in amortization expense for acquired intangibles related to acquisitions, $2.7 million in non-cash stock-based compensation expenses, $2.5 million of inventory mark-up, $1.6 million of gain associated with the valuation of the assets acquired from Trident and $3.5 million in expenses associated with our acquisition of Trident's DTV business.

09:27 am Sigma Designs downgraded to Hold at BWS Financial; tgt lowered to $6: . BWS Financial downgrades SIGM to Hold from Buy and lowers their tgt to $6 from $9 saying the IPTV promise at Sigma Designs (SIGM) has disappeared and with it the most likely revenue growth catalyst. SIGM is no longer anticipating a surge in service provider roll-out of next generation IPTV processors to occur in the second half of the calendar year. Firm notes the headline numbers were better than they had forecast as the DTV business reported $2.6 million more in revenue than their estimate. It turns out the beat from DTV was the result of customer pre-orders occurring one quarter early.

10:44 am S&P Technology INdex trading higher today as broad market gains

The tech sector is trading higher today, along with gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative strength as well with the SOX trading 2.7% higher. Within the chip index, SNDK (+7.8%) is a notable standout. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 1.4% higher today, while the QQQ and the NASDAQ are trading 1.5% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, CSCO (+2.6%) is showing notable strength.

In tech earnings, PAY (-10.3%) posted a Q3 earnings beat but missed revenue and guided below consensus. Elsewhere, VRNT (+3.5%) reported a Q2 beat and lowered guidance and OCZ (-21.6%) preannounced downside Q2 revenues. In news, EPIQ (+1.8%) increased its dividend. Also, Z (-2.9%) announced plans for a 3.5 mln share offering. In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, ATVI (+4.1%) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray. Among downgrades, Needham, Craig Hallum, and FBN downgraded OCZ (-21.6%), Oppenheimer downgraded CNQR (-0.2%) to Perform, DCM (-0.2%) was downgraded to Neutral at Goldman and NOK (-1.5%) was downgraded to Sell at Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.