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From Briefing.com: 2:25 pm : U.S. equity and treasury markets remain closed today. However, trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq is scheduled to resume tomorrow.

Looking at overseas action, European markets closed broadly higher.

In the United Kingdom, the FTSE advanced 1.0%. BP was the top performer as it settled with a gain of 4.2% after reporting strong earnings. Mining stocks also showed strength. Kazakhmys rose by 2.4% and Rio Tinto gained 2.0%. On the downside, United Utilities Group lagged the broader market and ended lower by 2.7%.

In France, the CAC finished higher by 1.5%. Tire maker, Michelin, and steel producer, ArcelorMittal, were the top performers. The two stocks finished higher by 3.3% and 3.2%, respectively. Only three stocks registered losses. Legrand was the weakest performer as the producer of electric equipment slipped 0.3%.

Germany's DAX gained 1.1%. Deutsche Bank added 3.4%, and was the top performer after reporting strong quarterly results. Deutsche Post shed 1.7%, and was the weakest performer. Consumer stocks also saw weakness as Henkel slipped 0.5% and Fresenius SE lost 0.9%.

Note that the ADP Employment Change report has been re-scheduled for November 1 at 8:15 ET. Originally, the report was set to be released tomorrow at 8:15 ET.

5:37PM First Solar postpones Q3 earnings release to after market hours on Thursday, Nov 1 (conference call 4:30 PM EST) (FSLR) 23.97 :

5:29PM Rudolph Tech postpones earnings release to after market hours on Nov 5 (conference call to take place the same day at 4:45 PM EST) (RTEC) 9.48 :

4:32PM Sanmina-SCI beats by $0.12, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus; announces restructuring for two facilities (SANM) 7.60 : Reports Q4 (Sep) earnings of $0.46 per share, $0.12 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.34; revenues fell 7.1% year/year to $1.58 bln vs the $1.59 bln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.31-0.37 vs. $0.37 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $1.5-1.55 bln vs. $1.6 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Sanmina-SCI also announced a restructuring plan which impacts two of its manufacturing facilities. This action will improve the Company's operational cost structure, flexibility and capacity utilization. As a result of this plan, the Company has recorded charges in its fourth quarter of approximately $11.9 million, consisting of severance pay for affected employees and related asset impairments. A total of $9.3 million of such expenses are expected to be cash and $2.6 million are expected to be non-cash in nature. Sanmina-SCI expects to complete the actions being taken under the plan in fiscal 2013. The Company will continue to evaluate its plans and further restructuring actions may occur, which may cause the Company to incur additional restructuring charges relating to this plan.

4:23PM MIPS Tech beats by $0.02, beats on revs (MIPS) 7.24 : Reports Q1 (Sep) loss of $0.01 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.03); revenues fell 19.2% year/year to $13.9 mln vs the $13.66 mln consensus.

"In the quarter, we released our new interAptiv core to general availability, which contributed to our license and contract revenue. Going forward, we are continuing to explore our options around patent monetization and other opportunities for increasing shareholder value."

4:11PM Silicon Image beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 revs below consensus (SIMG) 4.60 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.11 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.09; revenues rose 23.8% year/year to $73.9 mln vs the $73.95 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of ~$64-67 mln vs. $71.49 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"Earnings growth has been robust in our seasonally strongest quarter. Mobile continues to be our key growth driver as MHL? technology gains momentum across top tier phone and tablet manufacturers. We remain on track with our 60 GHz WirelessHD technology and expect to sample mobile-oriented ICs late this year... "While the 2012 fourth quarter outlook reflects a seasonal decline which is higher than our typical 5-10%, our product revenues in the first quarter of 2013, in a departure from the typical pattern, are expected to be flat to modestly up, compared with our fourth quarter 2012 guidance."

4:08PM Nanometrics beats by $0.12, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (NANO) 12.96 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.10 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.12 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.02); revenues fell 24.7% year/year to $43.9 mln vs the $42.68 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of ($0.19)- ($0.12), excluding non-recurring items, vs. ($0.02) Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $28-32 mln vs. $42.90 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:07PM JDS Uniphase beats by $0.03, misses on revs; guides Q2 revs below consensus (JDSU) : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.15 per share, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.12; revenues rose 1.2% year/year to $420.9 mln vs the $426.74 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $410-430 mln vs. $464.35 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:05PM FEI beats by $0.05, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line (FEIC) 50.35 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.71 per share, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.66; revenues rose 8.0% year/year to $221.8 mln vs the $216.31 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.68-0.76 ex items vs. $0.76 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $223-233 mln vs. $229.95 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
"We had another good quarter, with revenue growth in spite of a normally weak seasonal period and an uncertain economic environment," commented Don Kania, president and CEO. "Margins were as expected and earnings were ahead of our guidance. Bookings growth compared with both last year's third quarter and this year's second quarter was driven by our electronics and natural resources businesses. Bookings growth was also strong in Europe compared with both prior periods. We are looking forward to a seasonally strong fourth quarter for bookings, revenue and earnings."

3:53PM Pericom Semi reports EPS in-line, misses on revs; guides Q2 revs below consensus (PSEM) 7.65 : Reports Q1 (Sep) earnings of $0.10 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.10; revenues $36.7 mln vs the $38.21 mln consensus. On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin was 39.3% in the first quarter, which reflects exclusion of share-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets and amortization of fair value adjustments from the PTI acquisition.

Guidance: Co issues downside guidance for Q2 revs of $30.5-34.5 mln vs. $38.91 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co sees Q2 GAAP gross margins are expected to be between 34.8% and 36.8%, and adjusting for share-based compensation, amortization of intangibles and fair value adjustments that are expected to total ~1.7%, non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be in the 36.5% to 38.5% range. Co sees Q2 GAAP operating expenses are expected to be between $12.7-13.1 million, and adjusting for share-based compensation, amortization of intangibles and fair value adjustments that are expected to total ~$1.2 million, non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $11.5-11.9 million.

1:20PM Seagate Tech announced that due to the impact of the storm on the East Coast of the United States, it has moved its fiscal first quarter 2013 financial results release and conference call to October 31, 2012 (STX) 27.90 :

10:55AM IBM authorizes $5 billion for stock repurchase (IBM) 193.27 : IBM expects to request additional share repurchase authorization at the April 2013 board meeting.

Broadcom (BRCM) announced that Huawei has chosen Broadcom's Small Cell Baseband Processor family of solutions for WCDMA small cell access point deployments.

8:05AM Vishay misses by $0.09, misses on revs; guides Q4 revs below consensus (VSH) 8.80 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.15 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.09 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.24; revenues fell 10.0% year/year to $573 mln vs the $581.78 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $500-540 mln vs. $571.43 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"Over the course of the third quarter many of our end markets deteriorated substantially, in particular computing and consumer, which resulted in unexpectedly low orders from Asian distribution. Nonetheless the operating margin was in line with our business model. Selling, general, and administrative expenses as well as manufacturing fixed costs were kept well under control, while the quarter was burdened by temporary inefficiencies related to the volume drop and an inventory reduction."
"Our current anticipation for the profitability for the full year is substantially lower than previously anticipated, which resulted in a significant shift in the estimated mix of income among our various taxing jurisdictions. As a consequence, our normalized tax rate for the year increased to 33% resulting in a very high effective tax rate for the third quarter impacting EPS."
"Despite fast changes in the economic environment, Vishay is in a position to continue to steadily pursue its Growth Plan. As part of our Growth Plan we continue to actively pursue small to mid-size acquisitions of niche businesses."

8:01AM Advanced Energy announces new $25 mln share repurchase program over the next 12 months (AEIS) 11.78 :

EVault, a Seagate (STX), announced the EVault backup and recovery platform will now take advantage of the Windows Azure cloud platform. In conjunction with this initiative, EVault will be expanding development, sales and marketing collaboration around Windows Azure.

Integrated Device (IDTI) reported second quarter earnings of $0.09 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.07, while revenues fell 3.5% year/year to $133.4 million versus the $133.06 mln consensus. The company states, "New product revenue increased to over 17 percent of the total, up from 14 percent in the prior quarter, driven by record revenue from Rapid IO switching solutions, continued growth in PCI Express switching, and initial sales from new product categories like enterprise flash controllers, high-speed data converters and wireless power solutions... Customer demand slowed significantly in the month of September for IDT as well as the overall semiconductor sector, and has remained soft in October. Even though we're experiencing cautious ordering patterns from customers due to the uncertain macroeconomic environment, we believe our new product traction and continued focus on cost controls will enable us to reach our fiscal 2014 operating margin targets."

Apple (AAPL) announced executive management changes. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim... Eddy Cue will take on the additional responsibility of Siri and Maps, placing all of online services in one group. Craig Federighi will lead both iOS and OS X. Bob Mansfield will lead a new group, Technologies, which combines all of Apple's wireless teams across the company in one organization.

Baidu.com (BIDU) reported third quarter earnings of $1.37 per share, $0.09 better than the Capital IQ consensus of $1.28, while revenues rose 51.9% year/year to $994.6 million versus the $1000.95 mln consensus. Online marketing revenues for the third quarter of 2012 were RMB6.246 billion ($993.8 million), representing a 49.6% increase from the corresponding period in 2011. Baidu had approximately 390,000 active online marketing customers in the third quarter of 2012, representing a 28.3% increase from the corresponding period in 2011 and a 10.8% increase from the second quarter of 2012. Revenue per online marketing customer for the third quarter was approximately RMB16,000 ($2,546), a 16.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2011 and a 3.2% increase compared to the second quarter of 2012. Traffic acquisition cost (TAC) as a component of cost of revenues was RMB538.2 million ($85.6 million), representing 8.6% of total revenues, as compared to 8.0% in the corresponding period in 2011 and 8.3% in the second quarter of 2012. Bandwidth costs as a component of cost of revenues were RMB266.9 million ($42.5 million), representing 4.3% of total revenues, compared to 4.0% in the corresponding period in 2011. Depreciation costs as a component of cost of revenues were RMB279.9 million ($44.5 million), representing 4.5% of total revenues, compared to 4.2% in the corresponding period in 2011. These increases were mainly due to an increase in network infrastructure capacity. Selling, general and administrative expenses were RMB642.8 million ($102.3 million), representing an increase of 39.7% from the corresponding period in 2011, primarily due to an increase in marketing- and personnel-related expenses. The company issued downside guidance for fourth quarter revenues of $979-1010 million versus the $1.04 billion consensus.

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