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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Stocks surged as the S&P 500 erased all of yesterday's losses. The benchmark average rose 0.9% while the Nasdaq outperformed with a gain of 1.3%.

In addition to earnings reaction, investors welcomed further easing from the European Central Bank as the ECB cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 0.50%.

The Nasdaq paced today's gains as major components displayed broad strength. Electronic payment processor Visa (V 175.40, +9.38) jumped 5.7% after beating on earnings and revenue.

In addition, social media stocks displayed significant strength after Facebook (FB 28.97, +1.54) and Yelp (YELP 32.22, +6.92) reported above-consensus top-line results.

Tech shares have spent the entire week trading ahead of the broader market. As a result, the sector has added 3.5% since Monday.

Meanwhile, the second best sector of the week, energy, finished the session right behind technology with a significant rebound in crude oil contributing to today's gains. After falling 2.7% yesterday, crude jumped 3.3% to $93.98 per barrel.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average also tried to erase its losses from yesterday's 2.3% slump. However, even as 18 of 20 components advanced, the index was limited to a gain of 1.0%.

Elsewhere, homebuilders piggybacked strong earnings from MDC Holdings (MDC 38.40, +1.43) as the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB 30.48, +0.65) rose 2.2%.

In the Treasury market, the 10-yr note ended little changed with its yield steady at 1.627%.

With equities finishing broadly higher, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 13.61, -0.88) returned to last week's lows.

Today's advance occurred on below-average volume as only 677 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

In today's economic data, the initial claims level dropped from an upwardly revised 342,000 (from 339,000) for the week ending April 20 to 324,000 for the week ending April 27. That was the lowest initial claims reading since January 2008. The Briefing.com consensus expected the initial claims level to increase to 346,000.

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in March, falling from an upwardly revised $43.6 billion (from $43.0 billion) to $38.8 billion. The Briefing.com consensus pegged the deficit at $43.0 billion.

Export levels fell $1.7 billion in March to $184.3 billion as large declines in foods (-$1.0 billion) and petroleum-based products (-$1.1 billion) outweighed gains in aircraft parts ($0.8 billion) and nonmonetary gold ($0.5 billion).

Meanwhile, imports declined by $6.5 billion to $223.1 billion with most of the drop occurring due to weaker demand for consumer goods (-$3.4 billion).

Also of note, nonfarm business labor productivity increased 0.7% in the preliminary first quarter reading after falling 1.7% (revised from -1.9%) during the fourth quarter. The Briefing.com consensus expected productivity to increase 1.2%. Output levels increased 2.5%, up from a 0.7% fourth quarter gain.

Tomorrow's economic data will focus on jobs as April nonfarm payrolls, nonfarm private payrolls, the unemployment rate, hourly earnings, and average workweek will all be reported at 8:30 ET. In addition, March factory orders and April ISM Services Index will be released at 10:00 ET.DJ30 +130.63 NASDAQ +41.49 SP500 +14.89 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1875/1.71 bln/608 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2300/676.7 mln/722

3:30 pm :

June natural gas traded as high as $4.35 per MMBtu in early morning floor action but fell sharply following inventory data that showed a build of 43 bcf when a much smaller build of 28-30 bcf was anticipated. It continued to inch lower for the remainder of the session and settled with a 6.9% loss at $4.03 per MMBtu.
June crude oil, on the other hand, advanced for the first time since Monday as the European Central Bank announced its decision to lower its key interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 0.50%. Investors also reacted to weekly initial claims data that showed jobless claims falling to the lowest level since Jan of 2008. The energy component lifted off its session low of $91.26 per barrel and touched a session high of $94.10 per barrel moments before settling with a 3.3% gain at $94.02 per barrel.
June gold rose for the third time this week following the ECB decision. Despite a stronger dollar index, the yellow metal climbed as high as $1473.30 per ounce and spent the remainder of the session trading just below that level. It eventually settled at $1467.50 per ounce, booking a gain of 1.5%.
July silver also traded higher but pulled back from its session high of $24.19 per ounce set moments before equity markets opened. Although it dipped to a session low of $23.69 per ounce in late morning action, silver managed to book a 2.2% gain as it closed at $23.84 per ounce.

4:42PM Emulex beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs above consensus (ELX) 5.94 +0.10 : Reports Q3 (Mar) earnings of $0.14 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.13; revenues fell 7.1% year/year to $116.8 mln vs the $112.56 mln consensus.

Co issues downside EPS guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.11-0.13 vs. $0.16 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $118-122 mln vs. $116.90 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:42PM Microchip beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line; guides Q1 EPS above consensus, revs in-line (MCHP) 36.61 0.51 : Reports Q4 (Mar) earnings of $0.49 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.47; revenues rose 26.9% year/year to $430.1 mln vs the $426.96 mln consensus.

Co issues guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.50-0.54 vs. $0.49 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $438.7-456.0 mln vs. $447.37 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:39PM Sierra Wireless beats by $0.03, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs above consensus (SWIR) 28.02 +0.12 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.02 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.05); revenues rose 9.9% year/year to $101.4 mln vs the $100.07 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.01-0.04, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.04 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; upside Q2 revs of $107-111 vs. $106.10 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:31PM QLogic beats by $0.01, beats on revs (QLGC) 10.50 +0.11 : Reports Q4 (Mar) earnings of $0.17 per share, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.16; revenues fell 13.5% year/year to $116.9 mln vs the $115.35 mln consensus.

4:27PM Power Integrations misses by $0.03, misses on revs; guides Q2 revs in-line (POWI) 42.00 +1.80 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.47 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.50; revenues rose 7.3% year/year to $77.04 mln vs the $79.39 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $79-85 mln vs. $83.11 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Q2 non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be between 52 percent and 53 percent.

4:26PM ON Semiconductor beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q2 revs in-line (ONNN) 7.91 +0.11 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.10 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.07; revenues fell 11.2% year/year to $661 mln vs the $665.69 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $675-715 mln vs. $702.60 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Backlog levels for the second quarter of 2013 represent ~80 to 85 percent of our anticipated second quarter 2013 revenues. We expect that average selling prices for the second quarter of 2013 will be down ~one to two percent when compared to the first quarter of 2013. The outlook for the second quarter of 2013 includes stock-based compensation expense of ~$10 to $12 million."

4:11PM Rudolph Tech receives customer acceptance of first JetStep system for advanced packaging applications (RTEC) 11.57 +0.30 :

4:10PM TTM Tech beats by $0.03, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs below consensus (TTMI) 7.09 +0.19 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.13 per share, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.10; revenues rose 8.3% year/year to $325.4 mln vs the $320.73 mln consensus.

"While we experienced normal seasonality during the quarter, we were pleased to realize a year-over-year increase in revenue due to increased sales in our cellular phone and networking end markets. We were also encouraged to see an improvement in the aerospace and defense end market both sequentially and year-over-year, despite current defense budget challenges."

Co issues mixed guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.08-0.14 vs. $0.14 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $320-340 mln vs. $340.74 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:09PM Semtech announces $400 million credit agreement (SMTC) 31.67 +0.59 : Co announced it has executed a new credit agreement consisting of a senior secured term loan facility in the principal amount of $150 million and a $250 million senior secured revolving credit facility. This new credit agreement replaces the existing $350 million credit facility. Based on current LIBOR rates, the after tax interest rate will be approximately 1.3 percent, which is approximately half the rate associated with the existing facility. Second quarter 2014 GAAP earnings will be impacted by approximately $8.7 million in non-cash costs associated with the early retirement of the existing long term debt.

4:04PM Aehr Test Systems announces $1 mln in orders from leading IC manufacturer (AEHR) 0.93 +0.02 :

3:50PM SunPower beats by $0.12, beats on revs; will guide at analyst day on May 15 (SPWR) 14.99 +2.02 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.22 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.12 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.10; Non-GAAP revenues fell 0.9% year/year to $575 mln vs the $510.05 mln consensus.

Co reported Q1 2013 GAAP gross margin of 9.3% versus 9.2% in Q1 of last year.
Co reported Q1 2013 Non-GAAP gross margin of 22.7% versus 12.7% in Q1 of last year.
"Our results reflect the benefits of our superior solar panel technology combined with strong performance from both our rooftop and ground mount teams...Regionally, North America posted excellent results in all end segments. In our power plant business, we started initial construction of the 579-megawatt antelope Valley Solar Projects for MidAmerican Solar and reached 90 percent completion on the California Valley Solar Ranch project owned by NRG Energy. With installation at CVSR expected to be finished by the end of the second quarter, we are on plan for full project completion by the end of the year. Demand in the residential lease business remained solid and once again exceeded our finance capacity in the first quarter."
SunPower will provide the company's Q2 and FY13 outlook at its Analyst Day to be held on May 15, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Briefing Note: Related Peers Include: JASO, SPWR, TSL, STP, FSLR, LDK, CSIQ, YGE, EMKR, SOL, TAN, JKS, CSUN, DTSI, HOKU, ASTI, WFR

11:43AM Cypress Semi and ASML confirmed earlier that the Japan Fair Trade Commission cleared ASML acquisition of Cymer (CY) 9.90 -0.02 : Clearance of the merger has previously been granted by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), as well as the Taiwanese, German and Israeli antitrust authorities. Furthermore, Cymer stockholders have approved the merger agreement. Completion of the merger now remains subject to closing conditions and receipt of approval under competition laws in South Korea. Cymer and ASML continue to expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2013.

9:02AM Intel Board elects Brian Krzanich as CEO, Renee James elected President (INTC) 23.99 : Co announced that the board of directors has unanimously elected Brian Krzanich as its next chief executive officer (CEO), succeeding Paul Otellini. Krzanich will assume his new role at the company's annual stockholders' meeting on May 16. Krzanich, Intel's chief operating officer since January 2012, will become the sixth CEO in Intel's history. As previously announced, Otellini will step down as CEO and from the board of directors on May 16. The board of directors elected Renee James, 48, to be president of Intel. She will also assume her new role on May 16, joining Krzanich in Intel's executive office.

Brocade (BRCD) announced testing results performed by ESG Lab for EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure solutions enabled with the Brocade VDX Ethernet fabric data center network switches for cloud-optimized configurations of 100 virtual machines and 500 virtual desktop instances.

2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO), and Firaxis Games announced the availability of Haunted Hollow, their first title to be designed exclusively for Apple's (AAPL) iPad and iPhone.

Brocade (BRCD) sees EPS of $0.15-0.16 versus the previous guidance of $0.14-0.16 (CapIQ consensus $0.15). For revenues company sees $536-541 million, down from previous guidance of $555-575 million (CIQ consensus $565.4 million).The company anticipates that it will report Q2 2013 SAN biz revenue, including product and services, between $373-376 million, which is down approximately 6% to 7% year-over-year and down approximately 10%-11% qtr-over-qtr. SAN product revenue is typically down 5%-8% sequentially, but the lower-than-expected SAN revenue was due to storage demand softness in the overall market which impacted revenue from some of its OEM partners. anticipates that it will report Q2 2013 IP Networking business revenue, including product and services, between $163-$165 million, which is an increase of approximately 14%-15% year-over-year and down approximately 4%-5% qtr-over-qtr "In Q2, we saw lower-than-expected revenue in SAN due to softness in the overall storage market. However, customers continued to increase their purchases of our Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN portfolio and we made good progress on our IP Networking growth initiatives including solid growth in Ethernet fabrics during the quarter."

Seagate Tech (STX) reported third quarter earnings of $1.26 per share, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ consensus Estimate of $1.16, while revenues fell 20.8% year/year to $3.53 billion versus the $3.39 billion consensus. "Seagate's operational results this quarter again reflect strong execution... The continued advancement of cloud, mobile and open source computing are trends that are shifting data volumes toward personal and corporate cloud environments, creating tremendous opportunities for Seagate's leading storage technology portfolio. Looking ahead, our top priorities are focused on the efficiency of our operations, extending our leadership in storage technology innovation and returning value to shareholders."