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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : Stocks ended modestly higher as the S&P 500 climbed 0.2%, and the Dow added 0.4% to register its 19th consecutive Tuesday of gains.

The major averages saw little change during morning action, but afternoon buying interest helped lift the indices to session highs. Most cyclical sectors (with the exception of materials and technology) finished among the leaders, but the defensively-geared health care sector settled atop the leaderboard as biotechnology outperformed.

The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 181.54, +1.78) advanced 1.0%, and prevented the Nasdaq from falling too far behind the other two indices as technology displayed relative weakness.

The technology sector spent the bulk of the day in negative territory as major components failed to partake in the broader market advance. Apple (AAPL 439.66, -3.27) shed 0.7% after the company faced Senate Subcommittee questioning regarding its tax practices while Microsoft (MSFT 34.85, -0.23) lost 0.7% after unveiling its newest gaming console.

Although the majority of the first quarter reporting season is in the rearview mirror, retail earnings continued to trickle in. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 78.68, +0.57) settled higher by 0.7% after Saks (SKS 13.67, +1.39) and TJX (TJX 51.73, +0.38) exceeded their top-line estimates while AutoZone (AZO 427.84, +18.79) and Home Depot (HD 78.71, +1.95) beat on earnings and revenue.

Dow component Home Depot climbed to a new record high following its earnings beat, but the report did not help homebuilders as the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB 32.06, -0.07) slipped 0.2%.

While most retailers outperformed, those specializing in electronics lagged. Best Buy (BBY 25.64, -1.17) and HHGregg (HGG 13.75, -1.86) ended in the red after both reported below-consensus revenues.

Elsewhere, the financial sector displayed strength from the start. The sector ended with a gain of 0.3% while JPMorgan Chase (JPM 53.02, +0.73) rose 1.4% after shareholders voted overwhelmingly against separating the roles of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, meaning Jamie Dimon will retain both titles.

Despite the gains in the broader market, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 13.33, +0.31) settled in the black as well, suggesting protection received an intraday bid.

Today's volume was slightly below average as 687 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

After recent weeks produced fresh speculation surrounding the Federal Reserve's readiness to begin tapering its quantitative easing program, investors will look for more cues from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke when he testifies before Congress at 10:00 ET tomorrow.

With regards to economic data, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index is set to be reported at 7:00 ET while existing home sales for April will be announced at 10:00 ET. The day will be topped off with the 14:00 ET release of Federal Reserve's minutes from its May 1 meeting.DJ30 +52.30 NASDAQ +5.69 SP500 +2.87 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1297/1.72 bln/1155 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1633/687.2 mln/1377
3:35 pm : Commodities ended the day mostly lower, with metals, corn, wheat, heating oil, RBOB gasoline all finishing lower.

Natural gas remained strong all session, rising as high as $4.21/MMBtu. At the end of today's, June natural gas ended $0.13 higher at $4.19/MMBtu. Crude oil was in the red for today's floor trading session, breaking below the $96 level (LoD is $95.72/barrel). June natural gas ended $0.13 higher at $4.19/MMBtu and June crude oil gained $0.07 to $96.10/barrel.

Precious metals almost reversed back to the unchanged line, but ultimately ended the day with modest losses. June gold finished $5.90 lower at $1378.40/oz and July silver ended $0.14 lower at $22.47/oz.

4:04PM Analog Devices reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q3 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (ADI) 46.56 -0.31 : Reports Q2 (Apr) earnings of $0.52 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.52; revenues fell 2.4% year/year to $659 mln vs the $660.36 mln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.51-0.56 vs. $0.57 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $655-685 mln vs. $688.16 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

2:01PM NVIDIA confirmed support for the Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox One game console with its PhysX and APEX software development kits (NVDA) 14.95 +0.19 :

8:26AM EMCORE awarded solar panel manufacturing contract by ATK (ATK) for NASA's Green Propellant Infusion Mission (EMKR) 3.66 : Co announced that it has been awarded a contract by ATK (NYSE:ATK) to design and manufacture solar panels for NASA's Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) planned for launch in 2015. Solar panels populated with EMCORE's most advanced ZTJ triple-junction solar cells will power a satellite that will carry the GPIM payload. ATK will integrate EMCORE's solar panels into its heritage-designed solar arrays for final flight configuration for the GPIM satellite.

The GPIM project will demonstrate the practical capabilities of AF-M315E, a high-performance green alternative to hydrazine that has traditionally been used to fuel many spacecraft. This innovative, low-toxicity propellant is expected to improve overall vehicle performance. It boasts a higher density than hydrazine, meaning that more can be stored in containers of the same volume, and it delivers a greater thrust per given quantity of fuel.

Atmel (ATML) announced that Secret Labs' recently launched 'AGENT' smart watch is powered by Atmel's SAM4S and tinyAVR microcontrollers.
Altera (ALTR) announced its 28 nm Stratix V GX FPGAs have achieved inclusion on the latest PCI-SIG Integrators List for the PCI Express 3.0 specification.

Select solar related names showing continued strength: RSOL +8.2%, ASTI +7.7%, JASO +4.6%, JKS +3.8%, CSIQ +3.5%, LDK +3.3%, SOL +2.4%, TSL +1.5%, SPWR +1.3%, FSLR +1.3%, WFR +0.7%, .


LED names are seeing early strength: AIXG +5.3%, LEDS +3.4%, CREE +0.5%

Microsemi (MSCC) announced shipment of production-qualified SmartFusion2 system-on-chip field programmable gate arrays. The co also announced the availability of its full-featured SmartFusion2 development kit with support for mainstream industry interfaces.
Xilinx (XLNX) announced that Xilinx and Sumitomo Electric Industries are collaborating to bring smarter solutions to market. These solutions reduce CapEx and OpEx costs through the use of Sumitomo Electric's Gallium Nitride power amplifier transistors and Xilinx SmartCORE IP that result in higher radio unit efficiencies.

NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) announced the availability of its ultra-wideband Doherty reference design using the BLF884P and BLF884PS -- the industry's first wideband Doherty power amplifiers capable of broadband operation

SanDisk (SNDK) announced it has begun customer sampling of flash memory products based on its industry-leading 1Ynm process technology, which represents its second generation 19 nanometer manufacturing technology.

10:35 am Technology trading lower today and behind the broader market
The tech sector is trading lower today, trailing narrower losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing inline weakness with the SOX trading 0.2% lower. Within the chip index, AMD (-3.4%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.1% lower today, while the QQQ is down 0.3% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.2% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, ORCL (+0.5%) is showing isolated strength, while AAPL (-1.8%) is under pressure.

In tech earnings last night, TIVO (+2.7%) posted upside Q1 EPS with inline guidance. This morning in tech earnings, VOD (+0.3%) posted a slight qtrly beat. In news, CLWR (+4.0%) received a revised offer from S (+1.2%) to acquire the ~50% stake in the co it does not currently own for $3.40 per share (previous offer: $2.97/share). Also, AAPL (-1.8%) is currently at a Senate Subcommittee regarding offshore taxation. In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, AMT (+1.0%) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie and CODE (+0.9%) was upgraded to Outperform at Pacific Crest. There were no notable downgrades in tech, however, ARMH (-2.0%) was named a short Research Tactical Idea at Morgan Stanley. ADI (-0.4%), NTAP (-2.0%), and INTU (-0.9%) are the notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.