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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The major averages settled with modest gains as late afternoon selling took hold following a headline from Nikkei news, indicating Japan plans to impose new foreign exchange margin trading rules. The news caused dollar/yen to slip into the red while also weighing on equities.

Six of ten sectors ended in the black as financials and technology paced the broad market gains.

Most major financials saw gains of at least 1.0% as Morgan Stanley (MS 25.82, +0.84) climbed 3.4% to outperform its peers. Meanwhile, the broader financial sector rose 1.1% to extend its May gain to 7.6%.

Elsewhere, technology shares received support from major components like Apple (AAPL 451.58, +6.63), and Microsoft (MSFT 35.03, +0.15), as well as high-beta chipmakers. The PHLX Semiconductor Index settled higher by 1.5%.

The relative strength of technology contributed to the outperformance of the Nasdaq, with additional support coming from biotech. The Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 183.23, +2.16) gained 1.2%.

Biotechnology also constitutes a good portion of the health care sector, which outperformed its defensively-oriented peers, adding 0.7%.

Another defensively-minded group, utilities, was up as much as 2.0% in early action before surrendering the bulk of its gains to settle up 0.2%. The morning rally took place after NV Energy (NVE 23.62, +4.34) agreed to be acquired by Berkshire Hathaway's MidAmerican for $23.75 per share, representing a 23.2% premium to yesterday's closing price. Despite ending in the black, the utilities sector remains the weakest performer of the month, down 9.0%.

Only a handful of names reported their quarterly results this morning. Industrial component Joy Global (JOY 55.61, +0.53) added 1.0% after its above-consensus results overshadowed the machinery manufacturer's cautious full-year guidance.

In retail earnings, Express (EXPR 21.20, +2.41) surged 12.8% after its solid report was coupled with upbeat bottom-line guidance. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 77.79, +0.27) tacked on 0.4%.

Initial claims for the week ending May 25 jumped by 10,000 to 354,000. The Briefing.com consensus expected the claims level to be 340,000. That bumped up the four-week moving average by 6,750 to 347,250.

The second estimate of first quarter GDP produced a small downward revision to 2.4% from 2.5% (Briefing.com consensus +2.5%) while the GDP deflator slipped to 1.1% from 1.2% (Briefing.com consensus +1.2%).

The upshot of the revision was that personal consumption expenditures growth was revised higher to 3.4% from 3.2%. That was the highest growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2010 and it boosted the PCE contribution to GDP growth to 2.4 percentage points from 2.2 percentage points at the first estimate.

Increases in private inventory investment, exports, and imports were less than previously estimated. The lower contribution from the change in private inventories and nonresidential structures were offsetting factors to the uptick in the PCE contribution.

Lastly, pending home sales for April rose 0.3%, which was worse than the 1.5% increase forecast by the Briefing.com consensus. Today's reading follows last month's rise of 1.5%.

Tomorrow, April personal income, personal spending, and core PCE prices will all be announced at 8:30 ET. This will be followed by the 9:45 ET release of the May Chicago PMI while the final Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey for May will cross the wires at 9:55 ET.DJ30 +21.73 NASDAQ +23.78 SP500 +6.05 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1727/1.72 bln/776 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1787/710.6 mln/1212

3:30 pm :

July crude oil began pit trade in negative territory but rose into the black following inventory data that showed crude oil inventories had a build of 3.0 mln barrels when a draw of 0.45 mln was anticipated, while gasoline inventories had a draw of 1.514 mln vs consensus ranging between a draw of 0.5 mln and a build of 0.1 mln. The energy component advanced to a session high of $93.99 per barrel despite trading as low as $91.65 per barrel in early morning action. It eventually settled at $93.66 per barrel, or 0.6% higher.
July natural gas, on the other hand, fell deeper into the red following inventory data that showed a build of 88 bcf vs expectations for a build of 85-90 bcf. It settled 3.8% lower at $4.02 per MMBtu, just above its session low of $4.01 per MMBtu.
Precious metals extended yesterday's gains as a weaker dollar following bearish U.S. economic data that included initial claims and Q1 GDP supported the move higher.
June gold came off its session low of $1398.00 per ounce and advanced as high as $1417.50 per ounce. It settled at $1411.80 per ounce, booking a gain of 1.5%.
July silver rose to a session high of $23.06 per ounce and settled with a 1.1% gain at $22.70 per ounce after pulling-back in afternoon action.

4:31PM MEMC Elec confirms name change to SunEdison and on June 3 will trade under new stock symbol SUNE (WFR) 8.35 +0.73 :

4:21PM OmniVision (halted) beats by $0.10, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (OVTI) 15.49 +0.43 : Reports Q4 (Apr) earnings of $0.31 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.21; revenues rose 53.9% year/year to $336.2 mln vs the $319.02 mln consensus.

GAAP gross margin for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 was 17.5%, as compared to 16.9% for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 and 22.5% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012. The sequential increase in fourth quarter gross margin reflected a favorable change in product mix, partially offset by the unfavorable impacts from a decrease in revenues recorded on the sale of previously written-down inventory and an increase in allowance for excess and obsolete inventories.

Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.35-0.52, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.28 Capital IQ Consensus; sees Q1 revs of $355-390 mln vs. $342.77 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

4:06PM Mellanox Tech initiates process to delist ordinary shares from Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (MLNX) 55.93 +0.45 :

NVIDIA (NVDA) launched the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 GPU for $399.

Solar names seeing continued strength: RSOL +10%, LDK +6.6%, FSLR +5.9% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman), JASO +5.7%, STP +5.5%, SPWR +4.9% (upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman), WFR +3.4% ( added to Conviction Buy List at Goldman), CSIQ +3.1%

10:57 am Tech Sector trading higher by +0.6% today
The tech sector is trading higher today, along with gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative strength with the SOX trading 1.3% higher. Within the chip index, AVGO (+9.7%) is a notable standout. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.6% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.6% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.7% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, FB (+4.4%) is showing notable strength, while T (-0.3%) is under pressure.

In tech earnings last night: AVGO (+9.7%) posted a slight beat and guided inline PWRD (+1.4%) reported a slight beat and guided above consensusIn news, IQNT (+2.5%) declared a special dividend and initial quarterly dividend. DISH (+0.6%) announces tender offer in letter to CLWR (+21.3%) Board; sends off to acquire co for $4.40 per share. EMC (+5.5%) increased its share buyback program to $6 bln and instituted a quarterly dividend. VRNG (+3.5%) enters into a Settlement and License Agreement with MSFT (+0.5%). GLUU (+4.1%) selected Skillz for real-money mobile gaming in the U.S. In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, FB (+4.4%) was upgraded at Jefferies and BMO, FIO (+5.3%) was upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse, Needham upgraded RKUS (+4.3%) to Buy and CHU (+3.2%) and CHL (+1.5%) were upgraded to Neutral at Macquarie. Also, Oppenheimer initiated HIMX (+3.3%) with a Outperform. Among notable downgrades in tech, SMI (-5.2%) was downgraded to Underperform at Bernstein. PANW (+0.4%) and SPLK (-0.7%) are the notable names in tech scheduled to report after the close.

Avago Tech (AVGO) reported second quarter earnings of $0.61 per share, ex items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.58, while revenues fell 2.6% year/year to $562 million versus the $557.16 million consensus. The company issued in-line guidance for the third quarter with quarter over quarter rev growth of +6-9% calculating to $595.7-612.6 million versus the $599.03 million consensus. Gross margin was $288 mln, or 51.2 percent of net revenue. This compares with gross margin of $292 mln, or 50.7 percent of net revenue last quarter, and gross margin of $295 mln, or 51.1 percent of net revenue in the same quarter last year. "During the second fiscal quarter, revenues came in at the upper end of our guidance helped by improved resales at our distributors in our industrial business...Looking to the third quarter, we see broad-based improvement across all three of our end markets. We believe that the initial ramp of a product transition at a large smartphone OEM, a recovery in enterprise networking spending, as well as a continued, gradual uptick in industrial end market demand, could drive a sequential growth up to high single digits on a percentage basis." Q3 Guidance Metrics: Co sees Q3 non-GAAP gross margin of 51% plus/minus 1%. Capital expenditures for the third quarter are expected to be approximately $67 million. For the third quarter depreciation is expected to be $24 mln and amortization is expected to be $19 million.

Nuance Communications (NUAN) announced that the Company will host a conference call for investors and analysts to discuss its agreement with Tweddle Group to acquire the Tweddle Connect business. Tweddle Connect is an application and content service delivery platform for in-car infotainment systems, including the acclaimed Toyota Entune and Lexus Enform App Suite.

EMC (EMC) has increased its authorization to repurchase EMC common stock from $1 billion in 2013 to $6 billion over the three-year period ending December 31, 2015. Within this authorization, EMC expects to repurchase $3.5 billion of its common stock by the end of Q2 2014; this amount includes the $500 million EMC has spent on buybacks in 2013 to date. Additionally, the EMC Board has approved the initiation of a quarterly cash dividend to EMC shareholders. The first quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share of common stock will be paid on July 23, 2013 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on July 1, 2013.

Mondelez Int'l (MDLZ) announced that it has signed a global strategic agreement with Google. The deal will focus on mobile search, mobile display and mobile websites.

Needham upgrades Ruckus Wireless (RKUS) to Buy from Hold; tgt $16. They believe the recent pullback in the shares (down >50% from recent highs) provides an attractive entry point. They view Ruckus' competitive differentiation as intact, its enterprise business as unaffected by the bundling tactics of Cisco in the high-end enterprise market, and perhaps most importantly, its opportunity in the high-growth service provider Wi-Fi market as undiminished. As such, and with acknowledgement of pressure from its recent lock up expiration, which they expect could take at least a quarter of solid execution to offset, they recommend the shares for growth oriented investors.