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From Briefing.com: For the second day in a row, the stock market put together a strong rally, aided by another blistering rally in oil prices (+7.0% to $53.05/bbl) and reports that Greece's new leadership is striking a more conciliatory tone in its attempt to ease the country's debt burden than it did on the campaign trail.

The S&P 500 information technology sector (+1.0%) participated in the move, yet it could be categorized as an underperformer relative to the 1.4% gain in the S&P 500.

That's largely because Apple (AAPL 118.65, +0.02, +0.02%) took a breather. It was entitled to one considering it had gained 9.0% over the preceding four sessions. Apple's steady state, though, belied what was an otherwise strong day for the sector and exposed just how much weight Apple holds in dictating the sector's performance.

Only two stocks in the sector -- Electronic Arts (EA 54.52, -0.44, -0.8%) and F5 Networks (FFIV 112.34, -0.27, -0.2%) -- lost ground on Tuesday. Altogether, 51 of the sector's 66 components increased more than 1.0%.Some notable news items from the sector included:

Apple (AAPL 118.58, -0.05, -0.04%): A Digitimes article, citing sources in Taiwan's handset supply chain, said Apple iPhone shipments in Q1 (APPL's fiscal Q2) could be higher than 50 million

eBay (EBAY 54.24, +0.53, +1.0%): eBay and Proxibid announced a partnership that will make heavy equipment, industrial machinery, farm equipment, cars and trucks accessible to the broadest possible audience and offers a seamless, convenient way to browse and buy quality inventory online.

Google (GOOG 529.13, +0.65, +0.03%): A BloombergBusiness article reported that Google is considering offering its own ride-hailing service that will compete with Uber

Visa (V 259.62, +4.28, +1.8%): announced the appointment of Vasant M. Prabhu as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective February 9, 2015. Prabhu succeeds Byron Pollitt, who previously announced his intent to retire. Elsewhere in the technology arena:

Amazon.com (AMZN 363.40, -1.08, -0.1%): Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said Amazon is looking into the possibility of purchasing some RadioShack stores after the latter company files for bankruptcy

Nokia (NOK 7.86, +0.26, +3.4%): at its annual meeting announced Board to resolve to repurchase a maximum of 365 million Nokia shares by using funds in the unrestricted shareholders' equity. Repurchases will reduce funds available for distribution of profits. The shares may be repurchased in order to optimize the capital structure of the Company and are expected to be canceled.

TripAdvisor (TRIP 70.78, +3.08, +4.5%): Bloomberg real M&A column discussed that Trip Advisor may be a takeover target by Priceline (PCLN 1037.55, +24.52, +2.3%)

Twitter (TWTR 39.80, +2.34, +6.4%): announced partnerships to syndicate Promoted Tweets outside of Twitter with Flipboard and Yahoo JapanAnalyst Action:

Cisco Systems (CSCO 27.12, +0.29, +1.0%): target raised to $29 from $27 at Oppenheimer; Outperform

EMC Corp. (EMC 26.83, +0.40, +1.5%): upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie

LinkedIn (LNKD 232.60, +8.03, +3.5%): target raised to $280 from $250 at Goldman Sachs; Added to Conviction Buy List

Xilinx (XLNX 39.31, +0.47, +1.2%): downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Nomura

4:10 pm : The stock market registered its second consecutive advance with the S&P 500 climbing 1.4% to retake its 50-day moving average (2,044). The price-weighted Dow (+1.8%) fared a bit better while the Nasdaq Composite (+1.1%) underperformed.

Equities displayed strength from the get-go after markets in Europe responded positively to a Financial Times report suggesting Greece will soften its negotiating stance; however, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said there has been no 'U-turn' in Greece's position while German Chancellor Angela Merkel has set expectations for a drawn out process, saying the ongoing talks will 'drag on for months.' In addition, a handful of German lawmakers have voiced their displeasure with the position being assumed by Greece. With no resolution in sight, another chapter in the European saga will be written tomorrow when Mr. Varoufakis meets with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi in Frankfurt.

For the time being, the market happily continued retracing its losses from January. The S&P 500 narrowed its quarter-to-date decline to 0.4% with all ten sectors ending in the green.

Once again, the energy sector (+2.8%) held the lead throughout the session with help from crude oil, which soared 7.0% to $53.04/bbl. In all likelihood, a short squeeze contributed to the surge, but so did better than expected earnings from BP (BP 41.10, +1.24). However, it is worth mentioning that the industry giant plans to cut its 2015 capital expenditure budget by 13.0% to $20 billion.

Similar to energy, materials (+2.2%) and consumer discretionary (+2.2%) jumped more than 2.0% while two of the remaining three cyclical groups also finished ahead of the broader market.

The discretionary sector received broad support with Office Depot (ODP 9.27, +1.64) charging higher by 21.5% after The Wall Street Journal reported the company has been in talks with Staples (SPLS 19.01, +1.87) about a potential merger.

Elsewhere, the technology sector (+1.0%) lagged throughout the session, but was able to settle not far behind the broader market. Chipmakers displayed relative strength (PHLX Semiconductor Index +1.8%), but several top-weighted components like Apple (AAPL 118.57, -0.06), Facebook (FB 75.40, +0.41), and Google (GOOGL 533.30, +1.10) struggled to pull away from their flat lines.

Similar to the tech sector, the Nasdaq spent the day behind the broader market. Biotechnology factored into the underperformance with the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 317.79, -1.79) falling 0.6% while the health care sector (+0.7%) settled near the bottom of the leaderboard.

Treasuries spent the day in a steady retreat, sending the 10-yr yield higher by 11 basis points to 1.78%.

Today's participation was well above average with more than 958 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data was limited to Factory Orders:


Factory orders declined 3.4% in December after declining a downwardly revised 1.7% (from -0.7%) in November while the Briefing.com consensus expected a drop of 2.0%

While the headline decline in factory orders was clear miss in terms of expectations, the underlying data should provide a boost to the second estimate to Q4 2014 GDP
Shipments of nondefense capital goods, excluding aircraft, were much stronger than reported in the advance release. Instead of declining 0.2% in December, shipments increased 0.2%. Since shipments factor into GDP calculations, the upward revision will positively contribute to economic growth

Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET while the ADP Employment Change for January will cross the wires at 8:15 ET (Briefing.com consensus 230K). The day's data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of the ISM Services Index for January (consensus 56.5).

Nasdaq Composite -0.2% YTD
S&P 500 -0.4% YTD
Russell 2000 -0.6% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -0.9% YTD

DJ30 +305.36 NASDAQ +51.05 SP500 +29.18 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2174/1.99 bln/778 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2504/959.1 mln/621 3:35 pm :

Oil prices were at it again today, extending a rally that began late last week.
In the past three session, WTI crude oil futures are up 19%
Crude is actually up for four consecutive sessions. We just excluded the session on Thursday Jan 29 because crude was up that day, but only posted a six cent gain.
Today, Mar crude oil ended pit trading $3.48 higher at $53.04/barrel.
Mar natural gas futures rose $0.08 to end the session at $2.76/MMBtu
Despite the dollar index selling off today, Apr gold prices lost $17.80.
Meanwhile, Mar silver rose $0.07 to $17.32/oz. Mar copper rose $0.09 to $2.58/lb

6:02 pm Silicon Labs acquires Bluegiga Technologies Oy, a privately held provider of short-range wireless connectivity solutions and software for the Internet of Things, for ~$61 mln in cash; to be accretive to 2015 non-GAAP earnings (SLAB) : Co announced the acquisition of Bluegiga Technologies Oy. A privately held company based in Espoo, Finland, Bluegiga is one of the fastest growing independent providers of short-range wireless connectivity solutions and software for the IoT. Bluegiga's wireless portfolio includes ultra-low-power Bluetooth Smart, Bluetooth Classic, and Wi-Fi modules, as well as software stacks, development tools and software development kits (SDKs) for a multitude of applications in the industrial automation, consumer electronics, audio, automotive, retail, residential, and health and fitness markets.

Under the agreement, Bluegiga investors received approximately $61 million in cash. Bluegiga is expected to contribute approximately $25 million to $28 million in revenue in 2015, and Silicon Labs expects the acquisition to be accretive to 2015 non-GAAP earnings.

12:29 pm Notable movers of interest (:SCANX) : The following are some of today's most notable movers of interest, categorized by market capitalization (large cap over $10 billion and mid cap between $2-10 billion) and ranked by % change (all stocks over 100K average daily volume).

Large Cap Gainers

SPLS (18.71 +9.16%): Reports out that it and Office Depot (ODP) are in talks to merge; Activist investor Starboard has been pushing for the business combination since confirming a stake in both companies in early December.
ETN (69.94 +8.6%): Beat Q4 consensus EPS estimates by $0.07, reported revs in-line; guided Q1 EPS below consensus; guided FY15 EPS in-line.
FCX (18.59 +6.53%): Copper miners enjoying strong gains as futures spot price of copper gains 3.6% on the day (SCCO also higher).

Large Cap Losers

ALKS (66.9 -7.85%): Sector wide weakness in Healthcare today (INCY, PCYC, BMRN also notably lower).
NOV (53.18 -5.69%): Reported Q4 (Dec) earnings of $1.69 per share, $0.09 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.60; revenues rose 7.7% year/year to $5.71 bln vs the $5.7 bln consensus; warned that the anticipate a very challenging market in 2015.
HCA (68.51 -2.38%): Beat Q4 consensus EPS estimates by $0.10, beat on revs; guided FY15 EPS below consensus, revs in-line.

Mid Cap Gainers

SSNC (59.96 +9.92%): Announced it will acquire Advent Software (ADVS) for $44.25 per share, an enterprise value of ~$2.7 bln in cash; SSNC expects the transaction to be accretive to its overall financial profile; upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan; tgt raised to $70 from $50.
WLL (36.75 +11.26%): Upgraded to Buy at Stifel.
TROX (22.94 +7.9%): Reports out that Tronox is near deal to purchase FMC's (FMC) soda-ash business for $1.5 bln.

Mid Cap Losers

SSYS (55.37 -30.86%): Sees FY14 revs of $748-750 mln vs $763.55 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, adj EPS of $1.97-2.03 vs $2.25 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY15 EPS and revs below consensus; Downgraded at Piper Jaffray, Brean Capital, Cowen, others.
GNC (42.06 -4.15%): The NY AG sent letters to four major retailers, GNC, Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), and Walgreens (WBA), for allegedly selling store brand herbal supplement products.
ZU (18 -2.39%): Price target lowered to $27 at Stifel, maintains Buy rating.

11:52 am Stocks/ETFs that traded to new 52 week highs/lows this session - New highs (178) outpacing new lows (42) (:SCANX) : Stocks that traded to 52 week highs: AAON, ABCD, ADVS, AFB, AHH, AINC, ALV, AMC, AN, ANW, AOS, ASH, AXL, AYN, BBK, BDL, BERY, BLE, BPS, BR, BRKS, BRLI, BSET, BTA, BTT, BUD, BYM, CACC, CCA, CCMP, CDXS, CERU, CEVA, CIVI, CNC, CNK, COMM, CPF, CSG, CTAS, CUBI, CXE, DEG, DFP, DGX, DLTR, DMB, DSPG, DXGE, EBSB, EIV, ENFC, ENH, ENL, EOT, ESPR, EVN, EVO, FCAU, FFC, FFNW, FISH, FIX, FNRG, FPT, FTR, GFF, GPN, GPX, HAE, HAR, HCSG, HLS, HPF, HRTG, HW, HZO, IBKR, IFEU, IIVI, IMAX, IMH, IQI, IR, ISBC, ISLE, ITG, JLL, JPS, JW.A, JW.B, KR, KTF, KTF, LAMR, LBY, LDRI, LEA, LEO, LII, LPSB, LVLT, MANT, MCA, MEN, MFL, MFM, MFT, MMI, MQY, MSCC, MSCI, MTD, MTT, MUC, MUE, MUJ, MUSA, MVT, MYD, NAD, NAVG, NAZ, NEU, NKX, NMT, NMZ, NOC, NPT, NQM, NQU, NTC, NUV, NVG, NXR, ODP, OIA, OPK, ORAN, PAI, PCK, PETM, PMM, PMO, PSEM, PSF, PSO, PZC, RECN, RHI, RUK, SCHL, SCSS, SEIC, SERV, SIRI, SMG, SPLS, SPR, SSNC, SUBK, TIME, TRK, TSO, TTM, TW, UFI, UIHC, VCV, VFL, VKI, VMC, VMO, VRX, VSEC, WEN, WOOD, WTBA

Stocks that traded to 52 week lows: ACTS, ANY, APPY, ARR, ATV, AXE, CBLI, CSLT, CYCC, DDD, DRWI, FMY, FTEK, FUEL, FULL, GDOT, GKNT, GLBS, IMNP, IPAR, IX, LFVN, LMNX, LTRX, NBHC, ONTX, PANL, PCOM, PERF, PRXI, QRM, RCMT, RGSE, SSYS, SVVC, TESS, TZOO, VSTM, VVUS, WMGI, XONE, ZU

ETFs that traded to 52 week highs: ITA, RTH

ETFs that traded to 52 week lows: FUD, FXA

8:31 am Ixys has signed a definitive agreement to acquire RadioPulse for $16.5 mln in cash (IXYS) : Based in Seoul, Korea, the fabless semiconductor company develops, manufactures and sells innovative wireless network technology solutions based on the ZigBee protocol

Under the agreement, the shareholders of RadioPulse will receive an up-front payment of up to $16.5 million in cash, plus potentially up to $6 million in earnout consideration.

7:09 am Benchmark Elec reports EPS in-line, misses on revs; guides Q1 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (BHE) : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.43 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.43; revenues fell 6.2% year/year to $710 mln vs the $729.41 mln consensus.

Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.30-0.34, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.38 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $615-645 mln vs. $680.49 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Co stated, "Our first quarter guidance reflects lingering headwinds in Computing and Telecom; however, we expect growth to resume in these sectors in the second half of the year. For 2015, we anticipate that our non-traditional revenue base of Industrial, Medical, and Test & Instrumentation will continue to strengthen"