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From Briefing.com: 4:40 pm : A bounce by the buck weighed down stocks during the early going, but strength among financial issues helped carry the broader stock market to its fourth straight gain.

The dollar traded with strength for the entire session and finished with a 0.6% gain against a basket of foreign currencies. Though that gain weighed on the broader market, it was particularly burdensome for raw materials stocks, which had outperformed during the previous session. Materials stocks pared their losses, though; they finished with a 0.5% loss.

Early weakness also came amid losses in Asia, where some considered a rate hike for Chinese short-term debt to be a hint toward tighter monetary policy. Action was mixed in Europe, where the Bank of England kept its benchmark interest rate at 0.5% and its $200 billion pound asset purchase plan in place.

News that the U.S. issued a warning that banks should guard against the risk of rising interest rates caused a momentary pull back from a slow, afternoon ascent that was led by the financial sector. Financials found renewed support and finished with a 2.1% gain, though. Banks saw some of the best gains as shares of regional lenders spiked 5.7% and diversified banks bounded to a 3.3% gain.

The move contrasted the relatively lackluster performance of the financial sector during the fourth quarter. Some market pundits believe that participants are rotating back into the financial sector and that has forced short-sellers to cover their positions, which were taken amid negative analyst commentary during December.

Industrials made up the next best performing sector. They advanced 1.3%, thanks to strength in General Electric (GE 16.25, +0.80) and Texas Industries (TXI 38.40, +1.26), which posted a smaller-than-expected loss for its latest quarter.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY 41.94, +2.71) posted a positive earnings surprise and upside guidance. Its report complemented a batch of generally upbeat monthly same-store sales results. Support for the space faded as the session progressed, but retailers were still able to finish with a 0.8% gain.

Initial jobless claims for the week that ended January 2 didn't cause much of a stir. Initial claims totaled 434,000, up 1,000 from the prior week. The latest tally was slightly less than the 439,000 claims that had been expected. Continuing claims came in at 4.80 million, which is a smaller total than the 4.98 million continuing claims that many had come to expect. Continuing claims for the previous week were unchanged at 4.98 million.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+2.1%), Industrials (+1.3%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.8%), Health Care (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-0.9%), Utilities (-0.5%), Materials (-0.5%), Tech (-0.4%), Energy (-0.2%)
Unchanged: Consumer StaplesDJ30 +33.18 NASDAQ -1.04 NQ100 -0.1% R2K +0.6% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +4.55 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1576/2.30 bln/1129 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1874/1.19 bln/1184

3:01PM Palm and Verizon Wireless announced availability of Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus (PALM) 11.01 -0.21 : Verizon Wireless (VZ) and Palm announced the Jan. 25 availability of Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus, bringing the Palm webOS experience to customers on the nation's largest and most reliable wireless 3G network. Palm Pre Plus has a large touch screen; high-performance processor; and slide-out keyboard. Pre Plus also comes with the Palm Touchstone Back Cover, making the phone compatible with the inductive Touchstone Charging Dock. Verizon Wireless Pre Plus customers will also get 16 GB of storage (approximately 15 GB user available) for applications and media.

2:55PM Palm announces Palm webOS developer program is now open (PALM) 11.20 -0.04 : The Palm webOS developer program is now open. Any developer can now go to the Palm Developer Center and start developing and distributing applications for webOS devices. Palm announced a $1 million developer Hot Apps bonus program for the rapidly growing Palm webOS developer community.