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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks lacked direction for the entire session and, appropriately, finished in mixed fashion.

Overseas gains had offered mild support to stock prices this morning, but buying failed to generate any meaningful momentum before the open. Support waned with an uninspiring initial jobless claims count for the week ended January 1. Initial claims totaled 409,000, which is on par with the 405,000 initial claims that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Initial claims were up 18,000 from the prior week while continuing claims were down 50,000 from the prior week to 4.10 million.

December same-store sales disatisfied as only a few firms met or exceeded expectations. That left the lot of retailers to slide to a 1.6% loss. Target (TGT 54.93, -4.01) was among the worst performing retailers after it reported that its same-store sales increased by less than 1% during December. The stock found support at its 200-day average, which was last touched two months ago, but it still settled with its worst single-session loss in more than a year.

Telecom stocks were also shunned. In turn, the telecom sector lost 2.8%, which made it the worst performing sector of the session.

At the other end of the spectrum, tech scored a 0.9% gain, which made for the sector's fourth straight advance and puts it on pace for a 2.9% weekly gain. Semiconductor plays underpinned the sector's most recent advance. Semiconductor stocks collectively advanced 1.8%. Such strength also helped prop up the Nasdaq.

Though the negative correlation between the dollar and the stock market has diminished in recent days, the broader market ran into some late morning selling that coincided with a bounce by the greenback against the euro. The euro violated its 200-day moving average to set a one-month low after the release of a report that offered a framework for future eurozone bank failures in the eurozone. No report was issued on sovereign debt in the eurozone.

A stronger dollar certainly didn't help the case for commodities, which were clipped for further losses today. In broad terms, the CRB Commodity Index fell 1.3%. Crude oil prices tumbled 2.1% to settle at $88.38 per barrel. Natural gas prices logged a 1.1% loss at $4.43 per MMBtu after they had swung to a gain of more than 2% following news of a greater-than-expected draw of 135 bcf.

Advancing Sectors: Tech (+0.9%), Health Care (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-2.8%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.7%), Energy (-0.7%), Financials (-0.6%), Materials (-0.4%), Consumer Staples (-0.4%), Industrials (-0.2%)
Unchanged: UtilitiesDJ30 -25.58 NASDAQ +7.69 SP500 -2.71 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1148/2.11 bln/1469 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1165/1.09 bln/1821

4:36PM Verizon and Vodafone PLC (VOD) jv confirm release of 4G LTE smartphones, tablets, a MiFi, hotspot and notebooks (VZ) 36.23 -0.95 : Verizon Wireless announced a suite of 10 forthcoming 4G LTE devices - including smartphones from HTC, LG, Motorola (MOT) and Samsung; tablets from Motorola and Samsung; a MiFi from Novatel Wireless (NVTL) and a mobile hotspot from Samsung; and two notebooks from HP (HPQ). Verizon expects these consumer-oriented devices to be available by mid-2011, with some available as early as March 2011.

4:22PM Tessera Tech licenses patents to Olympus Imaging (TSRA) 21.79 -0.10 : Co announces that Olympus Imaging Corporation signed a worldwide licensing agreement with a Tessera subsidiary under which Olympus is licensed to Tessera's patents for red-eye detection and removal technology.

4:08PM Aehr Test Systems received over $1 mln additional orders for multiple FOX-15 WaferPak cartridges (AEHR) 1.20 +0.03 : Co received over $1 million in additional orders for multiple FOX-15 WaferPak cartridges from automotive semiconductor manufacturer. The WaferPak cartridges are scheduled to start shipping during calendar year 2011.

4:07PM Volterra Semi issues downside guidance (VLTR) 23.48 -0.08 : Co issues downside guidance for Q4 (Dec), sees EPS of $0.20-0.22 vs. $0.28 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees Q4 (Dec) revs of 35.4-35.6 vs. $38.41 mln Thomson Reuters consensus. "The customer inventory correction we experienced in the fourth quarter with our major customers in communications, server and storage markets was deeper than originally expected," said Jeff Staszak, Volterra's President and CEO. "Recent order activity indicates normal seasonality in the first quarter of 2011 with the exception of our notebook business which will be up sequentially. Going forward Volterra remains well-positioned with excellent visibility on continued market share gains as notebook and server platforms launch."

# Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM) showcased its Plugged into Skype video camera solutions in Maxim booth.
# Intersil Corporation (ISIL) will conclude its distribution relationship with Arrow Electronics (ARW) effective April 7, 2011. Arrow will continue to provide shipments of Intersil products through April 7, 2011. Intersil has taken this action to increase focus within its distribution channel to provide the best customer support in the industry.

# Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) and Powermat announced the signing of a non-binding Letter of Intent to explore the possibilities of developing cutting-edge wireless power solutions.

# Trident Microsystems (TRID) announced that they have entered into a patent license agreement relating to a part of Trident's motion estimation and motion compensation patent portfolio.

# Broadcom Corporation (BRCM) announced that its Bluetooth technology is being adopted for active shutter 3D glasses by RealD (RLD).

Cavium Networks (CAVM) and ARM (ARMH) announced that Cavium's next-generation products will be powered by ARM's Cortex-A family of processor cores.

8:08AM Trident Microsystems partners with Yahoo! to deliver the first connected Cinema TV into the home (TRID) 1.63 : Co announces that it has ported a cinema version of the Yahoo! (YHOO) Connected TV experience onto the Trident DTV platform that will be powering top-brand Cinema TVs scheduled to begin shipping in early 2011

Research In Motion (RIMM) and Sprint (S) announced plans to launch a new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet model featuring connectivity to the Sprint 4G network.

3:16AM LDK Solar agrees to acquire 70% of Solar Power for $33 mln (LDK) 10.35 : Co announces it has agreed to acquire a 70% interest in Solar Power (SOPW.OB) for ~$33 mln. The transaction significantly strengthens SPI's balance sheet, which will enable the acceleration of the development of its project pipeline, which primarily consists of utility-scale power plants and commercial/industrial distributed generation systems.

3:00AM Advanced Semi reports Dec and Q4 net revenues; Q4 consolidated revs beats consensus (ASX) 5.55 : Co reports Dec 2010 consolidated net revenues +124.8% YoY to NT$19,553; Q4 revs +102.7% YoY to NT$53,283.0 vs NT$46,566.4 Thomson Reuters consensus.

SanDisk Corporation (SNDK) announced that its 32 gigabyte 1 and 64GB SanDisk P4 modular solid state drives were selected by ASUS as the SSDs of choice for its new Eee Slate EP121 tablet computers.