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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : Stocks finished the little changed as a lack of news flow from Europe combined with mixed data in the U.S. wasn't enough to push the Dow to a fifth consecutive day of gains. However, today’s fractional gain in the S&P 500 was enough to boost the index to its fifth winning session in a row. Data showed the Consumer Confidence Index for December rose to 64.5 from 56.0 in the prior month. It had been expected to improve to just 58.0. The Case-Shiller 20-city Index was less impressive, falling 3.4% year/year.

Gaming stocks rallied after the U.S. Justice Department is said to have reversed a previous ruling and will now let states decide if they want to legalize internet poker. Pokertek (PTEK 0.83, +0.10), Boyd Gaming (BYD 7.63, +0.68), Las Vegas Sands (LVS 43.99, +0.45), and MGM Resorts International (MGM 10.42, +0.46) all ended higher on the news.

Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN 69.08, +3.79) rallied 5.8% after the company announced a new round of safety tests confirmed the safety of its Enfamil powdered formula. The stock plunged more than 20% late last week on reports that a Missouri infant's death was linked to the formula.

European financials were under pressure today as the Italian 10-yr yield hovered near 7.00% ahead of the upcoming Italian auctions. Market participants will be closely watching tomorrow's issuance, as well as Thursday's, in an effort to gauge the demand for Italian paper. Shares of Deutsche Bank (DB 38.67, -0.43) and Barclays (BCS 11.13, -0.20) lost 1.1% and 1.8% respectively.

Sears Holding (SHLD 33.38, -12.47) plunged 27.2% after the company announced quarter-to-date same store sales fell by 5.2%. The company also said it would close between 100 and 120 Kmart and Sears full-line stores.

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC 24.09, -2.39) tumbled 9.0% after announcing it will be required to recognize a material impairment of its net investment in the contract with U.K. National Health Service in the third quarter of fiscal year 2012. This has caused the company to withdraw its previously disclosed fiscal year 2012 financial guidance.

Treasuries ended the day with small gains as light buying dropped the 10-yr yield to 2.009%. Meanwhile, mild selling dropped the dollar index to 79.80. A 15 pip gain in the euro pushed the single currency up to 1.3070. DJ30 -2.65 NASDAQ +6.56 SP500 +0.10 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1260/934.9 mln/1309 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1543/495.3 mln/1460

4:09PM Emcore sees Q1 FY2012 to be in a range of $36 to $38 million vs $52.35 mln Single Analyst estimate with the sequential revenue decline primarily attributable to the flood impact to its Fiber Optics business (EMKR) :

4:06PM Emcore reports Q4 EPS loss of ($0.15) vs ($0.03) single analyst est; revenues fall 4% YoY to $52.1 mln vs $53.04 mln Single analyst est (EMKR) 0.86 :

6:41AM Sony: Samsung to acquire all of Sony's shares of S-LCD, making the joint venture its wholly-owned subsidiary for cash consideration of ~KRW 1.08 trillion; SNE currently reevaluating FY2012 forecast (SNE) 17.93 : Under the agreement, Samsung will acquire all of Sony's shares of S-LCD Corporation, the two companies' LCD panel manufacturing joint venture, making S-LCD a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung. In consideration for the share transfer, cash consideration of ~KRW 1.08 trln* will be paid to Sony by Samsung. As a result of this transaction, a non-cash impairment loss of ~JPY 66 bln is expected to be incurred by Sony in the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, due to the reevaluation of its S-LCD shares. This loss includes an impact from the fluctuation of exchange rate. Despite this one-time loss, Sony estimates that the transaction will result in substantial savings on and after January 1, 2012 in respect of costs associated with its procurement of LCD panels. The current estimate of the yearly savings in respect of such costs is ~JPY 50 bln, compared to LCD panel procurement costs estimated for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. Neither the one-time loss nor the estimated cost savings were included in Sony's forecast of consolidated financial results for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. SNE is currently reevaluating this forecast, taking into account this transaction and other factors that might affect its full year FY2011 consolidated financial results forecast.

McAfee, a unit if Intel (INTC), announced it is teaming up with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East to provide technology to create a mobile security application that will be used on the "Hikari iFrame" tablet.