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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Stocks faltered in the early going amid a revival of themes that plagued equities in 2011. They battled back, but finished flat after repeatedly failing to do anything more than periodically poke into positive territory.

Sentiment was dampened this morning by concerns about financial conditions in Spain and uncertainty over the financial flexibility of Hungary, which is not a eurozone member, but is significant enough that weakness there could undermine continental conditions. China's Premier, Wen Jiabo, made note of the economic difficulty that his country faces, stirring some to reconsider the ability of China to lead a global economic recovery.

A lack of leadership in the face of those themes left stocks to slide, but the broad market secured support when the S&P 500 came in contact with the 1268 line. From there stocks slowly worked their way to the flat line, but never made any truly meaningful move above the neutral line.

Although they lack market weight, consumer discretionary stocks displayed strength. Apparel and accessories plays joined automakers, which reported solid December sales results, to take the sector to a 0.7% gain. No other sector performed as well.

Financials were laggards for the entire session, but a bounce by regional lenders helped the sector improve its position in afternoon trade. Financials finished the session with a 0.5% loss.

A barometer of economic and financial sentiment in Europe, the euro traded lower today. Its 0.8% slide to $1.294 more than offset its prior session climb. Other currencies fared better so the Dollar Index made a more moderate advance of 0.5%.

Treasuries failed to attract support in the face of the stock market's struggle to trade higher. That left the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note to return to about 2.0%.

Advancing Sectors: Energy +0.2%, Tech +0.3%, Industrials +0.5%, Materials +0.6%, Consumer Discretionary +0.7%
Declining Sectors: Health Care -0.6%, Telecom -0.6%, Financials -0.5%, Utilities -0.5%, Consumer Staples -0.2%DJ30 +21.04 NASDAQ -0.36 NQ100 +0.3% R2K -0.7% SP400 -0.3% SP500 +0.24 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 970/1.68 bln/1536 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1479/759 mln/1548

5:46PM Seagate Tech is trading 7% higher following upbeat Q3 revs guidance (see 17:11 post) (STX) 16.82 +0.39 :

5:11PM Seagate Tech sees Q3 revs of $4.2-$4.5 bln vs. $3.8 bln CIQ Estimates (STX) 16.82 +0.39 : Co provided preliminary financial results for its fiscal second quarter ended December 30, 2011. The acquisition of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd's hard disk drive business closed on Dec 19, 2011 and these preliminary financial results include Samsung operating activity from that date. The co shipped ~47 mln disk drives, which included ~700,000 Samsung disk drives, and expects to report revenue for Q2 2012 of $3.1-3.2 bln. Before giving effect to charges related to the acquisition of Samsung's hard disk drive business that are not yet determinable, the co expects gross margin as a percent of revenue to be at least 30.5%, operating expenses (Product Development, Marketing and Administrative) to be ~$390 mln, and diluted outstanding shares to be 440 mln. The co continues to believe that during calendar 2012 unit demand will exceed supply and combined with the high growth rate in the demand for raw storage, the exabyte shortage will be more pronounced than the unit shortage, and as a result pricing is expected to remain stable. The co's outlook for the March 2012 quarter excludes certain costs related to integration activities, transition support services and acquisition related costs associated with the acquisition of Samsung's hard disk drive operations as they are not yet determinable. Specifically for the March 2012 quarter, and before giving effect to the acquisition related charges referenced above, the co expects unit shipments to increase as compared to the December quarter, revenue of $4.2-$4.5 billion, gross margin as a percent of revenue of at least 33%, and operating expenses (Product Development, Marketing and Administrative) to be ~$415 mln. Based on the shares outstanding at the beginning of the March 2012 quarter, diluted outstanding shares are expected to be ~480 mln.

4:02PM FSI Intl announced that a device producer has placed orders for multiple ANTARES CryoKinetic Cleaning Systems (FSII) 3.80 -0.07 : The systems are expected to ship in fiscal 2012.

10:43AM EZchip disclosed that it has selected Marvell (MRVL) to be the ASIC partner for its next generation network processor (EZCH) 28.64 -0.80 :

10:01AM SMTC Corp receives State of California FDB medical device manufacturing license (SMTX) 2.75 +0.07 : Co announced the licensing by the State of California Food and Drug Branch (FDB) to manufacture Class 1 and Class 2 medical devices.

OCZ Technology Group (OCZ) announced that the OCZ Deneva2 30GB and 60GB mSATA SSDs, part numbers D2CSTEMS1A10-0030 and D2CSTEMS1A10-0060 have been tested with Intel (INTC) Smart Response Technology and have passed the performance benchmarks for the 'While Using' portion of the responsiveness requirements in the 2012 Ultrabook Definition.

8:32AM Apple: iPhone 4S arrives in China on January 13 (AAPL) 411.23 : Co announced that iPhone 4S will be available in China and 21 additional countries on Friday, January 13. "Customer response to our products in China has been off the charts," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

8:25AM Trident Microsystems and Cayman subsidiary announced earlier filing for chapter 11 protection (TRID) 0.20 : Co announced that the Company and its Cayman subsidiary, Trident Microsystems have filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Trident will shortly file for protection in the Cayman Islands as well. Trident intends to continue to operate all of its business lines in the ordinary course and has ample liquidity to do so, while it completes the Bankruptcy approval process regarding the sale of its Set-Top-Box business to Entropic and explores strategic alternatives for its remaining business units.

Mattson Technology (MTSN) announced that it has received follow-on orders for its Helios? XP rapid thermal processing system from a major Asian foundry.

HP (HPQ) unveiled new consumer PCs and commercial displays that offer consumers and professionals superb design, performance and convenience. HP Omni27 PC,the co's first 27-inch all-in-one PC, and the first non-touch HP PC to feature exclusive HP Magic Canvas software is among the releases.

1:07AM Tessera Tech issues statement regarding Director nominations (TSRA) 16.91 : Co announces it has received a letter from Starboard Value and Opportunity Master Fund and its affiliates and director nominees. In the letter Starboard stated it holds less than 1.3% of the shares outstanding and intends to nominate candidates to fill half of the positions on the co's Board. According to the letter, Starboard holds 622,916 shares of the co, 621,916 of which it purchased in December 2011, and intends to nominate Messrs. Maury Austin, Peter Feld and Jeffery McCreary for election at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Stockholders. According to public filings, Starboard owns ~9.9% of MIPS Technologies, where Austin is the former CFO and McCreary is a board member.

09:06 am Powerwave downgraded to Hold at Brigantine: . Brigantine downgrades PWAV to Hold from Buy. Firm notes based on preliminary reports from companies addressing a similar customer base, it suspects that PWAV saw sales levels lower than what it had previously expected in the December quarter; however, it appears that spending at AT&T may have resumed somewhat. Compounding the issue, firm believes, is the general global economic malaise that could translate to continued depressed carrier directed sales levels at least through the first quarter of 2012. Also, in recognizing the challenging environment, we are reducing our estimates for 4Q11 and FY12.