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From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : The major equity averages mustered modest gains after muddling along for most of the session. The slog was a consequence of listlessness amid a lack of catalysts.

An absence of data and market-moving corporate news this morning left market participants with few cues in the early going. Participants also shrugged off a bounce by the euro, which ended the day with a 0.7% gain against the greenback, because Europe's bourses failed to display the same positive sentiment by trading lower. A meeting between officials from France and Germany failed to produce any encouraging headlines about efforts to restore conditions in the European continent.

Although the broad market was range bound for most of the day, industrials stocks eventually moved ahead of the herd. As a group, industrials were able to ascend to a 0.8% gain. That bested both energy and financials, which finished with gains of 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively. Technology stocks, which collectively represent the largest sector by market weight, offset that strength by trading down to a 0.3% loss, even though shares of semiconductor players were boosted by positive analyst commentary.

While many participants were focused on the prospects of earnings season, which is unofficially ushered in by Dow component Alcoa (AA 9.43, +0.27), Inhibitex (INHX 23.70, +13.83) attracted attention because Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY 33.91, -0.31) will pay a premium of about 160% over the stock's prior session closing price so that the company may be acquired. Shares of Achillion Pharma (ACHN 9.72, +1.80) traded higher in conjunction with the announcement.

Although earnings season may be unofficially under way, market participants will still have to go without any economic data of consequence until later in the week. Since the earnings season doesn't get going in earnest until next week and economic news will be limited in coming days, trade may remain anemic, even after all of the end-of-year holidays and vacations. With less than 800 million shares traded on the NYSE today, the paltry share volumes of the past couple of weeks do not yet appear to have passed.

Advancing Sectors: Industrials +0.8%, Energy +0.6%, Financials +0.5%, Materials +0.2%, Utilities +0.2%, Health Care +0.2%, Consumer Staples +0.1%
Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary
Declining Sectors: Telecom -0.1%, Tech -0.3%DJ30 +32.77 NASDAQ +2.34 NQ100 -0.2% R2K +0.5% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +2.89 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1433/1.79 bln/1074 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1908/720 mln/1088

4:57PM PLX Tech lowers Q4 revs guidance to $25.7-25.9 mln vs. $29.9 Capital IQ Estimates, down from $28-32 mln (PLXT) 2.99 +0.01 : Co lowers Q4 revs guidance. Gross margin is expected to improve to ~59% and the cash position will increase due to significant inventory reduction. Operating expenses are expected to be lower than previous guidance. "The quarter has not shaped up as we had anticipated due to the December distribution business being significantly lower than prior months, this was primarily driven by very weak demand for our connectivity products. The flooding in Thailand also negatively impacted our storage controller business, further contributing to the shortfall. Our PCI Express and Ethernet segments were relatively robust versus our other products in Q4. We have built a good backlog of our PCI Express Gen3 product due to the anticipated ramp in early 2012 of the launch of Intel's Romley platform."

4:46PM Emulex reports Q2 prelim revs of $127-128 mln vs. $124.1 mln CIQ Estimates, exceeding the high end of the co's guidance of $121-127 mln; reports prelim Non-GAAP EPS of $0.24-0.25 vs. $0.17 CIQ Est., exceeding high end of prior guidance $0.17-0.20 (ELX) 7.39 +0.04 : "Our preliminary results for the December quarter once again demonstrate our commitment to deliver better than industry revenue growth and even stronger earnings growth. Outstanding execution by our operations team overcame the mid-quarter supply constraints from the Thailand flooding, bringing us back to full capacity and allowing us to exceed the high end of our revenue and earnings guidance for the quarter," continued McCluney. "With the benefit of the upcoming OEM server platform refresh cycle related to Intel Corporation's Romley chipset and the expanding adoption of converged networks, Emulex is exceptionally well positioned to continue to deliver shareholder value in 2012," McCluney concluded.

4:33PM Rambus' Cryptography Research and CPU Tech sign patent license agreement for DPA Countermeasures (RMBS) 8.02 +0.03 : This agreement covers the use of CRI's patented countermeasures to differential power analysis (DPA) attacks for CPU Tech's tamper-resistant products, including the Acalis(R) family of secure processors. This license also covers software developed by CPU Tech customers when executing on licensed CPU Tech chips.

4:17PM SMSC drops 8% on disappointing earnings/guidance, currently trading around 23.00 (SMSC) 24.98 : See earlier comments for details.

4:07PM SMSC misses by $0.13, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (SMSC) 24.98 -0.39 : Reports Q3 (Nov) earnings of $0.21 per share, $0.13 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.34; revenues fell 0.7% year/year to $106.2 mln vs the $107.07 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of ($0.13)-($0.21) vs. $0.30 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q4 revs of $89-93 mln vs. $104.52 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. The lower than expected GAAP and non-GAAP net income and earnings per diluted share are mainly a result of a higher effective tax rate for the third quarter. "Both our automotive and wireless audio products achieved quarterly revenue records. However, this was offset by weak PC, industrial and other consumer product demand. We are projecting fourth quarter sales of $89 to $93 million, reflecting a steeper than historical seasonal decline due to the combination of a continued weak demand environment and lower post holiday consumer product sales. Our current outlook is for revenue to increase in the first quarter of fiscal 2013... Going forward, we will continue to align and manage our expenses in light of the weak demand environment to protect our earnings and drive profitability toward our long term target model while investing and focusing on the high growth areas of our business. Our effective tax rate is expected to be unusually high in the second half of this fiscal year due to the transition to our international structure and lower global profits. However going forward, we expect this new structure to result in a significantly lower effective tax rate in fiscal 2013. "

4:07PM Alcoa misses by $0.02, beats on revs; Co sees FY12 global aluminum demand to grow 7% and are forecasting a global deficit in primary aluminum supply (AA) 9.43 +0.27 : Reports Q4 (Dec) loss of $0.03 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.01); revenues rose 6.0% year/year to $5.99 bln vs the $5.76 bln consensus. Alcoa sees FY12 global aluminum demand to grow 7 percent and are forecasting a global deficit in primary aluminum supply.

4:07PM Cirrus Logic pops 1-1.5 pts in light after hours trading following guidance raise (CRUS) 16.97 : Trading up near its July-Oct/8-mth high near $18.50. See 16:04.

4:04PM Cirrus Logic raises Q3 rev guidance above consensus; sees Q4 revs above consensus (CRUS) 16.97 +0.47 : Co announced estimated net revenue based on preliminary unaudited financial results for the third fiscal quarter, which ended on Dec. 31, 2011, of approximately $122 million (vs $105.08 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate). Previously, the company anticipated revenue to be between $102 million and $108 million. Revenue from audio products is estimated at $105 million and revenue from energy products is expected to be approximately $17 million. The company expects gross margin to be approximately 54 percent and combined R&D and SG&A expenses are estimated to be approximately $600,000 above the upper end of guidance, due primarily to additional product development expenses. At this early stage in the March quarter, the company is currently expecting revenue of approximately $105 million (vs $98.49 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate), which represents year over year revenue growth of approximately 15 percent. "Q3 was a great quarter for Cirrus Logic, and we are particularly pleased that the last few weeks of the quarter were much stronger than we had anticipated, indicating that demand remains robust following the holiday season."

4:09PM Juniper Networks drops 1.50 to 20.00 level on downside guidance (JNPR) 21.53 +1.10 :

4:08PM Juniper Networks lowers guidance for Q4 (JNPR) : Co lowers guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.26-$0.28 vs. Capital IQ consensus of $0.34, and vs. prior guidance of $0.32-$0.36; sees revenue of $1.11-$1.12 bln vs. consensus of $1.19 bln, and vs. prior guidance of $1.16-$1.22 bln. Non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be below the company's prior outlook of 21% to 23% due to lower than expected Non-GAAP gross margins which were impacted by reduced revenue. Co states, "Although the company's results are not yet finalized, fourth quarter performance is below the company's previous outlook primarily due to weaker than expected router demand from service providers. While this was not limited to any single geography, a significant portion of the impact was from US service providers. In addition, product book-to-bill was approximately 1."

4:01PM QuickLogic sees Q4 revs $4.3 mln vs $5.0 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate (QUIK) 3.13 +0.14 : New product revenue was approximately $1.7 million while mature product revenue was approximately $2.6 million. "New product revenue was above the guidance given during the company's third quarter earnings call. However, the revenue impact of lower bookings for our mature products, which we attribute to general economic conditions in our mature product markets, was greater than expected," said Andy Pease, QuickLogic's President and CEO. The Company will announce its final fiscal fourth quarter and year-end results and hold its scheduled earnings conference call on February 7, 2012.

9:03AM Benchmark Elec sees Q4 results modestly above the high end of previous ranges (BHE) 14.41 : Co expects to report revenue and EPS modestly above the high end of guidance for Q4. The co provided Q4 revenue guidance of $475-525 mln ($495.7 mln Capital IQ Consensus), with corresponding diluted EPS, excluding restructuring charges and the impact of Thailand flood costs, of $0.00 to $0.11 ($0.04 consensus) on Oct 27, 2011.

7:29AM NXP Semi announced it currently does not anticipate the recently announced Chapter 11 filing by Trident Microsystems (TRID) to have a material impact on its non-GAAP results for the fourth quarter of 2011 (NXPI) 16.89 : Based on the equity accounting methodology used to account for NXP's equity interest in Trident Microsystems, and irrespective of the Chapter 11 filing, the carrying value of the investment on NXP's balance sheet is anticipated to be zero as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to the ~$18 mlnas of the end of the third quarter 2011.