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From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : Today's session started on a positive note after yesterday's comments from House Speaker Boehner were viewed as supportive. However, the Speaker held another press conference today at which he said no "substantive progress" has been made. The S&P 500 responded to Mr. Boehner's remarks by falling back to its flat line. The weakness did not last long, and the benchmark average was able to regain its losses to close higher by 0.4%.

The materials sector was one of the top performers, and producers of building materials outperformed. The space was supported by the October pending home sales data which pointed to a 5.2% increase, well ahead of the 1.0% expected by the Briefing.com consensus. Headwaters (HW 7.64, +0.19), Martin Marietta Materials (MLM 90.79, +3.99), and Vulcan Materials (VMC 51.31, +1.62) all gained between 2.6% and 4.6%.

Steelmakers saw broad strength, and the Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 44.34, +0.65) settled higher by 1.5%. Though most major steelmakers registered gains, Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF 28.89, -0.72) was a notable underperformer, down 2.4%.

Tech shares also outperformed, and the SPDR Technology Select Sector ETF (XLK 29.16, +0.14) gained 0.5%. The largest tech component, Apple (AAPL 589.36, +6.42), advanced 1.1% as it attempted to regain its 200-day moving average near $600.

Elsewhere, Intel (INTC 19.53, -0.56) slipped 2.8% after Goldman Sachs lowered its price target for the stock to $16 from $20. Meanwhile, peer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 2.04, +0.08) settled higher by 4.1% as the company sought to sell its campus in Austin, Texas.

Also of note, Research In Motion (RIMM 11.54, +0.44) spiked 4.0% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to ‘buy' from ‘neutral.' The maker of Blackberry phones has been on a strong run recently, gaining nearly 60% since the start of November.

As the end of the month nears, retailers have begun to report their November same store sales. Out of the 16 companies which have already reported, only four have beaten their estimates. Of those four, Stein Mart (SMRT 8.56, +0.97) led the way with a 12.8% gain. Today's advance occurred after the company reported a 7.1% growth in same store sales on expectations of a 2.3% increase.

On the downside, Kohl's (KSS 45.02, -6.13) sank 12.0% after its same store sales declined by 5.6% on expectations of a 2.1% increase. Like many retailers which missed their estimates, Kohl's blamed the softness on the aftereffects of Superstorm Sandy. As a result of the disappointing data, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 63.36, -0.46) shed 0.7%.

Overnight, India's Sensex gained 1.8% after Goldman Sachs upgraded Indian stocks. As a result, the iPath MSCI India Index ETN (INP 58.37, +1.90) was the best performing regional ETN, up 3.4%. Indian stocks listed in the U.S. reflected the strength as they registered broad gains. Among financials, HDFC Bank (HDB 42.85, +2.58) and ICICI Bank (IBN 41.54, +2.76) jumped 6.4% and 7.1%, respectively. Elsewhere, automaker Tata Motors (TTM 25.60, +1.39) surged 5.7% and business technology consultant Infosys (INFY 44.66, +1.22) settled higher by 2.8%.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average added 0.6% as companies specializing in package delivery led the bellwether complex. Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD 37.35, +0.60), FedEx (FDX 90.80, +1.31), and UPS (UPS 73.56, +0.85) all gained between 1.2% and 1.6%. Earlier, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Expeditors International to ‘buy' from ‘hold.' In addition, morning reports indicated UPS may pursue a network sharing agreement with its rivals in order to save the TNT Express deal.

The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 393,000, which was lower than the 395,000 that had been expected by the Briefing.com consensus. The tally was below the revised prior week count of 416,000. As for continuing claims, they fell to 3.287 million from 3.357 million.

The second estimate of third quarter GDP pointed to growth of 2.7%, up from the 2.0% observed in the preliminary reading. The upwardly revised increase is slightly lower than the 2.8% increase that economists polled by Briefing.com had expected. Also, the third quarter GDP Deflator was revised down, to 2.7%.

In Friday's economic data, October personal income and personal spending as well as core PCE prices will all be released at 8:30 ET. Lastly, November Chicago PMI will be reported at 9:45 ET.DJ30 +36.71 NASDAQ +20.25 SP500 +6.02 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1790/1.7 bln/676 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2173/682.5 mln/846

3:30 pm : Jan crude oil rose $1.58 to $88.04/barrel, Jan natural gas fell $0.15 cents to $3.65/MMBtu, Jan heating oil rose 4 cents to $3.06/gallon, and Jan RBOB gasoline rose 4 cents to $2.73/gallon.

Crude oil trended higher for the first time this week, gaining support from a weaker dollar index. The energy component climbed as high as $88.69 per barrel in morning pit action but gave up some of the gain following House Speaker Boehner's comments regarding the fiscal cliff and that no "substantive progress" has been made. Nevertheless, crude booked a 1.8% gain for the session as it closed at $88.04 per barrel.

Precious metals also climbed higher in choppy fashion. Both gold and silver dipped to their respective pit session lows of $1722.80 per ounce and $33.84 per ounce following the release of initial claims data and the second estimate of third quarter GDP but quickly regained momentum. Gold brushed a session high of $1731.20 per ounce and settled for a 0.6% gain at $1729.30 per ounce. Silver popped to a session high of $34.49 per ounce in morning action and eventually closed with a1.9% gain at $34.42 per ounce.

Natural gas, on the other hand, trended lower into negative territory. It tanked to a floor session low of $3.64 per MMBtu following weaker-than-anticipated inventory data. Natural gas was unable to erase much of the loss and settled at $3.65 per MMBtu, or 3.9% lower.DJ30 +15.23 NASDAQ +15.76 SP500 +3.66 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1679/1.4 bln/790 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2042/463.5 mln/972

4:21PM OmniVision beats by $0.03, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS, revs above consensus; co names Raymond Wu President (OVTI) 15.89 +0.21 : Reports Q2 (Oct) earnings of $0.33 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.30; revenues rose 79.0% year/year to $390.1 mln vs the $375.06 mln consensus.

Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.33-0.46, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.34 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $390-425 mln vs. $363.64 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"I am pleased to announce the addition of Raymond Wu to OmniVision's management team. Raymond, one of our co-founders, has agreed to re-join us as our President, effective Dec 1, 2012. During his previous tenure, Raymond's intellect, experience and influence extended to market development, engineering and sales. We are enthused by his return, and with his knowledge of our company and the industry, I expect Raymond to make significant contributions to OmniVision's continued growth in the years to come."

6:57AM LTX-Credence misses by $0.01, misses on revs; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs in-line (LTXC) 5.66 : Reports Q1 (Oct) earnings of $0.03 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.04; revenues rose 27.8% year/year to $43.2 mln vs the $43.75 mln consensus.

Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of ($0.08)-(0.04) vs. ($0.04) Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $35-39 mln vs. $37.74 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Research In Motion (RIMM) announced updates to its developer ecosystem programs, including BlackBerry Dev Alpha test devices, the 10k developer commitment, updated tools and more. These programs continue to drive enthusiasm from the developer community as they build for the BlackBerry 10 platform.

Semtech (SMTC) reported third quarter earnings of $0.53 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.43, while revenues rose 29.9% year/year to $161 million versus the $151.72 mln consensus. The company issues in-line guidance for the fourth quarter with EPS of $0.41-0.45, excluding non-recurring items, versus the $0.42 consensus and revenues of $146-152 versus the $151.92 million consensus.

09:26 am Intel: No pickup near term - Maxim: . Maxim notes the silver lining is that demand -- both consumer and enterprise -- is not deteriorating and appears to have stabilized at sub-seasonal levels. Demand visibility -- for the current quarter and 2013 -- remains poor. They are taking a conservative stance with a forecast of low single digit unit declines for PCs in 2013 with continued demand leakage to smartphones and tablets. Long run supply/demand imbalance would translate to further downside risk to their 2013 estimates -- revenues, margins and earnings. Their technical analysis sees additional downside risk to the August 2010 lows of $17.60. Near-term resistance is at 10-week MA of $21.29; Buy.

10:38 am Information Tech sector trading higher today along with the S&P

The tech sector is trading higher today, along with gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing inline strength with the SOX trading 0.5% higher. Within the chip index, AMD (+6.6%) is a notable standout. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.4% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.6% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.5% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+1.2%) is a leader, while INTC (-2.1%) is showing notable weakness.

In tech earnings last night, WDAY (-1.7%) posted a beat and raise, while TIVO (-0.7%) reported an inline Q3 and guided inline with consensus. In news, NCR (+1.3%) confirmed an agreement to acquire RTLX (0.0%) for a cash purchase price of $30 per share. Also, VMW (+0.7%) authorized the purchase of up to $250 mln of its stock. In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, RIMM (+6.7%) was upgraded to Buy at Goldman, MCRS (+2.0%) was upgraded to Buy at Compass Point and PLT (+4.0%) was upgraded to Overweight at JP Morgan. Among downgrades, ATVI (-2.2%) was downgraded to Neutral at Sterne Agee and CREE (-5.2%) was downgraded to Hold at Deutsche Bank. AVGO (+1.6%) and OVTI (+1.3%) are the only notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.