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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The major averages registered broad gains during today's session. The S&P 500 followed a modestly higher open with a steady climb to its highs. Shortly before midday, reports out of Washington indicated President Obama and House Speaker Boehner held a 45-minute conversation in an attempt to further the ongoing budget debate. The developments had little effect on the markets as the key indices continued their upward drift. As a result, the S&P 500 finished higher by 1.2%.

The financial sector paced the advance, and the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 16.33, +0.33) gained 2.1%. Weekend reports indicated Speaker Boehner offered to accept a tax hike for top earners if the new revenue is met with spending cuts. However, the White House has rejected the offer. While a deal remains elusive, the presence of discussion between the lawmakers is being received as a positive sign by the market. Among the majors, Goldman Sachs (GS 123.49, +4.13) and Morgan Stanley (MS 18.53, +0.48) both advanced near 3.0%.

Discretionary stocks also outperformed, and homebuilders contributed to the strength. DR Horton (DHI 19.69, +0.95), PulteGroup (PHM 18.04, +0.90), and Toll Brothers (TOL 32.22, +1.37) all gained between 4.4% and 5.3%.

Automakers and manufacturers of auto parts also showed relative strength. Ford Motor (F 11.39, +0.29) and Cooper Tire & Rubber (CTB 25.04, +0.97) finished higher by 2.6% and 4.0%, respectively.

In M&A news, Caribou Coffee (CBOU 16.10, +3.78) will be acquired by Joh. A. Benckiser for $16.00 per share. The transaction carries a total value of approximately $340 million, and the purchase price represents a 29.9% premium to Caribou's Friday closing price.

Among tech shares, Apple (AAPL 518.83, +9.04) was down as much as 1.5% intraday, but after a brief dip near $500, bargain hunters lifted the largest tech component to a gain of 1.8%. Earlier, Citigroup downgraded the stock to ‘Neutral' from ‘Buy.' The move came weeks after the company's November 26 initiation with a ‘Buy.' In addition, three investment banks lowered their price targets for Apple. Canaccord Genuity dropped its target to $750 from $800, Pacific Crest cut its estimate to $565 from $645, and Mizuho slashed its target to $600 from $750. Apple suppliers saw notable losses on Friday, but the group outperformed today. Skyworks Solution (SWKS 20.75, +0.95) advanced 4.8% and Qualcomm (QCOM 62.04, +2.20) rose by 3.7%.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average finished in-line with the remaining industrials. Of the twenty stocks which constitute the transportation complex, seventeen registered gains. Airlines saw broad strength after Dahlman Rose upgraded its outlook on the industry from neutral to bullish. JetBlue Airways (JBLU 5.71, +0.18) and Alaska Air (ALK 43.98, +0.82) outperformed their peers and gained 3.3% and 1.9%, respectively.

On the downside, Con-Way (CNW 27.47, -0.60) lost 2.1% after BB&T Capital Markets downgraded the stock to ‘Underweight' from ‘Hold.' The downgrade comes as BB&T believes Con-Way's consensus estimates are materially too high.

Also of note, Ryder System (R 48.82, -0.78) slipped 1.6% after the company announced Chief Executive Officer Gregory Swienton will retire at the time of the company's annual meeting of shareholders on May 3, 2013.

European markets ended the day on a mixed note. France's CAC and UK's FTSE saw respective losses of 0.1% and 0.2% while Germany's DAX added 0.1%.

In the United Kingdom, Aggreko lost 21.7% and was the weakest performer. The plunge followed cautious comments from the company regarding its 2013 profit expectations. On the upside, International Consolidated Airlines Group led the way with a 3.3% gain. In addition, miners outperformed. Anglo American, Kazakhmys, and Rio Tinto all gained between 1.6% and 3.2%.

In France, financials weighed on the index. BNP Paribas shed 0.7% and Credit Agricole lost 0.9%. On the upside, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU 1.32, +0.08) surged 5.8% to extend its recent strength.

In Germany, carmakers outperformed. Daimler advanced 1.9% after merging its two Mercedes units in China. Also of note, Infineon Technologies rose by 1.6% after the company's Chief Executive Officer said Infineon may make a handful of small-to-medium acquisitions. Drug makers and suppliers of medical products underperformed. Fresenius Medical, Fresenius SE, and Merck (MRK 43.63, +0.09) all lost near 1.0%.

Reviewing today's economic data, the December Empire State Manufacturing Survey registered a reading of -8.1, which was down from the prior month's reading of -5.2, and worse than the reading of 2.0 expected by the Briefing.com consensus.

Meanwhile, the October net long-term TIC flows report indicated a $1.3 billion inflow of foreign capital into U.S. denominated assets. This follows the prior month's $3.3 billion inflow.

Tomorrow, the third quarter current account balance will be reported at 8:30 ET and the December NAHB Housing Market Index will be released at 9:00 ET.

The U.S. Treasury will auction off $35 billion in 5-yr notes.DJ30 +100.38 NASDAQ +39.27 SP500 +16.78 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1720/1.85 bln/772 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2042/702.1 mln/1007

3:30 pm : Crude oil extended Friday's gains as the dollar index retreated to new session lows. The energy component came off its pit session low of $86.70 per barrel and traded up to a session high of $87.71 per barrel. However, prices pulled-back heading into the close, and crude settled with a 0.4% loss at $87.13 per barrel.

Natural gas advanced for the first time in eight sessions as it lifted off its session low of $3.32 per MMBtu. Despite retreating from its session high of $3.39 per MMBtu, it booked a 1.2% gain as it closed at $3.36 per MMBtu.

Gold erased overnight losses as it lifted off its pit session low of $1691.30 per ounce following manufacturing data that came in well below estimates. The yellow metal then chopped around the unchanged level for the remainder of the session and settled with a 0.1% gain at $1697.90 per ounce.

Silver traded up to a session high of $32.45 per ounce in morning floor action but lost momentum and slid to a session low of $32.08 per ounce. It managed to erase most of the loss and settled just 0.1% lower at $3.67 per ounce.DJ30 +75.73 NASDAQ +26.31 SP500 +12.23 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1539/2661.9 mln/944 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1871/427 mln/1175

4:05PM Cray awarded $39 mln supercomputer contract from the North-German supercomputing alliance (CRAY) 14.83 +0.12 : Co announced it has been awarded a $39 million contract from the North-German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) to deliver a distributed Cray XC30 supercomputing system, which will be operated at two sites -- the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) and the High Performance Computing Center at Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany. HLRN is an alliance amongst seven states in Northern Germany -- Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, and Schleswig-Holstein -- that have combined resources and secured funding from the state governments and the German federal government to acquire the new Cray XC30 systems

Research In Motion (RIMM) announced the BlackBerry 10 Technical Preview program, giving selected enterprise and government customers the opportunity to begin beta testing with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 and pre-production BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The mix includes 64 Fortune 500 companies.

ASML (ASML) announces the completion of its share buy back programs announced on January 19 2011, and increased per the announcement on January 18 2012. During the period from Jan 20, 2011 up to and including Nov 22 2012, ASML purchased 36,952,634 of its shares at an average price of EUR30.58 per share.

EVault, a Seagate (STX), announced a partnership with Fujitsu. The strategic partnership enables Fujitsu to expand and enhance its backup and recovery portfolio by bringing to market a series of comprehensive hybrid cloud services that allow customers to leverage cloud backup effectively.

3:43AM MIPS Tech and Imagination agree to revised merger terms providing for $100 mln purchase price (MIPS) 7.77 : Co announces that it entered into a new amendment to its merger agreement with Imagination Technologies Group plc originally announced on Nov 5, 2012. The latest amendment provides for a purchase price of $100 million. As a result of the amendment, the net proceeds to each holder of MIPS common stock, following the consummation of the previously announced proposed patent sale transaction with Bridge Crossing, and proposed recapitalization, has increased to approximately $7.94 per share in cash. The Merger Agreement is otherwise in full force and effect. The amendment follows the submission of a definitive proposal from CEVA (CEVA) to acquire MIPS for $90 mln which was announced on December 12, 2012 to have been determined by the MIPS Board of Directors to be a "Superior Proposal" to the Merger Agreement with Imagination.

1:12AM Apple iPhone 5 first weekend sales in China top 2 mln (AAPL) 509.79 : Co announces it has sold over 2 mln of its new iPhone 5 in China, just three days after its launch on December 14. iPhone 5 will be available in more than 100 countries by the end of December, making it the fastest iPhone rollout ever.

Sterne Agee upgrades ON Semiconductor (ONNN) to Buy from Neutral and sets target price at $9. While ONNN has rebounded 15% off the bottom, they believe multiple catalysts position ONNN for much more upside. They believe rationalizing fab capacity into 1Q13, improving end markets and debt paydowns position ONNN for upside with improving margins. ONNN is closing down three fabs through MarQ. They believe improving margins, top line and FCF all position ONNN for upside.

Clearwire (CLWR) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the approximately 50% stake in CLWR it does not currently own for $2.97/share, equating to a total payment to Clearwire shareholders, other than Sprint, of $2.2 billion. This transaction results in a total Clearwire enterprise value of approximately $10 billion, including net debt and spectrum lease obligations of $5.5 billion. The transaction consideration represents a 128% premium to Clearwire's closing share price the day before the Sprint-SoftBank discussions were first confirmed in the marketplace on October 11, with Clearwire speculated to be a part of that transaction; and, a 40 percent premium to the closing price the day before receipt of Sprint's initial $2.60 per share non-binding indication of interest on November 21. In addition, Clearwire has received commitments from Comcast (CMCSA)., Intel (INTC) and Bright House Networks, who collectively own approximately 13 percent of Clearwire's voting shares, to vote their shares in support of the transaction. SoftBank has provided its consent to the transaction, as required under the terms of its recently announced merger agreement with Sprint. In connection with the transaction, Clearwire and Sprint have entered into agreements that provide up to $800 million of additional financing for Clearwire in the form of exchangeable notes, which will be exchangeable under certain conditions for Clearwire common stock at $1.50 per share, subject to adjustment under certain conditions. Under the financing agreements, Sprint has agreed to purchase $80 million of exchangeable notes per month for up to ten months beginning in January, 2013, with some of the monthly purchases subject to certain funding conditions, including conditions relating to the approval of the proposed merger by Clearwire's shareholders and a network build out plan.

09:30 am Diodes upgraded to Buy at Sterne Agee; tgt $22: . Sterne Agee upgrades DIOD to Buy from Neutral and sets target price at $22. While DIOD has underperformed the Analog group with declining gross margins, they believe gross margins will bottom at current levels. They also say flattish fab capacity in 2013, improving end markets, and product mix position DIOD for improving gross margins and a multiple expansion from current levels.

10:49 am S&P Information Technology Index trading slightly higher
The tech sector is trading higher today, just behind larger gains in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness with the SOX trading modestly higher. Within the chip index, RBCN (+3.1%) is a notable standout, while VECO (-1.4%) is a laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.4% higher today, while the QQQ is up 0.1% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.2% higher on the session.

Among tech bellwethers, QCOM (+1.7%) is showing notable strength, while AAPL (-1.1%) is under pressure. There are no tech earnings of note this morning. In news, S (-0.3%) announced it will acquire 100% ownership of CLWR (-12.8%) for $2.97/share and AAPL (-1.3%) announced it has sold over 2 mln of its new iPhone 5 in China, just three days after its launch on December 14. Also, AKAM (-0.2%) announced a CEO succession plan and Elliott Mgmt offered to acquire CPWR (+13.6%) for $11.00 per share in cash. Among rumors, TI (-0.7%) has hired MS (+1.6%) to explore spinoff of fixed line network, according to reports. In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, Sterne Agee upgraded DIOD (+2.7%) to Buy, INFA (+3.6%) was upgraded to Overweight at Piper Jaffray, and SAP (-0.1%) was upgraded to Mkt Perform at JMP. Among downgrades, AAPL (-1.1%) was downgraded to Neutral at Citigroup and Sterne Agee downgraded TXN (-0.3%) to Underperform. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.