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From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : Stocks began the day on a slightly higher note as yesterday's optimism regarding a fiscal cliff resolution lingered. However, the initial strength quickly faded, and the S&P 500 slipped below its flat line where it spent the remainder of the session. A recurring theme played out in Washington where lawmakers held another round of press conferences with both sides pushing back against the other. Most notably, Speaker Boehner said the House of Representatives will vote on his ‘plan B' tomorrow. The remarks kept the S&P 500 near its lows before a final round of selling dropped the benchmark index to a loss of 0.8%.

The technology sector outperformed the broader market, and Oracle (ORCL 34.09, +1.21) contributed to the relative strength. The software company gained 3.7% after beating on earnings and revenue.

Elsewhere, Apple (AAPL 526.31, -7.59) lost 1.4% with today's declined causing the company's market cap to slip below $500 billion.

Hard drive makers have seen recent strength, and major manufacturers once again outperformed. Seagate Technology (STX 30.32, +0.96) and Western Digital (WDC 41.20, +1.60) settled higher by 3.3% and 4.0%, respectively. Prior to the open, both stocks were upgraded to ‘Buy' from ‘Neutral' at Craig Hallum. However, Cleveland Research made cautious comments regarding both names.

General Motors (GM 27.18, +1.69) surged 6.6% after the U.S. Treasury announced plans to sell its remaining shares of the company. Of the 500 million shares to be sold, 200 million will be bought by General Motors at $27.50 per share. The remaining 300 million shares will be sold in an orderly fashion over the next 12-15 months. Peer Ford Motor (F 11.73, +0.06) rose by 0.5%.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average advanced 0.2% on the strength of airlines. Delta Air Lines (DAL 11.83, +0.30) and United Continental (UAL 23.96, +0.39) finished higher by 2.6% and 1.7%, respectively. It should be noted the two stocks have added nearly 20% since the beginning of December.

Elsewhere, FedEx (FDX 93.20, +0.84) settled higher by 0.9% after beating on earnings and revenue. While the company's second quarter result exceeded expectations, forward guidance was a point of concern. The provider of package delivery services expects its third quarter earnings to fall below consensus estimates while full-year earnings are forecast in-line with analyst forecasts.

On the downside, railroads underperformed. CSX (CSX 20.01, -0.23) and Union Pacific (UNP 125.77, -1.39) both lost near 1.1%.

Today's economic data focused on housing and painted a mixed picture. November housing starts hit an annualized rate of 861,000 units, and were below the 875,000 expected by the Briefing.com consensus. Meanwhile, building permits came in at 899,000, which were ahead of the Briefing.com consensus forecast of 876,000.

Homebuilders ended the session on a lower note. Lennar (LEN 39.27, -0.44), PulteGroup (PHM 18.46, -0.15), and Toll Brothers (TOL 32.08, -0.43) all lost between 0.8% and 1.3%.

European markets registered gains across the board. Germany's DAX added 0.2% while France's CAC and United Kingdom's FTSE rose by 0.4% each. On the periphery, Greek ASE surged 4.8%.

In Germany, HeidelbergCement led the way with a 4.6% gain. The strength followed comments from MainFirst Bank, which expects the producer of building materials to receive a credit rating upgrade next year. Among the decliners, drug maker Merck lost 2.3% after its cancer treatment trial returned disappointing results.

France's CAC was supported by financials. BNP Paribas advanced 1.6% and Credit Agricole gained 2.3%. It is worth noting that French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici has proposed a bill aimed at separating proprietary trading from traditional banking. As part of the legislation, a EUR10 billion resolution fund would also be set up.

In the United Kingdom, producer of building materials, CRH, led all shares with a 4.9% surge. The outperformance followed optimistic comments from Deutsche Bank, which upgraded CRH to ‘Buy' from ‘Neutral.' On the downside, distributor Bunzl lost 4.3% after JPMorgan lowered the 2013 earnings expectations for Bunzl.

Greek financials soared after the European Central Bank announced it will once again accept Greek Government Bonds as eligible collateral. Eurobank, Piraeus Bank, and National Bank of Greece all surged between 10.0% and 12.5%.

In tomorrow's economic data, weekly initial and continuing claims will be reported at 8:30 ET. In addition, the third estimate of third quarter GDP and the GDP deflator will also be released at 8:30 ET. Lastly, November existing home sales, December Philadelphia Fed Survey, November leading indicators, and October FHFA Housing Price Index are all set to cross the wires at 10:00 ET.DJ30 -98.99 NASDAQ -10.17 SP500 -10.98 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1239/1.87 bln/1214 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1507/750.9 mln/1536

3:30 pm : Crude oil continued yesterday's advance as it rallied following inventory data that showed a draw of 0.964 mln barrels when a draw of 1.425 mln was anticipated. It lifted to a session high of $90.33 per barrel and eventually settled at $90.00 per barrel, or 1.9% higher.

Natural gas, on the other hand, chopped around in negative territory for its entire floor session. It dipped to a session low of $3.28 per MMBtu and closed at $3.32 per MMBtu, or 2.7% lower.

Gold chopped around between positive and negative territory during today's pit trade as "fiscal cliff" negotiations continued. The yellow metal gained momentum in late morning action and traded up to a session high of $1675.50 per ounce. However, prices slid to a session low of $1664.30 per ounce moments before settling with a 0.2% loss at $1667.90 per ounce. Silver struggled in the red for its entire session, dipping as low as $31.08 per ounce. Unable to find buying support, it closed 1.6% lower at $31.15 per ounce.DJ30 -56.58 NASDAQ -4.28 SP500 -6.84 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1240/1548.6 mln/1208 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1609/475 mln/1421

4:31PM Ultratech acquires assets of Cambridge Nanotech, terms not disclosed (UTEK) 35.32 +0.50 : Co announced that it has acquired the assets of Cambridge Nanotech, Inc. (Cambridge). Based in Cambridge, Mass., Cambridge was a leader in atomic layer deposition (ALD) solutions with hundreds of system installations in research and manufacturing settings worldwide. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

4:07PM Jabil Circuit beats by $0.05, beats on revs; guides FebQ EPS below consensus, revs in-line (JBL) 18.56 +0.16 : Reports Q1 (Nov) core earnings of $0.61 per share, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.56; revenues rose 7.2% year/year to $4.64 bln vs the $4.41 bln consensus. For Q2 (Feb), co sees core EPS of $0.50-0.58 vs. $0.59 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $4.30-4.50 bln vs. $4.38 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"Expectations for [FebQ] are consistent with seasonal patterns of demand...End market demand remains muted in business sectors exposed to government and business spending. Although environmental conditions continue to be uncertain, we maintain our expectation that fiscal 2013 will be another record year for Jabil."

9:04AM Integrated Device: FTC to challenge IDT's proposed acquisition of PLX Technology (PLXT) (IDTI) 6.92 : Integrated Device Technology (IDTI) announced that the US Federal Trade Commission has filed an administrative complaint challenging IDT's proposed acquisition of PLX Technology. IDT is disappointed with the FTC's decision to challenge the acquisition. The co intends to review the FTC's complaint and respond appropriately.

Cryptography Research, a division of Rambus (RMBS), announced the accreditation of Riscure as an independent testing lab to conduct evaluations for the Differential Power Analysis Countermeasure Validation Program.

8:03AM PLX Tech, IDT combination recommended to be blocked by FTC (PLXT) 4.50 : Co announced the Federal Trade Commission has issued an administrative complaint seeking to block the proposed merger between PLX and Integrated Device Technology announced on April 30, 2012, and is authorized to pursue a preliminary injunction in federal district court or other relief necessary to stop the deal pending a full administrative trial.

3:03AM Ciena announces private exchange transactions for Convertible Senior Notes (CIEN) 15.64 : Co announces it has entered into separate, privately negotiated exchange agreements under which it will retire $187.5 mln in aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 4.0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2015 in exchange for its issuance of a new series of 4.0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2020 in an aggregate original principal amount of $187.5 mln. The 2020 Notes will mature on Dec 15, 2020. Following these transactions, $187.5 mln in aggregate principal amount of the 2015 Notes will remain outstanding with terms unchanged.

2:51AM Vishay Precision to acquire George Kelk Corporation for ~CAD50 mln (VPG) 13.34 : Co announces the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of George Kelk Corp, of Toronto Canada, a privately held company. KELK is a designer and manufacturer of highly accurate, high technology mission critical electronic measurement and control equipment used by metals rolling mills and mining applications throughout the world. The purchase price for this business is ~CAD50 mln, sub. VPG will finance the acquisition through a combination of cash on hand and third party borrowings. KELK experienced an average of ~CAD30.0 mln in annual net sales and an average of ~CAD8.0 mln in annual EBITDA over the last two years. Co stated, "Beyond the complementary products, KELK will widen and strengthen our geographic footprint in the steel market, in which VPG is mainly in Europe while KELK is strong in Asia, Latin America and North America and certain emerging markets. This will enable us to achieve synergies in the steel industry on a worldwide basis."

FXCM (FXCM) announced certain key operating metrics for November 2012 for its retail and institutional foreign exchange business. Monthly activities included: November 2012 Retail Trading Metrics. Retail customer trading volume of $305 billion in November 2012, 6% lower than October 2012 and 11% lower than November 2011 Average retail customer trading volume per day of $13.9 billion in November 2012, 1% lower than October 2012 and 11% lower than November 2011 An average of 353,983 retail client trades per day in November 2012, 4% higher than October 2012 and 22% lower than November 2011 Tradeable accounts of 203,495 as of November 30, 2012, a decrease of 219, or 0.11% from October 2012, and an increase of 10,723, or 6%, from November 2011. November 2012 Institutional Trading Metrics Institutional customer trading volume of $90 billion in November 2012, 68% higher than October 2012 and 41% lower than November 2011 Average institutional trading volume(1) per day of $4.1 billion in November 2012, 76% higher than October 2012 and 41% lower than November 2011 An average of 9,837 institutional client trades per day in November 2012, 68% higher than October 2012 and 67% lower than November 2011

Xyratex (XRTX) announced that its board of directors has declared a one-time, special cash dividend of $2.00 per share. The special cash dividend will be distributed on December 31, 2012 to shareholders of record as at the close of business on December 27, 2012. Xyratex's board of directors has also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.075 per common share and approved the acceleration of the dividend payable date to December 31, 2012 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 27, 2012. The quarterly dividend would otherwise have been declared in January 2013 with Xyratex's quarterly earnings results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012.

FBR Capital is generally constructive on chip stocks for 2013 with the SOX still below 400, and with some macro indicators (like China) beginning to improve. They expect 2013 chip shipments to grow by 3-6% as global GDP ramps slightly (+2.5%), and some supply chain inventories are modestly refilled. Handset- and tablet-exposed suppliers should grow stronger, while PC-exposed suppliers may not grow at all. They would focus on product cycle stories (BRCM, QCOM, MXIM, LSI), and beta leverage stories (FCS, ONNN, ATML), and with MSCC also interesting, too. They see some downside risks for TXN and possibly INTC (though they believe that much of this is already priced in).

09:17 am Vitesse Semi initiated with a Buy at Needham; tgt $3.50: . Needham initiates VTSS with a Buy and price target of $3.50. Firm reachs its price target based on an enterprise value equal to ~3X the company's FY14E New Product revenue. Carriers and enterprises are increasingly turning to Carrier Ethernet as a scalable, low-cost solution to support a growing number of communications services on a single network. Over the past several years, Vitesse has focused significant resources developing Carrier Ethernet switch engines and physical layer solutions (PHYs) for the Mobile Access/IP Edge and SME markets.

09:46 am ORCL up 3.5% after strong quarterly results

Oracle (ORCL $34.08 +1.20) reported second quarter earnings of $0.64 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.61. Revenues rose 3.4% year over year (+5% ex-FX) to $9.11 billion versus the $9.02 billion consensus. New software licenses and cloud software subscriptions revenues were up 17% to $2.4 billion versus guidance for +6-16% ex-FX (+5-15% as reported). Software license updates and product support revenues were up 7% to $4.3 billion. Hardware systems products revenues were $734 million. Non-GAAP operating income was up 9% to $4.3 billion, and non-GAAP operating margin was 47%.

"New software license sales and cloud subscriptions grew 18% in constant currency. Strong organic growth in our software business coupled with a focus on the highly profitable engineered systems segment of our hardware business enabled a second quarter non-GAAP operating margin of 47%. During the last four quarters operating cash flow was more than $13.5 billion -- $10.2 billion of which was returned to our shareholders as we repurchased nearly 350 million ORCL shares during that same twelve month period. Second quarter performance was strong and broad based as all geographies reported double-digit revenue growth in new software license and cloud subscriptions. Applications, middleware and database all had double-digit growth in new software license and cloud subscriptions, with applications leading the pack with growth of over 30%... Already approaching a one billion dollar run rate, our Cloud business will become much bigger over time... Sun has proven to be one of the most strategic and profitable acquisitions we have ever made."