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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The S&P 500 ended the day with minor losses following a volatile session. Equities began the day on a positive note, but comments from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid caused a quick change in sentiment. Speaking from the Senate floor, Senator Reid said that all signs suggest the country will go over the fiscal cliff. In addition, the senator said the House of Representatives is being run as a "dictatorship" by Speaker Boehner. The comments caused the major averages to fall to their respective lows. However, an afternoon report out of Washington indicated the House of Representatives will reconvene on Sunday, December 30 at 18:30 ET in hopes of approving a budget. In response, the major averages raced off their lows, ending the day little changed after seeing losses of more than 1.0%.

Financial stocks showed the most intraday sensitivity to the headlines, and the sector led the late-morning decline. However, the late-afternoon rally helped the sector recover the bulk of its losses. Among the majors, Bank of America (BAC 11.47, -0.07) shed 0.6% and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 43.63, -0.33) fell 0.8%.

The SPDR Materials Select Sector ETF (XLB 37.29, -0.13) lost 0.4%. Provider of construction materials Headwaters (HW 8.18, -0.31) slipped 3.7% despite being upgraded at Avondale to ‘Market Perform' with a $10 price target.

Elsewhere, steelmakers underperformed. Mechel Steel (MTL 6.72, -0.04) settled lower by 0.6% and United States Steel (X 23.64, -0.62) slid 2.6%. Also of note, AK Steel (AKS 4.38, -0.22) lost 4.8%, and was a notable laggard.

Gold miners saw strength after this morning's developments painted a bullish picture for the yellow metal. Newmont Mining (NEM 45.47, +0.39) and Royal Gold (RGLD 80.10, +1.58) settled higher by 0.9% and 2.0% respectively.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average shed 0.4% and 17 of 20 components declined. Shipping stocks outperformed and Matson (MATX 24.66, +0.07) added 0.3% after signing an agreement to acquire the assets of Reef Shipping in the South Pacific. Meanwhile, peer Kirby (KEX 61.10, +0.20) settled higher by 0.3%.

On the downside, airlines extended their recent weakness. JetBlue Airways (JBLU 5.68, -0.05) and Alaska Air (ALK 43.26, -0.22) declined for a fourth consecutive session and lost 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively.

European markets ended on a mixed note. Germany's DAX added 0.3%, France's CAC settled higher by 0.6%, and the United Kingdom's FTSE finished unchanged.

The United Kingdom's FTSE ended flat, and most stocks saw little change. However, miners outperformed after the Chinese government revealed plans to boost infrastructure spending. Anglo American rose by 2.1% and Eurasian Natural Resources gained 3.7%.

In Germany, financials and carmakers outperformed. Commerzbank gained 1.2% and Deutsche Bank added 0.6%. Among carmakers, BMW advanced 0.8% and Volkswagen finished higher by 0.4%. The two saw strength after Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the country's economy will expand at a "decent" rate next year with exports as the main growth driver.

France's CAC was supported by industrials. Schneider Electric gained 2.3% and Vinci tacked on 1.6%. On the downside, STMicroelectronics lost 1.1%.

Today's economic news was mixed. The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 350,000, which was better than the 375,000 that had been expected by the Briefing.com consensus. The tally was below the revised prior week count of 362,000. As for continuing claims, they fell to 3.206 million from 3.238 million.

The December consumer confidence came in at 65.1, while economists polled by Briefing.com expected a reading of 70.0. This follows the prior month's revised reading of 71.5.

Separately, new home sales in November hit an annualized rate of 377,000, which was up from October's revised rate of 361,000, and worse than the rate of 379,000 that had been broadly expected by the Briefing.com consensus.

Tomorrow, the December Chicago PMI will be reported at 9:45 ET and November pending home sales will be released at 10:00 ET.DJ30 -18.28 NASDAQ -4.25 SP500 -1.74 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1066/1.31 bln/1401 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1367/566.7 mln/1682

3:30 pm : Crude oil fell into negative territory and to a pit session low of $90.05 per barrel on lack of progress over fiscal cliff negotiations. The energy component spent afternoon action inching higher but was unable to erase all losses and settled 0.2% lower at $90.86 per barrel.

Natural gas lifted off its session low of $3.36 per MMBtu and climbed towards the unchanged line during morning floor trade. Despite touching a session high of $3.43 per MBMtu, it closed 0.3% lower at $3.41 per MMBtu.

Gold and silver rallied to their respective session highs of $1666.10 per ounce and $30.53 per ounce following remarks by Senator Reid where he said that all signs suggest the country will go over the fiscal cliff.

However, momentum stalled moments later and both metals slightly eased-off the session highs. Despite the dollar index climbing back into positive territory, gold settled 0.2% higher at $1663.80 per ounce while silver booked a 0.7% gain as it closed at $30.24 per ounce.DJ30 -14.75 NASDAQ -3.22 SP500 -1.47 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 992/1123.90/1473 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1261/398 mln/1765

4:00PM MEMC announces board transition; two members of its Board of Directors, John Marren and William Stevens, will be retiring from the Board, effective Dec 31, 2012 (WFR) 3.08 -0.09 : Co announced that two members of its Board of Directors, John Marren and William Stevens, will be retiring from the Board, effective December 31, 2012. Messrs. Marren and Stevens have each served on the MEMC Board for 11 years. The company also announced that directors Emmanuel (Manny) Hernandez and Marshall Turner have been appointed to succeed the retiring directors as Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee, respectively.

8:02AM Marvell seeks to overturn jury's patent infringement findings (MRVL) 7.40 : Co announced that on December 26, 2012, a jury in Pittsburgh delivered a verdict in a lawsuit brought by Carnegie Mellon University ("CMU") against Marvell and Marvell Semiconductor ("MSI"), Marvell's U.S. operating subsidiary, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. In the lawsuit, CMU asserted that Marvell infringed two CMU patents claiming a specific technique related to read channel detector technology that is not practiced by any Marvell chips.

Specifically, the patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,201,839 and 6,438,180. Marvell and MSI strongly believe the theoretical methods described in these patents cannot practically be built in silicon even using the most advanced techniques available today, let alone with the technology available a decade ago.

Rather, Marvell and MSI use their own patented read channel technology developed in house. Nevertheless, the jury disagreed with Marvell and MSI's position and found that the patents were literally and willfully infringed and valid, and awarded damages in the amount of $1.17 billion.

Diodes (DIOD) has entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger to acquire BCD (BCDS). At the effective date of the merger, each American Depository Share, which represents six ordinary shares of BCD, will be converted into the right to receive $8.00 in cash, without interest. The aggregate consideration will be approximately $151 million. The boards of both cos have approved the transaction, which is still subject to approval by BCD's shareholders, as well as other customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close late in 1Q13 or early in Q2. Expected to be immediately accretive to Diodes' GAAP EPS; Strengthens Diodes' analog product portfolio by expanding its standard linear and power management offerings; Broadens Diodes' presence in Asia through BCD's strong local market position in China; Enhances market and margin expansion opportunities by leveraging Diodes' cost-effective manufacturing and packaging capabilities; Expands design and manufacturing capabilities for increased capacity and scale; and Expected to result in revenue, operating and cost synergies.

The Benchmark Company notes, relating to a patent infringement case with Carnegie Mellon University dating back to 2009, a jury found that Marvell (MRVL) infringed on two CMU patents that underlie read channel technology used in HDD silicon. The jury's award calls for Marvell to pay CMU $1.17 billion. The firm says, this most recent jury award is one additional negative for the company in what has clearly been a challenging year for Marvell. They have rated Marvell shares Hold since February 2012; their cautious stance has been mostly a function of Marvell's high exposure to the HDD market, a market they feel is mature and offers little growth opportunity.

LDK Solar (LDK) announced that the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission stated that the wafer equipment supply contract entered into in July 2008 between LDK Solar and JYT Corporation of Beijing is valid and effective through the duration and at terms and conditions related to quantities and prices set forth therein. Under this contract, LDK Solar agreed to purchase furnaces used in the manufacturing of multicrystalline and monocrystalline ingots for installation in its manufacturing facilities in Xinyu City, China. On December 25, 2012 CIETAC stated that by virtue of the arbitration proceedings LDK shall pay to JYT an amount of ~RMB 294 million as well as approximately an additional amount of RMB 3.4 million to cover arbitral fees accrued as a result of this proceeding.

11:10 am S&P Information Tech sector trading lower by 0.6%
The tech sector is trading lower today, in line with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing inline weakness as well with the SOX trading 0.6% lower. Within the chip index, MRVL (-3.6%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.7% lower today, while the QQQ is down 0.7% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.6% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, CSCO (-1.6%) is under notable pressure. There were no tech companies to report earnings this morning or last night. In news, BCDS (+94.7%) agreed to be bought by DIOD (+5.0%) for $8.00/share. DIOD sees the deal as immediately accretive to GAAP EPS. Among notable analyst ratings changes this morning in the tech space, MRVL (-3.8%) was downgraded to Mkt Perform at JMP following yesterday's jury award against the Co. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.

10:00 am Consumer Discretionary Index higher and outpeforming today
The consumer discretionary group is slightly outperforming the broader market in early trade. The retail group is also in the green with the Retail HOLDRS Trust (RTH) 0.1% and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) 0.1%. Other notable mentions: AMZN flat ( Reuters highlights concerns in cloud space following Netflix (NFLX) outage that was blamed on AMZN)... Leaders: SWHC 3.9% (announced that its Board of Directors has authorized an additional $15.0 million for common stock repurchases through June 30, 2013), EXPE 4.2% (outpacing travel peers; Moody's confirmed last night trivago will not affect the Ba1 corporate family rating), TM 1.7% (agrees to fund a settlement of unintended acceleration cases worth up to $1.4 bln, according to attorneys representing Toyota )... Laggards: LVB -6.8% (announces conclusion of evaluation of strategic alternatives; terminated the agreement with the investor group), F -1% (announced it is spending more than $773 mln on new equipment and capacity expansions across six manufacturing facilities in southeast Michigan), Analyst related: DPZ 1.8% (Domino's Pizza target raised to $50 at Oppenheimer), RBA -0.1% ( tgt to $24 from $21 at Jefferies), BKW -0.6% ( initiated with a Neutral at Buckingham Research)