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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The S&P 500 ended lower by 0.3% after spending the duration of the session in the red. With little economic data of note and below-average volume, the key indices traded in range bound fashion ahead Alcoa's (AA 9.10, 0.00) earnings report, which will kick-off the fourth quarter earnings season.

Consumer discretionary stocks were in focus after Yum! Brands (YUM 65.04, -2.85) reaffirmed its full-year 2012 earnings guidance, but lowered the same-store sales estimates for its China division. As a result of the disappointing outlook, Yum! Brands slid 4.2% and other quick service restaurants traded lower as well. Darden Restaurants (DRI 45.31, -0.23) and Wendy's (WEN 4.74, -0.05) both shed near 0.7%.

Elsewhere in the discretionary sector, Signet Jewelers (SIG 58.70, +4.87) surged 9.1% after the company guided its fourth quarter earnings near the high end of its prior range. In addition, Signet reported a 3.3% increase in holiday sales. Other high-end retailers saw strength as well. Coach (COH 57.33, +1.70) and Zale (ZLC 4.26, +0.08) settled higher by 3.1% and 1.9% respectively.

Also of note, GameStop (GME 23.19, -1.56) fell 6.3% after the company reported disappointing holiday sales. The company expects its fourth quarter earnings per share to be at the low end of its current guidance range. Video game publishers Electronic Arts (EA 13.77, -0.68) and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO 11.78, -0.36) were pressured by the news, and ended lower by 4.7% and 3.1% respectively.

The materials sector advanced as the space resisted the broad market pressure. The sector was supported by Monsanto (MON 98.50, +2.56), which reported upbeat quarterly result this morning. During the first quarter, the chemical producer earned $0.62, which was well ahead of the $0.26 expected by the Capital IQ consensus. In addition, Monsanto's revenue of $2.94 billion was also ahead of expectations.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average slipped 0.4%. Airlines have shown notable strength since the start of December, but major carriers saw mixed performance after Deutsche Bank changed its rating on two carriers. Southwest Airlines (LUV 11.03, +0.12) was a bright spot, gaining 1.1% after being upgraded to ‘Buy' from ‘Hold.' On the downside, JetBlue Airways (JBLU 5.94, -0.03) shed 0.5% after the stock was downgraded to ‘Hold' from ‘Buy.'

Additionally, afternoon reports have indicated an international Japan Airlines flight was forced to return to its gate at Boston Logan International Airport due to a fuel leak. This marks the second time in two days that a Boeing (BA 74.13, -2.00) Dreamliner jet has suffered structural issues. As a result, Boeing lost 2.6%, and settled near its session low.

The telecom sector was the biggest laggard and the iShares Dow Jones US Telecom (IYZ 24.55, -0.38) lost 1.5%. Major carriers AT&T (T 34.35, -0.59) and Verizon Communications (VZ 43.10, -1.07) saw respective losses of 1.7% and 2.4%. The sector underperformed notably despite AT&T reporting having sold over 10 million smartphones during the fourth quarter of 2012. In addition, earlier reports have suggested Verizon Communications may purchase Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless. Shares of Vodafone, listed on the FTSE, gained 1.7% in response to the buyout speculation.

According to the Federal Reserve, consumer credit increased by $16 billion in November. This follows the prior month's $14.2 billion increase, and is higher than the $10.6 billion that had been broadly expected among economists polled by Briefing.com.

In tomorrow's economic data, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00 ET.

The U.S. Treasury will reopen $21 billion in 10-yr notes.DJ30 -55.44 NASDAQ -7.00 SP500 -4.74 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1161/1.67 bln/1307 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1483/691.6 mln/1500

3:30 pm : Feb crude oil fell off its pit session high of $93.74 per barrel into negative territory ahead of tomorrow's inventory data. A stronger dollar index also put pressure on prices. Despite touching a session low of $92.67 per barrel in morning action, the energy component managed to erase losses and close 0.1% higher at $93.21 per barrel.

Feb natural gas extended yesterday's losses on forecasts of warmer than average weather. It briefly poked into positive territory and brushed a session high of $3.27 per MMBtu in early afternoon action. However, it quickly retreated back to its session low of $3.20 per MMBrtu and eventually closed at $3.22 per MMBtu, or 1.5% lower.

Feb gold trended higher during today's floor trade despite the climb by the dollar index. The yellow metal lifted off its session low of $1651.00 per ounce and traded as high as $1662.70 per ounce. It eventually booked a gain of 1.0% as it closed pit trade at $1662.20 per ounce.

Mar silver rose $0.40 to $30.48/ounceSilver retreated from its session high of $30.59 per ounce and dipped to a session low of $30.18 per ounce in mid-morning floor action. However, momentum picked back up in afternoon action, and silver closed at $30.48 per ounce with a solid 1.3% gain.DJ30 -48.31 NASDAQ -5.64 SP500 -4.42 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1133/1345.7 mln/1303 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1423/433 mln/1545

4:44PM Diodes secures $300 mln senior secured revolving credit facility (DIOD) 17.58 -0.41 : Co announced that it has secured a five-year $300 mln revolving senior credit facility. The credit facility bears interest at LIBOR plus 1.50 to 2.25 percent on the drawn amount and also includes an option to increase the size of the credit facility by up to $200 million subject to securing additional lender commitments.

4:11PM Seagate Tech sees Q2 rev at least $3.6 bln vs $3.52 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate (See 16:08 post) (STX) 31.40 : Co announced selected preliminary financial results for its fiscal second quarter of 2013, which ended on December 28, 2012. Seagate expects to report Q2 2013 revenue of at least $3.6 bln and gross margin of more than 27%, reflecting unit shipments of ~58 mln and maintaining market share.

These preliminary results compare to the Co's previous expectations for revenue of ~$3.5 bln and gross margin at the lower end of the Co's long-term non-GAAP gross margin range of 27% to 32%. During the quarter the co paid $1.1 bln in share redemptions and dividend payments that included a one-time acceleration of the December 2012 quarter dividend payment.

The Co redeemed ~30 mln ordinary shares and exited December 2012 with 358 mln ordinary shares outstanding. Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short term investments totaled approximately $2.0 bln on December 28, 2012.

4:08PM Alcoa reports EPS in-line, beats on revs; Co ends 2012 in strong liquidity position; record results in mid and downstream (AA) 9.10 -0.01 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.06 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.06; revenues fell 1.5% year/year to $5.9 bln vs the $5.61 bln consensus.

In 2013, Alcoa sees global aluminum demand growth of 7%, up from 6% in 2012 and ahead of the 6.5% rate required to meet the Co's forecast of a doubling in global aluminum demand between 2010 and 2020. Co ends 2012 in strong liquidity position; record results in mid and downstream.

In 2013, Alcoa projects global growth in the aerospace (9-10%), automotive (1-4%), commercial transportation (2-7%), packaging (2-3%), building and construction (4-5%), and industrial gas turbine (3-5%) markets

4:06PM Volterra Semi names Craig Teuscher to the newly created position of COO (VLTR) 15.74 -0.21 : Dr. Teuscher was an original co-founder of Volterra in 1996 and has served in several key executive roles with the company, including as Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Applications Engineering, Senior Vice President of Operations, Manufacturing Engineering and Quality Assurance and most recently as Senior Vice President of Notebook Products Group.

4:05PM Riverbed Technology issues comment regarding USPOT reexamination, 'reexamination requests are often made' (RVBD) 19.90 -0.75 : Co commented on the decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to grant reexamination requests for two Riverbed patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,428,573 and 7,849,134. Silver Peak Systems, Inc., which is being sued by Riverbed for infringing both of these patents as well as an additional patent, had earlier announced the USPTO action.

"Reexamination requests are often made, as they were in this instance, by parties accused of infringing the subject patents. And the USPTO has historically granted well over 90% of these reexamination requests, meaning this initial action has become somewhat routine," said Brett Nissenberg, Riverbed's general counsel and senior vice president. "It is not surprising that Silver Peak's announcement today failed to mention that Silver Peak still faces the patent infringement trial this September, and the start of USPTO proceedings will have no bearing on the trial's outcome or the validity of the patents at the trial. Unfortunately, Silver Peak's most creative efforts seem to be concentrated in PR and blogging rather than its products."

Riverbed's lawsuit against Silver Peak, which was originally filed by Riverbed in June 2011 in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, is scheduled for trial in September 2013. At the trial, Riverbed intends to seek a permanent injunction against Silver Peak's infringement of Riverbed's pioneering technology.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) announced Comtrend has selected Sigma Designs' new G.hn CG5200 family of chipsets for its PowerGrid 9051s Powerline Ethernet Adapter.

Sprint (S) joined with Microsoft (MSFT) to announce the upcoming availability of Windows Phone 8 smartphones on the Sprint nationwide network. Co will bring two initial handsets to customers by summer - one each from Samsung (SSNLF) and HTC.

LTX-Credence (LTXC) announced that Shimane Masuda Electronics has selected the PAx for volume production testing of RF front end devices.

MaxLinear (MXL) announced its MxL584 eight-channel single-chip satellite receiver will power the next-generation AirScreen satellite-to-IP gateway from Inverto Digital Labs.

MaxLinear (MXL) announced that Silicondust USA has selected the MxL603 global TV tuner for use in its latest generation of ATSC and DVB-T2 HDHomeRun products.

Marvell (MRVL) announced that the Marvell ARMADA1500 series System-on-Chip platform will power the NeoTV PRIME with Google TV (GOOG) from NETGEAR (NTGR).

Atmel (ATML) and Celeno Communications are developing integrated solutions for Wi-Fi Direct remote controls intended for next-generation set-top box and video gateway platforms.

Cypress Semiconductor (CY) announced that Leap Motion has selected Cypress's EZ-USB FX3 solution for its 3-D motion sensing and control technology.

8:12AM Ultra Clean lowers Q4 (Dec) revs to ~$88.5-90.0 mln from $94-99 mln vs. $95.7 mln Capital IQ Consensus; co will report Q4 on Feb 19 (UCTT) 5.08 :

DSP Group (DSPG) and ProSyst have jointly integrated DECT Ultra Low Energy home security, control and automation solutions into ProSyst's mBS OSGi technology.

AMD (AMD) launched the AMD Radeon HD 8000M Series of mobile graphics processing units set to deliver discrete graphics performance to a variety of notebook designs, including the incredibly portable ultrathin form factor.

Rambus (RMBS) announced the commencement of a business alliance with the Elite Group, a leading designer and distributor of home goods, lighting, and other consumable products.

Samsung Elect (SSNLF) sees fourth quarter Consolidated sales of approximately KWD56 trln (KWD55-57 trillon) versus the KWD56.5 trillion Capital IQ consensus estimate. The company also sees Consolidated operating profit of approximately KWD8.8 trillion (KWD8.6-9.0 trillion).


Plexus (PLXS) announced that it expects to report revenue and earnings below the guidance provided for the fiscal first quarter of 2013. Revenue is expected to be approximately $531 million (versus the $562.3 million Capital IQ consensus, with diluted earnings per share expected to be in the range of $0.45 to $0.47, excluding any restructuring charges versus the $0.52 consensus Estimate). The original fiscal first quarter guidance was revenue of $550 to $580 million with diluted earnings per share of $0.50 to $0.55, excluding any restructuring charges. Dean Foate, President and CEO, commented, "While manufacturing demand softened across all of our sectors during the quarter, in particular we did not experience the typical demand-pull of products in our Networking/Communications sector in the final few weeks of the quarter. As a consequence, our Networking/Communications sector revenue was substantially below our expectations for the quarter and accounted for the majority of the shortfall to our original guidance."

AU Optronics (AUO) issued downside guidance for the fourth quarter with revenues of NT$99.045 bln versus the NT$103.63 billion consensus. For December 2012, large-sized panel shipments, with applications on desktop monitor, notebook PC, LCD TV and other applications, were nearly 10.38 mln units, a decrease of 3% from the previous month. As for small-and-medium-sized panels, the shipments were around 10.46 million units, down by 20.7% month-over-month.

10:27 am S&P Information Technology index trading slightly lower today and in line with the broader market
The tech sector is trading lower today, just ahead of larger losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness, however, with the SOX trading 0.5% lower. Within the chip index, HITT (-4.6%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.5% lower today, while both the QQQ and the NASDAQ are down 0.4% on the session. Among tech bellwethers, INTC (+1.3%) is showing notable strength, while T (-1.2%) is under pressure. In tech earnings, PLXS (-4.9%), UCTT (-6.2%), and CY (-8.2%) lowered guidance, while PERI (+20.5%) issued above consensus guidance. In news, T (-1.2%) announced that it sold more than 10 mln smartphones in Q4. Among notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, MKSI (+1.0%) was upgraded to Buy at BofA/Merrill. Also, ERIC (-4.5%) was named the Top Pick for 2013 at Cowen. Among downgrades, UMC (-1.2%) was downgraded to Neutral at Credit Suisse, FIO (-8.0%) and EMC (-1.7%) were downgraded to Market Perform at William Blair, HRS (-2.3%) was downgraded to Underweight at JP Morgan, and HITT (-4.5%) was downgraded to Sell at Goldman. There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.