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From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : Equities began today's session on a positive note after China's trade surplus expanded to $31.6 billion due to strong export growth. The upbeat open was followed by a late-morning stumble, but the S&P 500 showed resilience and climbed to fresh highs. The benchmark index ended with a gain of 0.8%.

The financial sector paced the advance, and the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 17.15, +0.21) settled higher by 1.3%. The financial sector proxy ETF ended at a fresh 52-week high with most majors scheduled to announce their fourth quarter earnings next week. Tomorrow morning, Wells Fargo (WFC 35.40, +0.69) will be the first notable sector component to report. The Capital IQ consensus expects the bank to reveal earnings of $0.89 on $21.26 billion in revenue. An in-line report would indicate healthy year-over-year bottom line growth of nearly 22.0%. Looking at other majors, Bank of America (BAC 11.78, +0.35) gained 3.1% and Morgan Stanley (MS 20.34, +0.72) advanced 3.7%.

The technology sector spent the majority of the session in the red, but late-day strength in the shares of Apple (AAPL 523.51, +6.41) saw the stock rise by nearly $10, and pushed the tech sector higher. The notable bid followed comments from Apple's chief of marketing who said the company "is not interested" in making cheap, low-profit products. The largest tech company was in the news earlier this morning when Reuters reported Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook met with the chairman of China Mobile (CHL 58.75, +1.45) to talk about "matters of cooperation." China Mobile, which has over 700 million subscribers, does not currently offer Apple products on its network.

Among names reacting to analyst comments, Microsoft (MSFT 26.46, -0.24) shed 0.9% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to ‘Equal-Weight' from ‘Overweight.'

Teen retailers lagged the broader market after Aeropostale (ARO 13.24, -0.13) issued downside earnings guidance due to disappointing holiday sales. Aeropostale shed 0.9% and peer American Eagle Outfitters (AEO 19.94, -0.69) settled lower by 3.3%.

Elsewhere, Tiffany (TIF 60.40, -2.86) slumped 4.5% after the jewelry retailer said it expects its fourth quarter earnings to be near the low end of its prior guidance range. Peers Blue Nile (NILE 36.58, -0.57) and Coach (COH 57.49, -0.47) both lost near 1.0%.

The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 371,000, which was worse than the 364,000 that had been expected by the Briefing.com consensus. The tally was above the revised prior week count of 367,000. As for continuing claims, they fell to 3.109 million from 3.236 million.

In tomorrow's economic data, November trade balance, export prices ex-agriculture, and import prices ex-oil will all be reported at 8:30 ET. Lastly, the U.S. Treasury will release its December budget at 14:00 ET.DJ30 +80.71 NASDAQ +15.95 SP500 +11.10 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1443/1.70 bln/1036 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1938/726.9 mln/1046

3:30 pm :

Crude oil spent its entire session in the black but pulled-back from its session high of $94.61 per barrel set at the pit trade open. Still, it settled 0.8% higher at $93.82 per barrel as a weaker dollar index provided the energy component with support. In addition, reports indicated that there was a pipeline explosion in Yemen that halted exports.
Natural gas rose on strong inventory data that showed a draw of 201 bcf when a draw of 189 bcf was anticipated. It climbed as high as $3.21 per MMBtu and settled with a 2.6% gain at $3.19 per MMBtu.
Gold rose during today's pit trade as the dollar index weakened. Strength came on the ECB press conference where President Mario Draghi noted that today's ECB's decision to leave benchmark rate unchanged was unanimous. The yellow metal came off its session low of $1660.30 per ounce and traded in a consolidative fashion near its session high of $1678.80 per ounce in afternoon action. It eventually settled at $1677.90 per ounce, or 1.3% higher.
Silver also trended higher during today's floor session. It lifted off its session low of $30.45 per ounce and settled at $30.93 per ounce, booking a gain of 2.2%.

4:30PM JDSU appoints Rex Jackson Chief Financial Officer (JDSU) 13.47 -0.05 : Co announced two executive appointments, naming Rex Jackson as executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Susan Spradley as senior vice president with responsibility for the development and management of the company's communications test and measurement product portfolio.

Jackson reports to Tom Waechter, JDSU's president and chief executive officer, and has served as acting CFO since September 2012. He joined JDSU two years ago as senior vice president, Business Services, with responsibility for several corporate functions, including Information Technology, where he has driven significant operational improvements. Jackson brings strong financial management experience to the company.

Prior to JDSU, he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Symyx Technologies, where he led the company's acquisition of MDL Information Systems and subsequent merger with Accelrys. Jackson also served as acting CFO at Synopsys and held executive positions with Avago, AdForce and Read-Rite

9:05AM Benchmark Electronics expects to exceed Q4 2012 guidance; co sees revs of $580-610 mln vs $594.6 mln Capital IQ Consensus Est, sees EPS of $0.26-0.31 vs $0.29 consensus (BHE) 16.63 : Co announced that it expects to report revenue and earnings per share modestly above the high end of guidance for Q4 2012. The co provided Q4 revenue guidance of $580 million to $610 million, with corresponding diluted EPS between $0.26 to $0.31 (excluding restructuring and Thailand flood related charges) on October 25, 2012.

9:02AM SolarCity secures industry-first master backup servicing agreement (SCTY) 15.65 : Co has created a new option for its solar investment funds. The company has completed what it believes to be the industry's first master backup servicing agreement with an AA- rated financial institution. Developers in a range of mature asset classes such as mortgages, auto financing and student loans often work with large financial institutions to provide investors additional insurance against asset servicing risk in return for a lower cost of capital.

8:33AM First Solar begins construction of Campo Verde solar project (FSLR) 31.90 : Co announced it has started constructing the 139 megawatt Campo Verde Solar Project, located near El Centro in Imperial County, Calif. The solar power plant is expected to be completed in 2013. Economic benefits of the project include approximately 250 construction jobs, as well as over $230 million in new economic activity to the Imperial Valley, according to a county study.

8:12AM Nokia: Sees Q4 exceeding previous forecast (NOK) 3.75 : Nokia now estimates that Devices & Services has exceeded expectations and achieved underlying profitability in the fourth quarter 2012. Mobile Phones business unit and Lumia portfolio delivered better than expected results. Operating expenses were lower than expected. Devices & Services non-IFRS operating margin for the fourth quarter 2012 now expected to be between break even and positive 2 percent. Seasonality and competitive environment are expected to have a negative impact on the first quarter 2013 underlying profitability for Devices & Services, compared to the fourth quarter 2012. Nokia also estimates that Nokia Siemens Networks has exceeded expectations for the fourth quarter 2012. Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS operating margin for the fourth quarter 2012 now expected to be between 13 and 15 percent. Seasonality is expected to have a negative impact on the first quarter 2013 underlying profitability for Nokia Siemens Networks, compared to the fourth quarter 2012.

Preliminary financial information for the fourth quarter 2012: Nokia currently estimates that Devices & Services net sales in the fourth quarter 2012 were approximately EUR 3.9 billion, with total device volumes of 86.3 million units.
Mobile Phones net sales of approximately EUR 2.5 billion, with total volumes of 79.6 million units of which 9.3 million units were Asha full touch smartphones.
Smart Devices net sales of approximately EUR 1.2 billion, with total volumes of 6.6 million units of which 4.4 million units were Nokia Lumia smartphones.
Total smartphone volumes of 15.9 million units composed of 9.3 million Asha full touch smartphones, 4.4 million Lumia smartphones and 2.2 million Symbian smartphones.
Devices & Services Other net sales of approximately EUR 0.2 billion, including a positive impact from non-recurring IPR income of approximately EUR 50 million.
Nokia currently estimates that Devices & Services non-IFRS operating margin for the fourth quarter 2012 was between break even and positive 2 percent, which compares to the previous outlook of approximately negative 6 percent, plus or minus four percentage points.
Devices & Services non-IFRS operating margin includes a positive impact from non-recurring IPR income of approximately EUR 50 million.
Preliminary outlook for the first quarter 2013: Nokia expects its non-IFRS Devices & Services operating margin in the first quarter 2013 to be approximately negative 2 percent, plus or minus four percentage points. This outlook is based on Nokia's expectations regarding a number of factors, including:
competitive industry dynamics continuing to negatively affect the Smart Devices and Mobile Phones business units;
the first quarter being a seasonally weak quarter; - consumer demand, particularly for our Lumia and Asha smartphones; - continued ramp up for our new Lumia smartphones;
expected cost reductions under Devices & Services' restructuring program; and
the macroeconomic environment. Nokia expects Location & Commerce non-IFRS operating margin in the first quarter 2013 to be negative due to lower recognized revenue from internal sales, which carry higher gross margin, and to a lesser extent by a negative mix shift within external sales.
Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks expect Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS operating margin in the first quarter 2013 to be approximately positive 3 percent, plus or minus four percentage points. Nokia will provide more details when it reports fourth quarter and full year 2012 results on January 24, 2013.

7:56AM Kopin announces agreement to sell III-V assets to IQE plc for $75 mln (KOPN) 3.52 : Co announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its III-V assets to IQE plc, a UK-based designer and supplier of advanced semiconductor wafers. The all-cash, $75 million transaction will enable Kopin to focus exclusively on continued commercial development of Golden-i, the Company's mobile communications technology platform, as well as on its microdisplay products. The closing of the transaction is expected to occur next week and is subject to customary closing conditions.

1:59AM Alpha and Omega Semi announces CEO succession plan (AOSL) 8.84 : Co announces it has established a CEO succession plan and has retained an executive search firm to seek a new CEO as its founder, Chairman and CEO Dr Chang plans for retirement. During the search period, AOS' business operations will continue as usual with Dr. Chang as the CEO. He will work closely with the new leader once identified to ensure a seamless transition. Upon completion of the transition, Dr. Chang will continue to serve in the capacity of Chairman of the Board.

QuickLogic (QUIK) announced that it expects to report Q4 revenue of approximately $3.1 mln compared to previously announced guidance of approximately $3.7 mln, plus or minus 10%. New product revenue is expected to be approximately $1.0 mln while mature product revenue is expected to be approximately $2.1 mln as compared to previously announced guidance of approximately $1.6 mln and $2.1 mln plus or minus 10%, respectively. "While I'm disappointed in our revenue performance for the fourth quarter, we are continuing to make progress in our long term customer and partner strategy," said Andy Pease, QuickLogic's President and CEO." This progress includes the initial shipment on the new handset design mentioned in our last conference call, and 3 new orders that were booked in December for our ArcticLink III platform, two of which utilize our MIPI interface. I will provide more details on our progress during our upcoming earnings conference call."

Parametric (PMTC) disclosed that on January 8, 2013, Parametric Technology Corporation committed to a plan to further restructure its workforce and related facilities. The restructuring furthers PTC's commitment to enhance long-term profitability and is a component of PTC's previously announced plan to achieve non-GAAP EPS of $1.70 to $1.80 for fiscal year 2013 (vs $1.75 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate). PTC will record a restructuring charge of approximately $15 million for its second fiscal quarter ending March 30, 2013, of which approximately $14.5 million is attributable to termination benefits and approximately $0.5 million is attributable to facility consolidations. The restructuring will result in cash expenditures of approximately $15 million during fiscal year 2013. The timing of the reductions in force will vary by country based on local legal requirements, but PTC expects that substantially all affected employees will be separated from PTC by the end of the second fiscal quarter. While PTC expects the restructuring to be substantially completed in the second fiscal quarter of 2013, the full impact of the expense reductions will not be realized until the third fiscal quarter of 2013.

DragonWave (DRWI) reported third quarter loss of $0.36 per share, $0.05 worse than the Capital IQ consensus of ($0.31), while revenues rose 226.3% year/year to $38.5 million versus the preannouncment of approximately $39 million on Dec 6 and the $41.7 million consensus. The company issued downside guidance for the fourth quarter with revenues of $40-45 million versus the $47.40 million consensus. Revenue through the new Nokia Siemens Networks channel totaled $25.6 million in the quarter. Gross margin for Q3 was 19%, compared with 41% in 3Q12 and 15% in 2Q13. The gross margin in the second quarter of fiscal year 2013 reflects the inclusion of an inventory impairment provision of $2.6 million. Without the inventory provision, the gross margin in the second quarter was 21%. "While visibility into our revenue pipeline has been challenging, we have continued to work hard on completing the integration activities of our strategic partnership with Nokia Siemens Networks to position ourselves for growth."

Richardson Elec (RELL) reported second quarter (Nov) earnings of $0.04 per share, $0.01 worse than the two analyst estimate of $0.05, while revenues fell 6.4% year/year to $36.6 million versus the $36.18 million two analyst estimate. Gross profit during the second quarter of fiscal 2013 was impacted by unabsorbed manufacturing labor and overhead of $0.3 million, or 0.8% of net sales. "Sales in the first half of our fiscal year were impacted by slowing growth in Asia combined with global financial instability and a decline in demand for semiconductor wafer fabrication components. We have adjusted resources to align our costs with current sales expectations. With an outlook for improving global economic conditions, we anticipate sales for the second half of our fiscal year to be up significantly over the first half...Cash and investments at the end of our second quarter were $147.3 million. We used $6.0 million to repurchase 0.5 million shares during the second quarter of fiscal 2013. As of today, we have repurchased a total of 3.5 million shares for $44.2 million under our share repurchase authorization and currently have $30.8 million remaining."