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From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The major averages ended today's session largely where they began. The S&P 500 and Dow registered modest losses, while the Nasdaq added 0.2%, seeing relative outperformance from Apple (AAPL 449.83, +9.95). The largest tech stock ended higher by 2.3% after disappointing earnings caused it to lose nearly 13.0% last week.

While Apple contributed to the relative strength of tech stocks, the remainder of the sector traded in mixed fashion. A notable sector component, Seagate (STX 37.41, +0.16), gained 0.4% ahead of its earnings report scheduled for an after-hours release. An upbeat report has been largely priced-in as Seagate has soared nearly 50.0% in the eight weeks leading into this evening's report. The Capital IQ consensus expects the hard drive manufacturer to report earnings of $1.27 on $3.57 billion in revenue.

As tech stocks registered gains, the materials sector was the weakest performer. The observed weakness resulted from a Goldman Sachs downgrade of the U.S. steel sector. Following the downgrade, steel stocks saw broad selling and the Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 48.26, -0.70) shed 1.4%.

While materials lagged notably, the discretionary sector also exerted some downside pressure on equity indices. One pocket of weakness was among homebuilders, which slipped to their respective lows after the December pending home sales report pointed to a 4.3% month-over-month decline. Among individual builders, PulteGroup (PHM 20.96, -0.71) lost 3.3% and Lennar (LEN 41.91, -1.16) shed 2.7%. Meanwhile, the broader SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB 28.81, -0.30) slipped 1.0%.

Elsewhere in the discretionary space, Jos. A. Bank (JOSB 39.28, -6.99) plunged 15.1% after the company said it expects its full-year 2012 net income to come in roughly 20.0% below its 2011 level. The cautious guidance spilled over to other apparel producers, which traded with a bearish bias.

On the earnings front, the market received just one notable report ahead of today's open. Caterpillar (CAT 97.45, +1.87) ended higher by 2.0% after the industrial heavyweight reported mixed results. Though the company beat the Capital IQ earnings estimate, its bottom line suffered a year-over-year decline of 17.7%.

Crude oil climbed steadily during afternoon trade and ended higher by 0.7%. The energy component settled at $96.51 after trading in a relatively narrow range.

Although the key indices ending mixed, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 13.63, +0.74) added 5.7%. This move suggested that near-term downside protection continued receiving interest.

Trading volume was below average as just under 650 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Looking at the S&P 500 sectors, technology (+0.3%) led the way while telecoms (+0.2%), and consumer staples (+0.1%) followed closely. On the downside, materials (-1.0%), consumer discretionary (-0.5%), and financials (-0.5%) lagged.

Besides the previously mentioned December pending home sales report, the market received news of December durable goods orders.

The Census Bureau reported that December durable goods orders rose by 4.6%. This was well ahead of the 1.6% increase which had been forecast by the Briefing.com consensus. As expected, aircraft orders were a primary factor for the surge in orders. Nondefense aircraft orders increased 10.1% while defense aircraft orders rose 56.4%.

Excluding transportation related items, durable goods orders increased by 1.3%, which was better than the unchanged reading that had been broadly anticipated. The increase in ex-transportation orders was at odds with the contractions reported by many of the regional manufacturing surveys. Surprisingly, the gains in orders outside of transportation were due to strong demand for primary metals (3.6%) and fabricated metals (1.2%). This could suggest that manufacturers of finished goods are demanding more raw materials because they expect demand to rise in the near future.

In tomorrow's economic data, the November Case-Shiller 20-city Index will be reported at 9:00 ET. In addition, January consumer confidence will cross the wires at 10:00 ET. In notable earnings, Ford Motor (F 13.78, +0.20) will report its fourth quarter results ahead of the open.

The U.S. Treasury will auction off $35 billion in 5-yr notes.DJ30 -14.05 NASDAQ +4.59 SP500 -2.78 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1404/1.80 bln/1072 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1294/646.8 mln/1715

3:30 pm :

Mar crude oil erased early morning gains as it fell off its session high of $96.81 per barrel to a session low of $95.47 per barrel. However, the energy component got a boost from higher gasoline prices following news that Hess (HES) was closing its Port Reading, New Jersey refinery. It climbed back into positive territory and settled with a 0.6% gain at $96.45 per barrel.
Feb natural gas traded lower for a fifth consecutive session as forecasts for mild weather weighed on prices. After trading near the $3.31 per MMBtu level for most of the session, it settled with a 4.4% loss at $3.29 per MMBtu.
Feb gold chopped around just below the unchanged line for most of today's floor trade as the dollar index traded slightly higher. It brushed a session high of $1659.20 per ounce in positive territory but quickly fell into the red. It eventually settled 0.2% lower at $1653.10 per ounce.
Mar silver retreated from its session high of $31.09 per ounce set at pit trade open and trended lower for the remainder of the session. It ultimately settled at $30.78 per ounce, or 1.3% lower.

DJ30 -3.69 NASDAQ +0.22 SP500 -1.58 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1350/1543.8 mln/1134 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1262/430 mln/1728

4:30PM Sierra Wireless enters into agreement to sell assets of AirCard business to NETGEAR (NTGR) for $138 mln in cash plus ~ $6.5 mln in assumed liabilities as of Dec 31, 2012 (still halted) (SWIR) 9.16 +0.41 : Co announced it has executed a definitive agreement for the sale of substantially all of the assets and operations related to its AirCard business to NETGEAR (NTGR) for $138 million in cash plus approximately $6.5 million in assumed liabilities as of December 31, 2012. Co expects to realize net cash proceeds of ~ $100 million from the asset sale, after related taxes, expenses, and funds held in escrow. The transaction is expected to close in March 2013, subject to customary closing conditions. Co intends to use net proceeds from the transaction to continue its acquisition strategy in the M2M market, with the objective of accelerating revenue and earnings growth by strengthening its leadership in existing markets and expanding its position in the M2M value chain. Co is also exploring alternatives to return a portion of the proceeds to shareholders and will seek approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange to undertake a normal course issuer bid ("NCIB"). The terms of the proposed NCIB will be subject to TSX review and approval, and Sierra Wireless expects to provide further details in the coming weeks.

4:09PM Seagate Tech beats by $0.11, beats on revs (in line with pre-announcement) -- co expected to issue Q3 rev guidance on CC at 17:00 (STX) 37.42 : Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $1.38 per share, $0.11 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.27; revenues rose 14.8% year/year to $3.67 bln (co guided rev to at least $3.6 bln on Jan 8) vs the $3.57 bln consensus.

"Seagate is executing well in an environment where customer demand forecasting is challenging....Looking ahead, we will continue to manage our business conservatively to the demand environment, focus on profitability and effectively invest for market leadership in storage for mobility..The Board of Directors approved an increase in our quarterly cash dividend to $0.38 per share which was paid on December 28, 2012, rather than in the March 2013 quarter."
Seagate Tech Q2 non-GAAP gross margins 27.6% (On Jan 8th company said it expects gross margins to be at least 27% compared to the 31.7% in the same quarter as last year)
The company is expected to guide for Q3 revenues on its conference call beginning at 17:00

4:09PM Yahoo! beats by $0.04, reports revs in-line (YHOO) 20.31 -0.06 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.32 per share, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.28; revenues rose 4.4% year/year to $1.22 bln vs the $1.21 bln consensus.

Search revenue ex-TAC was $427 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, a 14 percent increase compared to $376 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.
Paid clicks, or the number of clicks on sponsored listings on Yahoo! Properties and Affiliate sites, increased approximately 11 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 and increased approximately 8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2012.
Display revenue ex-TAC was $520 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, a 5 percent decrease compared to $546 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.

4:08PM Sanmina misses by $0.05, misses on revs; guides Q2 below consensus (SANM) : Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.29 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.34; revenues fell 0.5% year/year to $1.5 bln vs the $1.53 bln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $026-0.32 vs. $0.32 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $1.40-1.45 bln vs. $1.49 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

"First quarter revenue and EPS were below expectations due to weak demand across most of our market segments. Our second quarter guidance reflects seasonality along with continued uncertainty in the macro-environment. Based on the pipeline of new business opportunities and the ramping of new programs in fiscal 2013, we should see improvements in the second half of the year."

4:03PM Integrated Device reports EPS in-line, misses on revs (IDTI) : Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.04 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate consensus of $0.04; revenues fell 4.1% year/year to $115.1 mln vs the $119.09 mln consensus.

"Although visibility into near term demand is limited, design win activity remains strong and we expect top line growth from new product categories to accelerate in the second half of this calendar year, led by wireless power and enterprise flash controllers. In addition, we believe that improvement in our core business and continued operating expense reductions will enable us to achieve significant operating margin expansion in fiscal year 2014."

4:02PM Seagate Tech and Virident announce agreement to jointly deliver solutions for flash storage market (STX) 37.41 +0.16 : Under the agreement, Seagate will immediately offer a complete line of flash-based PCIe solutions to its OEM and distribution partners. In addition, Seagate and Virident intend to leverage their mutual strengths to create next-generation hardware and software solutions for the solid-state storage market. In conjunction with the agreement, Seagate has made a strategic equity investment in Virident, and will appoint one member to the Virident Board of Directors.
Altera (ALTR) announced the Stratix V GT FPGA is shipping to JDSU for volume production of the co's Optical Network Tester solutions.

Rubicon Technology (RBCN) has shipped a total of 400,000 six-inch sapphire wafers to LED manufacturing and SoS/RFIC markets.

8:00AM Nam Tai Electronics provides commentary on outlook along with earnings (NTE) 13.83 : In addition to reporting Q4 rev +263% YoY to $468 mln and EPS of $0.80 vs. ($0.13) last yr (no ests), NTE gave the following outlook:

The Company is currently coordinating with its existing customers, as essential production partners, to further diversify the Company's product portfolio by developing and manufacturing new model for the existing end-buyer and also extend to other new customers' LCM products used in smartphones, tablets, ultrabook computers and automobiles, which the Company believes, with confidence, will continue to drive its growth in 2013 of its existing production capacity and production facilities.
Due to the high level of competition in the market for tablets, smartphones and ultrabook computers, the Company's management expects its customer orders will continue to fluctuate and its gross profit would also be under more pressure in 2013.

DSP Group (DSPG) announced that its cordless chipset solutions are powering a CAT-iq 2.0 ready global solution offered by Turkcell SuperOnLine in Turkey.

Apple (AAPL) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird; tgt lowered to $465. The firm notes they are increasingly wary of several near-term risks, particularly consensus estimates that they believe remain frustratingly too high. With estimates likely to fall further and gross margin concerns likely to linger, they believe the shares could drop further, despite the sharp sell-off and valuation. Notably, they remain positive on Apple's leading product portfolio, unmatched ecosystem and potential new products, and would look for a more significant "reboot" of estimates to potentially get more aggressive again.

Mizuho notes, much of the recent concern on Cisco (CSCO) has centered on erosion of core markets by Juniper, HP and Huawei. However, a combination of product refresh, refocused engineering and improved sales execution have preserved key franchises. While the demand environment remains challenging, the firm believes Cisco is seeing more stability and predictability in quarterly revenues. At the same time, they think margins have bottomed, setting up for potential improvement with any incremental transition of the business toward software.