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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The S&P 500 ended today's quiet session with a slim loss of 0.1%. Equities started the day amid mixed European trade where Italian and Spanish stocks trailed behind the remainder of the region. The relative weakness came amid continued political turmoil.

In Italy, markets showed caution as Silvio Berlusconi speculated his party may be closing in on the lead ahead of the February 24/25 general elections.

Meanwhile, Spanish equities underperformed as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy continued facing increased scrutiny following allegations of having accepted secret payments from his party's slush fund. A weekend poll indicated almost 80% of all respondents have found Mr. Rajoy's explanations to be insufficient.

As Italian and Spanish markets underperformed, their respective yields climbed higher. The Spanish 10-yr added six basis points to 5.43% while Italy's 10-yr yield rose seven basis points to 4.62%.

While the two sovereign yields climbed higher, U.S. interest rates were little changed. The 10-yr yield eased fractionally to 1.946%.

Like Treasury yields, U.S. equities saw little change during today's session. With no earnings or economic data of note, stocks drifted sideways throughout the day. Below average volume contributed to the uneventful trade as some traders were absent due to the aftermath of snowstorm Nemo.

On the downside, the energy sector underperformed, and the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF (XLE 78.19, -0.39) slipped 0.5%. Energy stocks spent the session near their lows despite an intraday spike in the price of crude oil. The energy component jumped to near $97.00 after comments from the president of Germany's Bundesbank resulted in dollar weakness, thus helping the dollar-denominated crude. The greenback lost ground to the euro after Mr. Weidmann said there is "no indication euro is seriously overvalued."

While energy stocks were unable to lift off their lows, the defensively-oriented utilities spent the day in a steady climb. The SPDR Utilities Select Sector ETF (XLU 36.78, +0.09) added 0.3% amid relative strength from electricity producers. Exelon (EXC 31.42, +0.34) settled higher by 1.1%.

Though utilities registered modest gains, the financial sector was the top performer. The space hovered near its highs thanks to relative strength of major components. Citigroup (C 43.15, +0.47), Wells Fargo (WFC 35.26, +0.38), and U.S. Bank (USB 34.09, +0.44) all gained in excess of 1.0%. Prior to the open, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank were upgraded to 'Buy' at Stifel Nicolaus.

In sector news, Nasdaq (NDAQ 30.38, +0.91) rose 3.1% after reports indicated the exchange has held preliminary talks with Carlyle Group regarding a possible deal to go private. However, negotiations have stalled over a purchase price.

Looking at the S&P 500 breakdown, financials (+0.4%), utilities (+0.2%), and technology (+0.1%) saw relative strength. Meanwhile, energy (-0.6%), consumer discretionary (-0.3%), and materials (-0.2%) lagged.

Tomorrow's economic data will be limited to the January Treasury budget. This report will be released at 14:00 ET. Among notable earnings, Avon Products (AVP 17.28, +0.43) and Coca-Cola (KO 38.61, -0.16) will report their quarterly results ahead of the open.

The U.S. Treasury will auction off $32 billion in 3-yr notes.DJ30 -21.73 NASDAQ -1.87 SP500 -0.92 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1203/1.51 bln/1254 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1345/497.0 mln/1641

3:30 pm : Commodities were mixed today, while the dollar index was relatively muted. Crude oil was a real notable mover following a big rally above the $97 level.

Prior to the big rally, crude oil was just slightly lower on the session, falling as low as $94.97, but managed to hit a HoD of $97.09/barrel just a couple of minutes before the close.

Metals sold off earlier this morning as gold, silver and copper all fell to the day's session lows and only recovered a modest amount of those losses. Apr gold fell as low as $1644.10 and ended the down 1.1% at $1648.90. Mar silver hit the day's low at $30.82, ending the day 1.7% lower at $30.92. Copper lost 1.1% at $3.72/lb.DJ30 -20.06 NASDAQ -3.28 SP500 -0.83 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1110/1296.6 mln/1337 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1239/342 mln/1730

O2Micro International (OIIM) announced that it was issued 14 claims under United States patent number 8,278,876 for its Battery Pack Current Monitoring system.

NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) announced an agreement with Delphi Automotive (DLPH) that extends the two companies' long-term relationship in automotive electronics by making NXP one of Delphi's strategic core suppliers. This agreement encompasses a variety of automotive semiconductor applications including infotainment and networking solutions.

10:02 am S&P Information Technology sector -0.2%
The tech sector is trading lower today, roughly inline with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness as well with the SOX trading 0.3% lower. Within the chip index, POWI (-3.5%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.2% lower today, while the QQQ and the NASDAQ are trading 0.3% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+0.7%) is showing notable strength, while GOOG (-1.3%) is under pressure.

In tech earnings this morning, MITL (-2.0%) lowered guidance. In news, GOOG (-1.3%) disclosed Friday night that Eric Schmidt adopted a stock trading plan; Eric Schmidt intends to sell up to ~3.2 mln shares of Class A common stock. Among rumors, AAPL (+0.7%) is developing a new smart watch, according to reports. Among notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, VMW (-1.6%) was upgraded to Overweight at Evercore. Among downgrades, POWI (-3.4%) was downgraded to Hold at Deutsche Bank, S (-0.4%) was downgraded to Neutral at Atlantic Equities, CCUR (-7.5%) was downgraded to Hold at Noble and LNKD (-0.6%) was downgraded to Market Perform at Northland. TWTC (-0.5%) is a notable name in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.

Google (GOOG) disclosed "On November 15, 2012, Eric E. Schmidt, Google's Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, adopted a stock trading plan in accordance with the guidelines specified in Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Google's Policy Against Insider Trading. In February 2013, sales of Eric's Google stock may commence under this trading plan. As of December 31, 2012, Eric beneficially owned ~7.6 mln shares of Class A and Class B common stock, which represented ~2.3% of Google's outstanding capital stock and ~8.2% of the voting power of Google's outstanding capital stock. Under the terms of this trading plan, Eric intends to sell up to ~3.2 mln shares of Class A common stock. If, during the one-year period for which this trading plan is effective, Google declares and pays a dividend of one share of Class C capital stock for each share of Class A common stock and Class B common stock then outstanding, then a number of shares of Class C capital stock equivalent to the number of shares of Class A common stock subsequently sold, will also be sold under the trading plan. On a pro forma basis as of December 31, 2012, assuming all shares of Class A common stock (and excluding the shares of Class C capital stock to be issued pursuant to the dividend) had been sold under the trading plan, Eric would have owned ~4.4 mln shares, which would have represented as of such date ~1.3% of Google's outstanding capital stock and ~5.0% of the voting power of Google's outstanding capital stock."

Allot Comms (ALLT) announced that it has been awarded an approximately $6 million project from a Tier 1 operator which will be implemented in phases over several years. The project is based on Allot Service Gateway Parental Control Service. The project, awarded by a Tier-1 mobile operator in EMEA, highlights the importance mobile operators place on the cloud-based services which Allot's product suite enable.

Salesforce.com (CRM) target was raised to $200 from $190 at BMO Capital Markets. The firm believes demand was solid but not great in December and early January but then ramped materially in the last two to three weeks of the quarter, enough to enable CRM to at least modestly exceed its January quarter reported DR growth guidance of "mid- to high 20%." They are raising their price target based on co's strong bookings momentum.

Dell (DELL) disclosed Board concluded that the proposed all-cash transaction is in the best interests of stockholders; go-shop process provides stockholders an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives that are superior to the present offer. In the course of its deliberations, the Special Committee of Dell's Board considered an array of strategic alternatives. In addition to working through financial and capital allocation issues with its independent financial advisors, the Committee retained a prominent management consultant to help it assess the Company's strategic position. Based on that work, the Board concluded that the proposed all-cash transaction is in the best interests of stockholders. The transaction offers an attractive and immediate premium for stockholders and shifts the risks facing the business to the buyer group. In addition, and importantly, the go-shop process provides stockholders an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives that are superior to the present offer.

F5 Networks (FFIV) announced that it has agreed to acquire LineRate Systems, a developer of software defined networking services. Through this acquisition, F5 gains access to LineRate's layer 7+ networking services technology & intellectual property. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on the company's operating results.

08:35 am Cisco Systems target raised to $22 at FBR Capital ahead of earnings: . FBR Capital raises their CSCO tgt to $22 from $20. The firm expects CSCO's January-ending quarter to benefit from several positive trends, including: improving worldwide macroeconomic trends, an increasingly stronger spend by enterprise accounts, a faster pace of new product announcements, and a return to more normal spending patterns by service-provider customers. The firm expects that these trends are likely to help Cisco post results that are better than the consensus expectation (F2Q13) and extend the company's momentum into the April quarter (F3Q13) as management continues to work to transform the business into an IT platform vendor, diversifying away from slower-growing routing and switching revenue streams.