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From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm: Equities finished the day on a mixed note. The Dow climbed 0.3% and registered its highest close of the year while the S&P 500 added 0.2%, and Nasdaq shed 0.2%. The day got off to a slow start as the major averages spent the entire morning near their respective unchanged levels. However, key indices were able to climb to their highs in afternoon trade as financials paced the advance.

The financial sector led throughout the session, and the S&P 500 Financials Index climbed above 240 for the first time since October 2008. Bank of America (BAC 12.24, +0.38) and Citigroup (C 44.35, +1.20) both gained near 3.0% to support the space.

While financials led throughout the session, defensively-oriented telecommunication stocks spent the day in an upward climb and ended as the second best performing sector.

With no market-moving economic data, traders turned to earnings as several consumer names reported their quarterly results. The discretionary sector outperformed after market participants responded favorably to earnings from Fossil (FOSL 110.65, +3.19) and Michael Kors (KORS 62.00, +5.00). Fossil advanced 3.0% after reporting in-line earnings on better-than-expected revenue. Meanwhile, the company's guidance reflected a recent pattern. Fossil warned against a slowdown in the first quarter, but left its full-year guidance intact. This indicates the company believes the latter part of the year will make up for expected first quarter softness.

Elsewhere, Michael Kors spiked 8.8% after its earnings came in well ahead of expectations.

The discretionary space was supported by upbeat earnings, but quarterly results had the opposite effect on consumer staples. Coca-Cola (KO 37.56, -1.05) settled lower by 2.7% after the beverage giant warned against continued global uncertainty.

As consumer staples held slim losses throughout the day, afternoon trade saw relative weakness from technology stocks. The space was pressured by Apple (AAPL 467.90, -12.03), which lost 2.5%, after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook did not hint at near-term changes to the company's dividend policy. Elsewhere, Qualcomm (QCOM 65.88, -1.30) dropped 1.9% after JPMorgan Chase downgraded the stock to 'Neutral' from 'Overweight.'

Today's floor volume represented a marked improvement over yesterday's session, but it remained well below average as just over 610 million shares changed hands.

Looking at the S&P 500 sector breakdown, financials (+0.8%) and telecoms (+0.6%) were the clear leaders while technology (-0.5%), health care (-0.2%), and consumer staples (-0.1%) brought up the rear.

Overseas, world leaders are preparing for the G20 summit scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg later this week. Reports from the meetings will be closely watched as recent months have seen a rise in currency commentary. With Japan taking active efforts to weaken the yen and daily remarks from European officials suggesting what the "right" level for the euro should be, the summit is likely to produce some noteworthy quotes.

Investors received just one economic report today and it came in the form of the January Treasury budget. This report pointed to a surplus of $2.88 billion, which was better than the deficit of $2.0 billion expected by the Briefing.com consensus.

Note that President Barack Obama will give the first State of the Union address of his second term at 21:00 ET tonight.

Looking at tomorrow's economic data, weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00 ET. At 8:30 ET January retail sales, retail sales ex-auto, export prices ex-agriculture, and import prices ex-oil will all be released. Lastly, December business inventories will be announced at 10:00 ET. In notable earnings, Comcast (CMCSA 38.97, +0.33) and Deere (DE 93.97, +0.74) will report their quarterly results prior to the opening bell.

The U.S. Treasury will auction off $24 billion in 10-yr notes.DJ30 +47.46 NASDAQ -5.51 SP500 +2.42 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1517/1.70 bln/949 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1935/613.8 mln/1054

3:30 pm :

Mar crude oil traded higher during today's pit trade on OPEC's increased 2013 demand forecast. A weaker dollar index also supported higher prices. The energy component brushed a session high of $97.75 per barrel in afternoon action and settled with a 0.5% gain at $97.48 per barrel.
Mar natural gas fell into negative territory in late morning action and trended lower for the remainder pit trade. It closed 1.5% lower at $3.23 per MMBtu, or just above its session low of $3.22 per MMBtu.
Apr gold inched higher after coming off its session low of $1641.60 per ounce as the dollar index declined. The move came on a statement by the G7 reaffirming their longstanding commitment to market determined exchange rates. In addition, North Korea claimed that it has successfully detonated a nuclear device at an underground site. The yellow metal brushed a session high of $1653.80 per ounce in afternoon pit action and settled with a 70 cent gain at $1649.60 per ounce.
Mar silver also climbed into positive territory after trading as low as $3.71 per ounce in early morning floor action. It eventually settled 0.3% higher at $31.02 per ounce, or slightly below its session high of $31.09 per ounce.

5:28PM STEC responds to nomination of dissident directors for 2013 (STEC) 5.42 +0.05 : Co responded to the joint 13D/A filing notification made by Balch Hill LLC and Potomac Capital Management LLC announcing their slate of seven candidates to replace the entire STEC Board of Directors at the Company's upcoming 2013 annual meeting of shareholders.

"We are disappointed that despite the good faith efforts of our Board of Directors and management to engage in constructive dialogue with Balch Hill and Potomac Capital, they have chosen to discount our 2013 strategic plan to create shareholder value, and instead focus on what we believe is an unnecessary, disruptive and wasteful proxy contest to take control of STEC, all without paying a premium to shareholders," said Mark Moshayedi, STEC's chief executive officer and president. "As a constructive alternative to this unproductive course, our Board has offered to initially interview four of Balch Hill/Potomac nominees, and is committed to formally present two of their nominees in the company's proxy to stand for election to the Board as Director nominees at the 2013 annual meeting of shareholders.

"Management has already taken decisive action during the last few months to achieve cost reductions that are expected to yield savings of $8.8 million annually. Moreover, we continue to implement aggressive measures to reposition the company from an OEM-focused business model to an approach that also derives significant sales from direct enterprise customers, which in our view will create meaningful additional value for STEC's shareholders. In contrast, we believe the dissident slate is committed to advancing a narrow, self-serving agenda to take control of STEC and potentially auction off the company for a price significantly below the company's value, which clearly would not be in the best interests of all STEC shareholders. STEC's Board and management team remain fully committed to creating value for all shareholders through the successful execution of the company's strategy."

The date for the 2013 annual meeting of shareholders has not yet been announced.

4:04PM Rackspace misses by $0.01, reports revs in-line (RAX) 74.98 -0.05 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.21 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.22; revenues rose 24.6% year/year to $352.9 mln vs the $355.44 mln consensus.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $130 million, a 6.6% increase compared to the third quarter of 2012 and a 27% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2011.
The adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 36.8% compared to 36.2% in the previous quarter and 36.1% for the fourth quarter of 2011.
Net income margin for the quarter was 8.5% compared to 8.1% for the previous quarter and 8.8% in the fourth quarter of 2011.

12:58PM Interdigital Comm: Evidentiary hearing commences in ITC investigation of InterDigital complaint against Huawei, Nokia and ZTE (IDCC) 44.26 -0.39 : Co announced that the evidentiary hearing in the United States International Trade Commission investigation of the company's complaint against Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., FutureWei Technologies, Inc. d/b/a Huawei Technologies (USA) and Huawei Device USA, Inc., Nokia Corporation and Nokia Inc. and ZTE Corporation and ZTE (USA) Inc. involving certain 3G wireless devices has commenced.

Unlike prior cases involving InterDigital, the Office of Unfair Import Investigations Staff (the "Staff") is not participating on all issues in the case, limiting its involvement to two patents from one patent family. On infringement and validity, in its pre-trial position the Staff did not support the company's position on those two patents. Regarding domestic industry issues, the Staff raised questions as to whether the company had demonstrated an adequate connection between its licensing expenditures and these two patents to support the Commission's domestic industry requirement. The Staff is not participating in the investigation as to the other five of the seven patents at issue and therefore has expressed no views at to those patents. As to the requirement that companies license standards-essential patents on a Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory ("FRAND") basis, the Staff believes Respondents have not demonstrated that the company violated any of its FRAND commitments. The Staff's recommendations are not binding on either the Administrative Law Judge overseeing the proceeding or the Commission. Typically, the Commission's final determination does not fully align with the Staff's pre-trial position.

9:42AM Qualcomm extends gap down start after downgrade as low as 65.72 (QCOM) 65.93 -1.25 : It has thus far been able to hold above its early Feb close low and the Jan range top high are at 65.64/65.53.

9:41AM General Electric and Google (GOOG) announce agreement that will integrate Google Maps data into GE's Smallworld electrical, telecommunications and gas applications (GE) 22.51 +0.06 : A new agreement announced today between GE (GE) and Google (GOOG) will integrate Google Maps data into GE's Smallworld electrical, telecommunications and gas applications. GE, a leading provider of geospatial analytical tools and insight, and Google, a provider of map services with more than 1 billion monthly active users, will help utilities increase productivity based on the ability to visualize and analyze their data with GE's Smallworld product suite.

9:30AM MKS Instruments announces election of Gerald G. Colella to the position of President and Chief Operating Officer (MKSI) 27.89 +0.17 : Mr. Colella previously served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

8:33AM Flextronics announces intention to offer up to an aggregate principal amount of $1 bln of senior notes (FLEX) 6.66 : Co announced its intention to offer up to an aggregate principal amount of $1 billion of senior unsecured notes (the "Notes") to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and to non-U.S. persons outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act, subject to market conditions. Flextronics intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay outstanding borrowings under its 2007 term loan facility.

8:31AM O2Micro reports that patent issued for Cell Balancing System to co (OIIM) 3.12 : Co announced that it was issued 14 claims under United States patent number 8,278,876 for its Battery Pack Current Monitoring system. O2Micro's patented system monitors battery packs to protect against high current fault conditions, eliminating the typical, more costly current shunt monitoring method.

7:07AM KVH Industries beats by $0.03, beats on revs; guides Q1 EPS below consensus, revs in-line; guides FY13 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (limited analyst coverage) (KVHI) 14.90 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.18 per share, $0.03 better than the single Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.15; revenues rose 23.9% year/year to $39.54 mln vs the $37.62 mln consensus.

Co issues guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.10-0.15 vs. $0.19 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q1 revs of $37-40 mln vs. $39.72 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Co issues downside guidance for FY13, sees EPS of $0.37-0.48 vs. $0.59 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY13 revs of $151-160 mln vs. $160.09 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Guidance Commentary: "For 2013 planning, we expect our mini-VSAT Broadband business to show strong year-over-year growth and the FOG business to benefit from new commercial applications beginning later this year as well as delivering products under the CROWS III program. We remain cautious with respect to expectations for growth in leisure markets, due to ongoing challenges in global economies. We see the potential for a decline in TACNAV product sales in the second half of 2013 as hardware shipments under the Saudi Arabia National Guard program come to an end and we are being cautious with respect to possible defense budget cuts.