YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: 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.

• 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%

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