YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Equities began the day with a slightly bearish bias after Germany's 2012 GDP was reported below expectations. Though the news weighed at the open, the major averages showed resilience, and spent the remainder of the session climbing off their lows. As a result, the S&P 500 added 0.1% while the Nasdaq underperformed with a loss of 0.2%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was pressured by Apple (AAPL 485.92, -15.83), which fell 3.2%. In addition, Apple suppliers continued to show weakness. Broadcom (BRCM 34.19, -0.43) and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS 20.50, -0.51) saw respective losses of 1.2% and 2.4%. Today's selling followed yesterday's 3.6% drop in Apple resulting from reports which indicated the company has cut its orders for iPhone 5 parts.

Facebook (FB 30.10, -0.85) dropped to its session lows after today's highly-anticipated press event disappointed investors. When the company first announced today's presentation on January 9, Facebook responded by rallying nearly 5.0% in less than a week. The rise was attributed to speculation the company may launch a search engine or its own phone brand. However, at today's event, the company revealed a "graph search" feature.

Business software provider SAP (SAP 77.55, -4.33) also contributed to the weakness in technology. The stock lost 5.3% after the company's operating profit missed expectations. Additionally, SAP lowered its fourth quarter guidance, which also contributed to the selling.

The discretionary sector was the top performer after the December retail sales report beat expectations. Retailers rallied on the news and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 64.54, +1.32) gained 2.1%.

This morning, Lennar (LEN 40.68, -0.34) was the first homebuilder to report its fourth quarter results. The report was generally positive as the company's earnings and revenue exceeded the Capital IQ consensus estimates. In addition, the company expects its full-year 2013 gross margins to be in-line with analyst estimates. Despite the upbeat earnings, Lennar settled lower by 0.8%. It should be noted the stock has added over 36% over the past five months, thus strong quarterly results have been largely priced-in. Other homebuilders showed intraday strength and finished generally higher as Lennar's results were expected to translate into upbeat earnings from its peers. 

Financials outperformed the broader market with ten sector components scheduled to report their quarterly results ahead of tomorrow's open. JPMorgan Chase (JPM 46.35, +0.47) was in the news today as the bank was ordered to improve its risk controls following last year's $6.2 billion derivative trading loss. JPMorgan Chase will report its fourth quarter earnings tomorrow and the Capital IQ consensus expects the financials to show year-over-year bottom line growth of 35%. The market will also receive quarterly results from Goldman Sachs (GS 135.59, -0.54) which are expected to show earnings of $3.40 on $7.67 billion in revenue.

Several economic data points crossed the wires today. During November, business inventories rose by 0.3%, which was in-line with the Briefing.com consensus. Today's reading follows the prior month's uptick of 0.4%.

December retail sales rose by 0.5%, which was better than the 0.2% increase that had been broadly expected. The revised prior month's reading pointed to an increase of 0.4%. Excluding autos, retail sales rose by 0.3%, which was in-line with the Briefing.com consensus.

December producer prices decreased by 0.2%, which was cooler than the unchanged reading that had been widely forecast. Core producer prices rose by 0.1% which was cooler than the uptick of 0.2% expected by the Briefing.com consensus.

The Empire Manufacturing Survey for January registered a reading of -7.8, which was up from the prior month's reading of -8.1. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected that the Survey would rise to 2.0.

• Feb crude oil spent most of pit trade chopping around just below the unchanged level. However, prices slid to a session low of $93.22 per barrel moments before the close as the dollar index popped to a new session high. The last minute sell-off left crude to settle with a 1.0% loss at $93.29 per barrel.
• Feb natural gas rose for a fourth consecutive session on this week's colder weather across the nation. Prices briefly dipped into the red and to a session low of $3.35 per MMBtu in morning floor action, but the losses were erased moments later. Natural gas trended higher for the remainder of the session and settled 2.7% higher at $3.46 per MMBtu.
• Feb gold extended yesterday's gains as it advanced to a floor session high of $1684.90 per ounce despite the dollar index trading slightly above the break-even line. The yellow metal closed the session 0.9% higher at $1683.80 per ounce.
• Mar silver also trended higher during today's pit trade. It listed off its session low of $31.12 per ounce and brushed a session high of $31.61 per ounce before settling with a 1.1% gain at $31.49 per ounce.

In tomorrow's economic data, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00 ET. December CPI and core CPI will both be released at 8:30 ET. At 9:00 ET, November net long-term TIC flows will hit the wires. December industrial production and capacity utilization will be reported at 9:15 ET while January NAHB Housing Market Index will cross at 10:00 ET. Lastly, the Federal Reserve will release its January Beige Book at 14:00 ET.DJ30 +27.57 NASDAQ -6.72 SP500 +1.66 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1314/1.81 bln/1142 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1735/603.2 mln/1272