YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Equities began today's session on a lower note. However, the major averages followed the lower open with a steady climb towards session highs. The optimism held the S&P 500 near the 1,385 level for the majority of the session, before late day selling pushed it back into the red. As a result the benchmark average settled lower by 0.4%.

Consumer discretionary stocks outperformed after four retailers reported earnings. Michael Kors (KORS 50.98, +0.40) advanced 0.8% after beating on earnings and revenue. The company reported earnings of $0.49, which was $0.09 better than the Capital IQ consensus estimate. Meanwhile, the revenue of $532.9 million was also ahead of expectations. The company's outlook was mixed as it sees full-year 2013 earnings above consensus, while revenue is forecast to fall short of estimates.

Saks (SKS 9.92, +0.04) added 0.4% after reporting earnings of $0.12, which was in-line with the Capital IQ consensus estimate. However, the company's revenue of $713 million missed expectations. Regarding its outlook, the company said it expects fourth quarter comparable store sales to be relatively flat year-over-year.

TJX (TJX 42.06, +1.09) gained 2.7% after beating on the top line, and reporting earnings in-line with expectations. Note that the company issued downside guidance as it expects fourth quarter earnings to fall below analyst expectations.

Home Depot (HD 63.38, +2.22) rose by 3.6% after reporting upbeat earnings. During the third quarter, the home improvement store operator earned $0.74 on $18.13 billion in revenue. Both figures were ahead of the Capital IQ consensus estimate. In addition to reporting strong earnings, Home Depot raised its guidance as it sees an uptick in the housing recovery. While the management expects strong future results, shares of Home Depot have been pricing in the news for quite some time. The stock has added over 52% since the beginning of this year.

The technology sector underperformed the broader market. Semiconductor shares contributed to the weakness as the PHLX Semiconductor Index settled lower by 1.0%.

Elsewhere in technology, Microsoft (MSFT 27.08, -0.90) lost 3.2% after announcing the departure of Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky. Following Mr. Sinofsky's departure, Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering.

In the materials sector, AK Steel (AKS 4.50, -0.96) issued downside fourth quarter guidance. After reducing its earnings expectations for the current quarter, the company expects to report a loss between $0.34 and $0.39. Meanwhile, the Capital IQ consensus called for a loss of $0.19. In addition to the downside guidance, AK Steel announced a registered offering of 25 million shares of its common stock. Also of note, the company has commenced a private offering of $350 million in senior secured notes. Shares of AK Steel slid 17.6% following the news and other steel producers are seeing mixed performance. United States Steel (X 21.31, -0.22) shed 1.0% while Worthington Industries (WOR 21.93, +0.83) advanced 3.9%.

The October Treasury Budget showed a $120 billion deficit, which was wider than the deficit of $113 billion expected by the Briefing.com consensus.

Commodities began the mixed and ended the day mixed. Natural gas probably the most consistent mover today as it just continued to climb higher and higher.

Dec natural gas futures traded sideways overnight, but gained buying interest around 7:20am ET when nat gas was just below $3.60. The energy component rose as high as $3.74 today and finished the day 5% higher at that high of $3.74.

Crude oil was more choppy and spent almost all session in negative territory. Crude gained steam mid-morning and temporarily surged into positive territory, almost hitting the $86 mark. However, crude rose as high as $85.95.

Precious metals rallied sharply this morning to the current session highs. But from there, both gold and silver slowly inched lower finishing slightly lower.

Looking at tomorrow's economic data, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET. In addition, October retail sales, retail sales ex-auto, PPI, and core PPI will all be announced at 8:30 ET. Lastly, September business inventories and the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee minutes will hit the wires at 10:00 ET and 14:00 ET, respectively.DJ30 -58.90 NASDAQ -20.37 SP500 -5.50 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 805/1.74 bln/1668 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 979/676.3 mln/2080