YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Despite mediocre data, the Dow and the S&P 500 made their way to fractionally improved 52-week highs amid modest support. Stocks were generally flat in the early going.

Participants showed little reaction to news that advance retail sales for December decreased 0.3%, which was weaker than the 0.5% increase that had been expected. Sales less autos decreased 0.2%, but that was also worse than the 0.3% increase that many had forecast. The figures were underwhelming, but many attributed the drop to the previous month's 1.8% spike in retail sales and 1.9% jump in sales less autos.

Still, the reversal in retail sales suggests that all isn't well in the economic recovery. To that point, the latest initial jobless claims tally increased 11,000 from the previous week to 444,000. That was balanced by a larger-than-expected drop by continuing claims to 4.60 million, though lower continuing claims have stemmed from the expiration of jobless benefits.

In other economic news, the Import Price Index for December was flat month-over-month, as expected.

Despite lackluster action in the early going, Intel (INTC 21.48, +0.52) provided leadership to the tech sector ahead of its latest quarterly report. Tech finished the session with a 0.7% gain, but other semiconductor stocks slipped 0.6%, collectively.

Regional bank stocks climbed 2.4% to help the financial sector finish with a 0.6% gain. Support for regional lenders came amid speculation that proposals to slap banks with fees for risk taking would be focused on larger lenders.

Upward momentum from the previous session helped health care stocks finish with a 0.8% gain, which made for the best performance of any major sector.

Continued weakness in AT&T (T 26.19, -0.45) and Verizon (VZ 31.22, -0.65) took telecom down 1.8%. That came in addition to the sector's 0.4% slip in the previous session, when it was the only sector to log a loss. Telecom stocks are now down 5.1% since the start of the year, worse than any other sector.

Materials stocks were also weak this session, though. The sector shed 1.0% as Monsanto (MON 82.79, -1.16) moved lower amid confirmation that the Justice Dept. has confirmed that it is investigating the possibility of anticompetitive practices in the seed industry.

Still, strength among health care, tech, and financials, the three largest sectors by market weight, lifted the broader market to a modest gain, which marked its seventh advance in eight sessions.

Despite that accomplishment, conviction appears questionable as fewer than 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE once again.

Advancing Sectors: Health care (+0.8%), Tech (+0.7%), Financials (+0.6%), Energy (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-1.8%), Materials (-1.0%), Utilities (-0.3%), Industrials (-0.1%), Consumer Staples (-0.1%)
Unchanged: Consumer StaplesDJ30 +29.78 NASDAQ +8.84 NQ100 +0.0% R2K +0.5% SP400 +0.2% SP500 +2.78 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1561/2.29 bln/1105 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1727/888 mln/1290