YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Losses among large-cap tech issues left the broader market mired in weakness, despite another big batch of generally better-than-expected earnings results.

Stocks opened the session in mixed fashion amid news that Procter & Gamble (PG 61.68, +0.87), Colgate-Palmolive (CL 79.99, -0.40), 3M (MMM 80.75, -1.55), Ford (F 11.41, -0.14), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY 24.10, -0.20), and Nokia (NOK 13.98, +1.06) topped Wall Street's earnings estimates. Not all of the announcements featured upside surprises, though; AT&T (T 25.54, -0.08) and Baxter International (BAX 58.20, -0.71) both met expectations, but Eli Lilly (LLY 35.75, -0.64) came short of the consensus.

The latest dose of economic data proved disappointing. Durable goods orders for December increased 0.3%, which was far softer than the 2.0% increase that had been widely expected. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders for December increased 0.9%, but that was stronger than the 0.5% increase that had been forecast by economists.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 23 were down 8,000 week-over-week to 470,000, but that still exceeded the consensus call for 450,000 claims. Continuing claims totaled 4.60 million, which is slightly above the 4.59 million continuing claims that had been expected, but down from the 4.66 million continuing claims total from the previous week.

Though there wasn't much direction in the opening minutes of trade, it didn't take long for tech stocks to come under stiff selling pressure, which resulted in a 2.9% loss for the sector. Particular weakness among large-cap tech caused the Nasdaq Composite to underperform its counterparts.

Though tech's downturn was steeper than that of the broader market, the theme of weak large-cap tech has been relatively common since the start of the year. Some analysts say that tech's huge gains in 2009 were underpinned by the notion that the sector's fundamentals would see a sharp rebound. Now that those numbers are being reported, some have opted to sell the news, while others believe the numbers aren't strong enough to justify the sector's surge from lows last March.

Tech's weight in the broader market and degree of weakness weighed heavily on the other major sectors, such that they all logged losses.

Banks garnered modest support, though. Specifically, regional banks advanced 0.4% and diversified banks gained 0.5%. That move came amid news that Standard & Poor's no longer classifies the United Kingdom among the most stable and low-risk banking systems globally.

Despite general distaste for stocks, Treasuries failed to find support. Even a stronger-than-average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.9 in a $32 billion auction of 7-year Notes failed to stimulate demand for the benchmark 10-year Note, which essentially finished flat.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Tech (-2.9%), Materials (-1.9%), Industrials (-1.2%), Utilities (-1.1%), Energy (-1.0%), Telecom (-0.9%), Health Care (-0.7%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.6%), Financials (-0.4%), Consumer Staples (-0.3%)DJ30 -115.70 NASDAQ -42.41 NQ100 -2.6% R2K -1.7% SP400 -1.3% SP500 -12.97 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 752/2.82 bln/1909 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 799/1.12 bln/2236