YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Support for large-cap tech helped the Nasdaq Composite recover from the red to finish flat, but weakness in the broader market left the S&P 500 to chop along in negative territory as participants looked past several positive headlines and strong gains by China's markets.

China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both booked gains in excess of 2% in their latest session as a couple of banks tightened lending in order to head off government mandates. However, neither those gains nor news that the ADP Employment Report showed a smaller-than-expected loss of 22,000 private sector jobs in January aroused support. An in-line reading of 50.5 for the January ISM Services Index was also dismissed.

Given the stock market's strong gains in the two previous sessions, buyers opted to take a break from this session's action. That's not to say that sellers reclaimed control, though; overall losses were contained.

Large-cap tech traded with strength and helped the tech sector net a 0.3% gain and the Nasdaq 100 finish the session 0.4% higher. The Nasdaq Composite finished flat as weakness among its other issues undermined its performance. Cisco (CSCO 23.07, +0.05) saw mixed interest ahead of its latest quarterly report. Still, that was an improvement from the 0.6% loss that it displayed at its session low.

Financials were particularly weak. They logged a loss of 1.4%, unable to rally around better-than-expected earnings from insurers Aflac (AFL 50.94, +1.24) and MetLife (MET 34.80, -1.57). Aflac was able to win itself support with an upside forecast, though.

Dow component Pfizer (PFE 18.62, -0.44) fell short of Wall Street's consensus earnings estimate. That encouraged pressure against other pharmaceutical stocks, which lost a collective 1.4%. The broader health care sector shed 1.1%.

Advancing Sectors: Tech (+0.3%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.4%), Health Care (-1.1%), Materials (-1.0%), Telecom (-0.8%), Energy (-0.8%), Utilities (-0.8%), Consumer Staples (-0.5%), Industrials (-0.4%)DJ30 -26.30 NASDAQ +0.85 NQ100 +0.4% R2K -0.6% SP400 -0.7% SP500 -6.04 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1077/2.32 bln/1526 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1162/1.06 bln/1856