CLOSING BELL

Dow 10710.55  +29.78, Nasdaq 2316.74  +8.84, S&P 1148.46  +2.78

Despite the unimpressive economic data released today the markets were able to post small gains for the day. Conviction continues to appear questionable, as fewer than 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE once again.

Traders showed little reaction to news that advance retail sales for December decreased -0.3%, when economist had expected a +0.5% increase.  Sales less autos decreased -0.2%, which was also worse than the +0.3% increase that many had expected. Some attributed the drop to the previous month's +1.8% spike in retail sales and +1.9% jump in sales less autos.  These numbers will be watched closely going forward to see if the recovery is petering out.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended January 9 came in higher than expected with a  week-over-week increase of 11,000, but continuing claims retreated more than expected. The street was expecting an increase of only 3,000.

Intel (INTC) 21.48, +0.52 provided leadership to the tech sector ahead of its latest quarterly report. After the market close the company reported earnings of +$0.40 beating estimates of only +$0.03 per share. Revenues rose +28% to $10.6 billion.  Chief Financial Officer Stacey Smith said in an interview. “My expectation for 2010 is that we’re going to see robust unit growth.” “The consumer segments of the market will stay pretty strong, and I do believe we are going to see a resurgence in PC client sales.”

Tech finished the session with a +0.7% gain, but other semiconductor stocks slipped -0.6%, collectively.

Continued weakness in AT&T (T) 26.19, -0.45 and Verizon (VZ) 31.22, -0.65 took telecom down -1.8%. Telecom stocks are now down -5.1% since the start of the year, worse than any other sector.

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.

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 Staples