10:00 am : Trade has become rather choppy. That has kept stocks stuck in negative territory with modest losses.

Business inventory data for December hasn't done anything to inspire market participants to increase their stakes. Inventories reportedly increased by 0.4%, which is slightly less than the 0.5% increase that had been broadly anticipated. DJ30 -29.85 NASDAQ -7.23 SP500 -4.12 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 660/115 mln/1440 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 745/65 mln/1880

09:45 am : The major equity averages are down with modest losses this morning. Although early pressure is broad, financials, which performed well in the prior session, are a source of pronounced weakness. Collectively, they are down 0.8%.

Health care stocks make up the strongest sector this morning, but they're only up 0.2% as a group. Hospira (HSP 36.58, +2.36) is an early leader among health care plays. DJ30 -21.19 NASDAQ -6.06 SP500 -3.01 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec NA/NA/NA NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec NA/NA/NA

09:15 am : S&P futures vs fair value: -4.50. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -5.00. Stock futures have eased lower so that a slightly lower start to trade today is expected. Moderate weakness comes after stocks scored strong gains yesterday in response to approved austerity measures in Greece, only to be reminded of the precarious conditions in the rest of the eurozone by several debt rating downgrades by analysts at Moody's.

Helping to temper disappointment over those headlines is news of improved economic sentiment in Germany, which is the eurozone's largest, most diverse economy. Additionally, Japan announced that it has expanded its asset purchase program.

9:58AM Opening Point Gainers/Losers (TECHX) : Point Gainers: PCLN (+12.87), KORS (+6.98), RAX (+4.49), LPSN (+2.39), CRL (+2.40), HSP (+2.37), NSIT (+2.33), TAL (+2.15), WPI (+1.99), MDAS (+1.98), NFLX (+2.05), GMCR (+1.37), VAL (+1.65)

Point Losers: REGN (-3.79), CME (-3.68), ZBRA (-3.14), GOOG (-2.42), ZIP (-2.49), FAS (-2.31), GS (-2.41), FSLR (-2.37), UTHR (-2.19), LNKD (-2.03), RIO (-1.95), WLT (-1.86)

9:51AM Semiconductor Hldrs ETF and Technology XLK displaying relative strength, underpin Nasdaq indices (SMH) 34.35 +0.06 :  

9:49AM Fossil sees some strong opening bounce action off of the $100.00 "psychological" level following earnings as it pushes back up into the green (FOSL) 105.39 +0.86 : Yesterday's 3.5-mth high is overhead at $105.94.