4:30 pm : Despite plenty of potential catalysts for trade, the broader stock market lacked direction for the second straight session. Natural resource plays showed considerable strength, though.

Participants got a glimpse into the government's official nonfarm payrolls report, which is due Friday, via the latest ADP Employment Report. The ADP report stated that 84,000 jobs were lost in December, down from 145,000 job losses in November. Still, the December tally was a bit more than the 75,000 that many had expected.

The December ISM Service Index improved to 50.1 from the 48.7 that was registered in November. Though the latest index suggested that activity made a modest pick up, since it was above the 50 that delineates expansion from contraction, it was still a bit below the 50.5 that economists, on average, had forecast.

Neither the ADP report nor the ISM reading caused much of a stir among participants.

Reactions were also muted to the latest FOMC meeting minutes, which indicated that some members think more stimulus might become desirable. That did put pressure on the dollar, though; the dollar shed 0.2% against a basket of foreign currencies.

The dollar's drop provided an extra boon to commodities and gave the CRB Commodity Index a 1.5% gain. Oil prices climbed 1.7% to finish pit trade at $83.18 per barrel. Prices had been up as high as $83.52 per barrel, a fresh 52-week high. More impressive, though, is that the high came after oil prices rallied from a modest loss, which was induced by news that crude oil inventories for the week that ended January 1 increased by 1.33 million barrels. The consensus had called for a 1 million barrel draw.

6:00PM Celanese announced that it will increase the price of all emulsions in North America effective Feb. 1, 2010, or as contracts allow (CE) 34.37 +0.37 :  

5:57PM Comsys IT Partners raises Q4 EPS and revs guidance above consensus (CITP) 9.14 -0.02 : Co raises Q4 EPS to $0.25-0.30 vs. First Call dual-analyst est of $0.17, up from prior $0.13-0.18; raises revs to $170-175 mln vs $164.3 First Call dual-analyst est, up from $161-166 mln. Co says, "The strengthening activity levels that we reported on in late October have continued through November and December, and we also expect to report a sequential increase in gross margins due to higher margins in our core staffing business and increased fee income in TAPFIN. As a result, earnings per share should be well above our previous range notwithstanding our continued spending in the fourth quarter on the business initiatives we have commented on throughout the year. Cash flow in the fourth quarter was also better than expected and we ended the year with less than $40 mln of debt."

5:49PM Tri-Valley CEO to hand over reins to President and COO (TIV) 2.09 +0.04 : Co announced another step in its management succession plan. Mr. F. Lynn Blystone will transfer his chief executive officer title and responsibilities to Maston N. Cunningham now president and chief operating officer on or before March 31, 2010. Cunningham, a 22 year veteran executive with various units of Occidental Petroleum, finished his Oxy career as president and general manager of Occidental Ecuador before taking early retirement. He joined Tri-Valley as vice president of corporate development in January, 2009 and was given increasing responsibilities in concert with the Company's management succession plan established by Mr. Blystone and the Tri-Valley Board of Directors.