U.S. MARKET AVERAGES

So far in the first week of trading tech stocks are leading the advances. Nasdaq market average rose today and for the week led by Internet and semiconductor stocks.

Samsung announced this morning that it plans to raise DRAM prices in January by 10% indicating strong demand in January of this year. Semiconductor stocks and specifically stocks of flash memory rallied during the day led by rise of $4.92 in Sandisk. The flash memory maker Sandisk is up more than $10 during the first week of trading.

Internet stocks caught fire with Goldman Sachs upgrading Yahoo and Google shares. Goldman raised ‘implied value’ for Google shares to $500 and raised earnings estimates for Yahoo Inc.

Labor Department reported December payroll advance by 108,000 about half the 200,000 forecast by economists led traders to believe that Fed’s campaign to raise interest rate may end soon. Hourly wages jumped 0.3% for the month and unemployment rate fell to 4.9%.

Energy stocks advanced today as crude oil and natural gas rose in the session. Crude jumped by 2% and natural gas closed up hugging $10 level.


MOVERS AND SHAKERS

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM: chart) announced a plan to freeze its current pension plan in order to save millions of dollars. The stock gained 1.9%.

Goldman Sachs raised its implied value estimates for Google Inc. (GOOG: chart) to $500 from $400 on higher earning expectation. The stock rose 3.2%.

CalAmp Corp (CAMP: chart), wireless equipment company, reported Q3 earnings of $5.44 million, or 23 cents a share, compared with $1.79 million, or 8 cents a share a year ago, exceeding estimates of 19 cents a share. However, the reported quarterly revenue of $64.5 million, compared with $57.1 million last year, came below expectations of $65 million. The company’s shares dropped 10%.

Avanex Corp (AVNX: chart) cut its estimate for Q2 revenue to a range of $35 million to $37 million from its previous expectation of $41 million to $45 million, reflecting the company''s closure of its Erwin Park, N.Y., manufacturing facility in early December and transfer of manufacturing to a contract manufacturer. The stock dropped 18.5%.

ECONOMIC NEWS

The Department of Labor released its closely watched report on U.S. employment in the month of December on Friday, showing weaker than expected growth. At the same time, the report also showed a significant upward revision to November employment growth.

The report showed that the U.S. economy added 108,000 jobs in December following an upwardly revised increase of 305,000 jobs in November. Economists had been expecting jobs to increase by 215,000, which would have matched the increase previously reported for November.

The Labor Dept. noted that the increase in December reflected gains in manufacturing, health care, food services and drinking places, and professional and business services. A decrease in employment in the transportation and warehousing industry helped to offset the gains.

The report also showed that the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 4.9 percent in December from 5.0 percent in November. The decrease in the unemployment rate came as some people left the labor market.

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS NEWS

Most Asian-Pacific benchmarks rallied, continuing a week-long winning streak on the back of strong tech shares and growing optimism about strong Japanese corporate results in 2006. South Korea’s Kospi hit an all-time high of 1.2% to 1,412.79 with Samsung Electronics, up 1.3%. Shanghai Composite rose 1%, while the Nikkei reached a five-year high of 16,428.21. Hong Kong ended up 0.5% on property and banking stocks.

European stocks closed in the positive, reaching new highs, lifted by strong tech stocks and U.S. payrolls data. The German DAX 30 rose 0.4%, the French CAC 40 gained 0.7%, and London’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.7%. The euro climbed 0.4% to $1.2156.