YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks settled shy of their session highs, but still booked big gains on the day. Not only did that free the broad market from its recent funk, but it gave stocks one of their best performances in the past couple of weeks.

In the early going market participants maintained their bullish bias in the face of a relatively disappointing ADP Employment Change. The report suggested that private payrolls increased by 170,000 in January, rather than by 200,000, as had been broadly expected. The report is widely regarded as a preview of the official payrolls report that is due Friday.

Positive sentiment in Europe was a primary underpinning of the stock market's early strength. Market participants made note of a successful debt offering from financially precarious Portugal. While mixed manufacturing data from China was shrugged off by many, news that a handful of PMI Manufacturing readings from the eurozone made incremental improvements were also regarded as a positive. Notably, a compromise with creditors continues to elude Greece.

Strength in the euro reflected sentiment in Europe. It led the greenback for the entire session and was up about 0.5% as of the closing bell.

Morning trade got a little choppy with the release of the latest ISM Manufacturing Index and some monthly construction spending numbers. The ISM Manufacturing Index improved in January to 54.1 from 53.1 in the prior month, but many had expected it to make a slightly stronger climb to 54.5. Construction spending during December increased by 1.5%, which is far better than the 0.4% that had been expected. Spending in the prior month had increased by 0.4%.

Leadership from financials helped lift the broader market. The sector climbed to a gain greater than 2% before momentum stalled. As a group, financials finished with a 1.7% gain, which is better than what any other sector achieved.

The S&P 500 also drifted lower in afternoon trade, but before doing so it came in contact with the 1330 line, which stands just a few points below the 52-week intraday high that it set last week.

Earnings, generally positive overall, provided an encouraging backdrop to trade today. Seagate Tech (STX 25.53, +4.39) surged in response to an upside earnings surprise and strong guidance. Fellow tech play Broadcom (BRCM 37.13, +2.78) also attracted strong buying interest on the back of a better-than-expected earnings report. Whirlpool (WHR 61.64, +7.32) shares set a new multi-month high in response to an upside earnings surprise of their own.

Amazon.com (AMZN 179.46, -14.98) failed to attracted buyers following its quarterly report. The company's bottom-line beat was overshadowed by a light revenue figure and a disappointing forecast. Even with AMZN shares in such weak shape the Nasdaq managed to outperform its counterparts. Still, its performance still wasn't as strong as that of either the Russell 2000 or the S&P 400, which climbed 1.7% and 1.8%, respectively.

Weakness in the energy complex left the CRB Index to fall another 0.3% today. It is now down 2.0% week to date.

Oil prices failed to sustain the buying interest that boosted prices at the beginning of pit trade. They suffered a late session slide that resulted in a loss of 0.8% as prices settled at $97.54 per barrel. Natural gas spent the entire session wrestling with aggressive selling pressure; they settled at $2.38 per MMBtu for a 4.8% loss.

Precious metals performed well, though. Specifically, gold gained 0.6% to close pit trade at $1747.10 per ounce. Silver settled with a 1.5% gain at $33.77 per ounce.

Advancing Sectors: Financials +1.7%, Industrials +1.1%, Materials +1.1%, Health Care +1.0%, Tech 0.9%, Consumer Staples +0.8%, Telecom +0.7%, Energy +0.5%, Utilities +0.4%, Consumer Discretionary +0.3%
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +83.55 NASDAQ +34.43 NQ100 0.9% R2K +1.7% SP400 +1.8% SP500 +11.67 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1939/2.11 bln/605 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2504/893 mln/521