YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Buyers stepped back in after watching the broader market fall more than 2% during the course of the prior session. Although headline risk related to social and political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa continues, the flow of news out of the region has been less unsettling to investors. That had a hand in dropping the Volatility Index, often euphemistically dubbed the Fear Gauge, for a 9.3% loss.

Despite the stock market's strong gain and the drop in volatility, Treasuries still managed to attract some buying interest. That sent the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note down to 3.412%.

All 10 of the stock market's major sectors staged gains this session, but financials and materisld were the best performers. They both swung to a 1.4% gain.

Energy lagged in the early going, but rallied in the afternoon to settle with a 1.2% gain. Its swing higher came after oil prices advanced 0.7% to settle at $97.97 per barrel. Though that makes for a solid gain, oil's trade today was less volatile than it had been in recent sessions.

Fourth quarter GDP was revised downward to reflect growth of 2.8% after the advance reading showed a 3.2% growth rate. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected, on average, growth of 3.3%. Despite the surprisingly large downward revision, participants continued to pursue stocks.

The final Consumer Sentiment Survey for February from the University of Michigan bolstered buying. It came in at 77.5, which is the best reading since January 2008.

Corporate news was still of little overall concern, but it caused some stock-specific swings. Autodesk (ADSK 42.75, +2.32) staged one of the strongest moves after it posted better-than-expected earnings.

Gap (GPS 22.75, +0.26) and J.C. Penney (JCP 34.16, -2.39) posted upside earnings surprises of their own and announced share repurchase plans. Gap complemented its report with a dividend hike. Despite that, retailers advanced a relatively tame 0.3%.

Participation hasn't been as strong today as it has in the past three sessions, when total share volume on the NYSE exceeded 1 billion shares with ease. DJ30 +61.95 NASDAQ +43.15 SP500 +13.80 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2023/1.62 bln/604 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2458/721.0 mln/526