YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks settled with narrow to modest gains after spending the session bouncing around under the beguile of oil, which pushed to a new two-year closing high amid ongoing geopolitical concerns related to the Middle East and North Africa.

Gradual buying helped stocks head higher in the first couple of hours of trade, but the tone deteriorated as oil attracted renewed interest. Traders had a muted response to bullish inventory data, but reports surfaced that Libyan fighter jets fired on the oil terminal city of Masra El Brega propeled prices in the continuous contract as high as $102.37 per barrel. They settled just off of that mark.

Oil's ability to hold its gain into the close of pit trade and even afterward in electronic trade undermined strength in the stock market, which had traded to afternoon highs only an hour before the close. Stocks drifted downward during the last leg of trade for a rather underwhelming finish.

Despite that, semiconductor stocks scored a 1.4% gain after analysts at JPMorgan upgraded the space. Retailers were relatively strong ahead of their monthly same-store results -- they collectively climbed 0.6%.

More stiff selling sent the Amex Airline Index down 0.9%, which comes on top of its 3.0% loss in the prior session. Higher oil prices remain the primary culprit.

Corporate news was of little concern to the overall market, but a stronger-than-expected ADP Employment Change attracted attention. The report indicated that private payrolls increased in February by 217,000, which is considerably greater than the increase of 163,000 that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com.

Although the positive ADP Change portends well for the official nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, Fed Chairman Bernanke reminded the House of Representatives during his semi-annual monetary policy testimony that unemployment remains stubbornly high.

That said, the Fed's latest Beige Book states that wage pressures remain steady, even though overall economic activity improved across the various Fed districts.

Despite an improving picture of economic activity and varied gains by stocks, precious metals continued to attract safety seekers. In turn, gold gained 0.6% to close pit trade at $1437.70 per ounce. Along the way it set a new all-time high of $1441.00 per ounce. Silver advanced 1.0% to finish at $34.82 per ounce after it notched a fresh 30-year high at $34.97.

Softs led the commodities complex higher today, posting a 1.4% gain. May sugar futures rallied 3.8% to close at $0.3038/pound, on news that JP Morgan reportedly takes delivery of nearly 1 mln tons of raw sugar.

Headline risk from the Middle East sent April WTI crude oil higher by 2.6% to $102.23 per barrel, marking its first close above the $100 level since late Sept of 2008. There were numerous unsubstantiated reports indicating that fighting in the oil terminal city of Masra El Brega had escalated. April natural gas shed 1% to close at $3.81 per MMBtu.

April gold settled higher by 0.6% to $1437.70 per ounce. It traded to a new all-time high at $1441.00 per ounce. May silver gained 1% to finish at $34.82 per ounce. It notched a fresh ~30 yr high at $34.97. Both metals moved higher again on a flight to safety as well as weakness in the dollar.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.5%), Tech (+0.5%), Industrials (+0.4%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.3%), Materials (+0.2%), Utilities (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Staples (-0.4%), Financial (-0.7%)DJ30 +8.78 NASDAQ +10.66 NQ100 +0.5% R2K +0.5% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +2.11 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1454/1.99 bln/1159 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1890/1.02 bln/1078