YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The major equity averages surrendered early gains to trade flat in early afternoon action, but leadership from the financial sector helped the broader market settle in positive territory.

Early support was helped by gains abroad, where participants in China took yesterday's news of another 25-basis point rate hike in stride upon their return from holiday. News of a successful debt offering by Portugal also helped perpetuate a positive tone. Much later in the day Portugal announced plans to request foreign financial aid.

The generally positive tone to morning trade benefited both blue chips and riskier small-cap stocks. In fact, the Dow extended its two-year high with help from Cisco (CSCO 18.07, +0.85), which scored its best single-session gain in nearly nine months. Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 Small-Cap Index achieved a record high with help from La-Z-Boy (LZB 10.92, +1.08) following an analyst upgrade, but fellow small-cap issue American Superconductor (AMSC 14.47, -10.41) plummeted more than 40% after the company cut guidance and announced that a key customer refused product delivery from the firm.

However, broad market buying interest wasn't strong enough to take the S&P 500 back through resistance at the 1340 line. That left stocks to drift lower before securing support near the neutral line.

Financials proved pivotal in lifting the broader market up from the flat line in afternoon trade. The sector achieved a 1.1% gain. NYSE Euronext (NYX 39.81, +0.83) was a top performer in the sector after it was reported that the firm has no interest a counter bid for Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ 28.83, +0.83), but gains among diversified financial plays had the most impact, due to their collective weight.

Even amid leadership from the highly influential financial sector, the overall market still achieved only a modest gain for the session. As a result, action this week continues to be largely range bound.

Despite the broader market's drift, Treasuries continue to come under pressure. In turn, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note is nearly at a one-month high of 3.55%.

Industrials (+1.3%) helped the CRB Commodity Index post gains today despite the fact that four of the six sectors posted losses on the session. Livestock (-1.5%) was the largest decliner.

Precious metals added 0.8% in session that saw gold trade to a new all-time high at $1467.40 per ounce, and silver trade to yet another 31 yr high at $39.785. Weakness in the dollar and the flight to safety pushed the metals higher today. June gold ended up 0.8% to $1436.90 per ounce, while silver closed higher by 0.7% to $37.85 per ounce.

This morning's inventory data sent May crude oil, which settled higher by 0.5% to $108.83, lower throughout the morning. It was able to rebound off its intraday lows to finish the day in positive territory. May natural gas ended lower by 1.9% to $4.15 per MMBtu, marking its fourth consecutive selloff.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.1%), Utilities (+0.8%), Tech (+0.7%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.2%), Industrials (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (-0.2%), Telecom (-0.6%), Materials (-0.8%), Energy (-0.9%)DJ30 +32.85 NASDAQ +8.63 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +0.1% SP400 +0.0% SP500 +2.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1520/2.00 bln/1094 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1690/884 mln/1270