YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks spent this morning stuck in listless trade, but they managed to settle with decent gains after natural resource plays provided an afternoon lift.

Early trade was entirely lackluster as participants processed the latest round of earnings results. Several financial players posted results, but most attention was paid to Goldman Sachs (GS 151.86, -1.92) and U.S. Bancorp (USB 25.25, -0.31). Although both exceeded earnings expectations, each succumbed to selling. Shares of GS only trimmed losses after they attracted support near the $150 mark, which made for a multi-month low.

Texas Instruments (TXN 34.54, -0.25) was also clipped. News of its earnings miss first broke last evening. In turn, semiconductor stocks in Asia shared in the company's disappointment during overnight trade. The company also made note during its conference call that earthquakes in Japan took their toll on operations.

Data from abroad featured a mixed bag of PMI Services and Manufacturing readings, but domestic data was limited to monthly housing starts and building permits. Housing starts for March improved to an annualized rate of 549,000, which is greater than the rate of 520,000 units that had been broadly expected. Building permits improved to an annualized rate of 594,000, which is greater than the 540,000 building permit rate that had been forecasted, on average, by economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

Building materials stocks benefited from that news. They combined with steel stocks, which bounced on the back of better-than-expected results from Steel Dynamics (STLD 18.46, +1.00), to drive the overall materials sector to a 1.8% gain.

Though not quite as impressive, energy stocks scored a collective gain of 1.1%. Oil services stocks were leaders in the energy space as they rebounded from the prior session's slide.

Health care stocks and industrial stocks weren't too far behind energy. Both sectors put together a 0.9% gain. Health care was led by Dow component Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 62.69, +2.23), which won strong support after it posted a better-than-expected bottom line and issued an improved outlook. PACCAR (PCAR 52.19, +1.88) was a top performing industrial play after it reported its own quarterly results.

June gold finished higher by 0.1% to $1494.20 per ounce, while May silver gained 2.1% to finish at $43.745 per ounce. Both metals rallied on a continued flight to safety over sovereign debt concerns, strength in crude oil, as well as weakness in the dollar. Gold rallied to a new all time high at $1500.05, while silver once again notched fresh ~31 yr highs at $43.97.

June crude oil, the new front month contract, finished higher by 0.4% to $108.24 per barrel. It recouped overnight losses to finish with modest gains, helped by weakness in the dollar. May natural gas finished higher by 3.1% to $4.26 per MMBtu, helped by cooler than average temperatures across the country.

Advancing Sectors: Materials (+1.8%), Energy (+1.1%), Health Care (+0.9%), Industrials (+0.9%), Tech (+0.4%),Financials (+0.4%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.2%)
Unchanged: Utilities
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-0.1%)DJ30 +65.16 NASDAQ +9.59 NQ100 +0.6% R2K +0.2% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +7.48 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1304/1.67 bln/1278 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2006/847 mln/980