YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks settled with solid gains after spending the first part of the session mired near the neutral line. Natural resource plays provided leadership as commodities kicked higher.

An initially positive tone ahead of the open this morning was offset as Europe's major bourses moved lower amid concerns that Greece may need more bailout funding. The country's flagging finances earned its debt another downgrade by analysts at S&P. Greece's debt is now rated B/C with a Negative outlook.

Although stocks were flat for the first couple of hours of the session, buyers flocked back into commodities following their dive last week. Sharp selling last week caused the CRB Commodity Index to drop 9%, but it bounced to a 2.0% gain today. Oil prices led the way with a 5.4% advance to $102.55 per barrel.

Oil's rebound underpinned interest in the energy sector, which steadily outperformed for virtually the entire session. Energy stocks closed with a 1.6% gain, collectively. An appetite for natural resource plays helped basic materials stocks win favor. In turn, the materials sector staged a 1.5% gain.

The broader market was slow to follow the leadership of energy or materials stocks. In actuality, it didn't move higher until the dollar turned downward to trade with a loss. The dollar had been up with a solid gain in morning trade as participants pressured the euro in response to the Greece headlines, but the greenback gradually gave back its gain. Pressure caused the dollar to extend its slide so that it ended the session with a 0.4% loss against a basket of major foreign currencies.

Broad market strength failed to lift financials out of the red. The sector's 0.2% loss is mostly because bank stocks fell out of favor, giving the KBW Bank Index a 0.4% loss. No other sector settled in the red.

The absence of bellwethers and blue chips from the latest round of earnings announcements made for a relatively slow news day. Data were also lacking. The case is expected to be the same tomorrow.

Without any major headlines to trade, participation suffered. In turn, fewer than 800 million shares traded hands on the NYSE. That anemic number comes after a reverse split of Citigroup (C 44.16, -1.04), formerly the most frequently traded stocks by share volume, cut into the total.

June gold closed higher by 0.8% to finish at $1503.00 per ounce, while July silver rallied for 5.2% to end at $37.13 per ounce. Both metals rebounded today following last week's massive sell off in the commodities complex. Neither metal was affected by this morning's rally in the dollar, which was spurred by new that S&P had downgrade Greece.

June crude oil rallied for 5.4% to close at $102.55 per barrel. A surge in RBOB gasoline prices and reports of NATO warships bombing Misrata helped crude oil finish higher. June natural gas finished lower by 1.7% to close at $4.16 per MMBtu

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+1.6%), Materials (+1.5%), Health Care (+0.6%), Industrials (+0.4%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.3%), Tech (+0.2%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.2%), Utilities (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Financial (-0.2%)DJ30 +45.94 NASDAQ +15.69 NQ100 0.3% R2K 1.1% SP400 0.9% SP500 +6.09 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1710/1.64 bln/895 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2099/777 mln/906