YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks faltered after fighting through premarket selling pressure before a late rebound effort made for a mixed finish.

The mood among premarket participants this morning was hurt by ongoing concerns related to the fiscal, social, and political troubles of Greece. The same themes weighed heavily on Europe's major bourses, which were all down 1% or more before eventually improving their position in the later part of the session.

The tone ahead of the open turned positive with the release of some encouraging data, though. The latest initial jobless claims tally came in at 414,000, which is less than the 421,000 initial claims that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. It was the first time in several weeks that the count was actually less than what had been widely expected.

There was also positive news from the downtrodden housing industry. According to data, housing starts during May hit an annualized rate of 560,000, while building permits came in at a clip of 612,000. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com had called for a rate of 540,000 housing starts and 548,000 building permits.

Buying interest was tested shortly after the open by an ugly Philadelphia Fed Survey. The Survey slumped to -7.7 in June, after it had been at 3.9 in the prior month. Many economists had expected that the Survey would improve to 7.0.

Some knee-jerk selling followed the release of the Philly Survey, but stocks quickly bounced back. However, the major averages struggled to extend the move. The failure to attract additional buying interest made stocks susceptible to further selling interest, which took the broad market to a new three-month intraday low before buyers started to step back in.

Leadership was either lacking or inconsistent throughout the session. Financials had attempted to stage a couple of bounces after underperforming in each of the past two sessions before it finished with a 0.5% gain. Utilities and consumer staples, both of which are without much market weight, tied for the strongest gains of any major sector by advancing 0.8%. Materials stocks fell 0.9% to finish the day as the worst performing sector.

Concerns about the implications of Greece's precarious situation on the rest of the eurozone weighed on the euro this morning. That helped drive the Dollar Index to its best level in about three. The dollar gave up its gain as the session progressed and eventually finished the day with a 0.1% loss against a basket of major foreign currencies.

Even though the tone of trade today was much improved from that of the prior session, volatility among stocks sent the Volatility Index up to its highest level in about three months.

Increased volatility helped keep traders interested in Treasuries. Buying therein took the yield on the 2-year Note to a record low near 0.30% this morning. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Note hit a multi-month low near about 2.90% in afternoon action.

It was a substantially quieter day in the commodities markets as participants took a wait-and-see approach to the events unfolding in Greece. August gold finished higher by 0.3% to $1529.90 per ounce, while July silver added 0.3% to close at $35.50 per ounce. Both metals spent the session chopping around the flat line as they reacted to the fluctuations in the dollar/euro.

Trade in July crude oil, which closed higher by 0.2% to $94.95 per barrel, was similar to that of the precious metals, as traders balanced this morning's econ data with events going on in Europe and movement in the euro/dollar. July natural gas fell 3.6% to close at $4.42 per MMBtu. This morning's inventory data, which was more-or-less inline with expectations acted as the catalyst for today's move to the downside.

Advancing Sectors: Utilities +0.8%, Consumer staples +0.8%, Financials +0.6%, Energy +0.3%, Industrials +0.3%, Telecom +0.2%, Health Care +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Consumer discretionary -0.2%, Tech -0.3%, Materials -0.9%DJ30 +64.25 NASDAQ -7.76 NQ100 -0.4% R2K +0.3% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +2.22 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1299/1.97 bln/1171 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1367/1.05 bln/1637