YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A positive response to recent efforts to shore up Greece's fiscal woes helped stocks eek out their first weekly advance in seven weeks.

Both domestic equities and Europe's bourses bounced in response to news this morning that Greece has appointed a new finance minister and that German and French officials support quick implementation of plans to address the country's fiscal woes. However, Moody's reminded investors about the precarious fiscal conditions that exist among countries in the eurozone periphery by announcing that Italy's debt rating is on review for possible downgrade.

Although stocks were able to open on a strong note, support waned as the session progressed. The downward drift took the tech-rich Nasdaq to a modest loss, but the S&P 500 was able to sustain a modest gain, which proved to be enough to give the broad market average a weekly gain of less than one point. Still, that's the stock market's first weekly advance since April.

A 0.9% gain made financials the best performing sector of the session. Telecom, which advanced 0.8%, wasn't far behind. Energy and tech were at the other end of the spectrum; both sectors shed 0.3%. Energy was hurt by a 2% drop in oil prices to about $93 per barrel, while weakness in the tech sector was largely attributable to sharp losses among semiconductor stocks, which fell 1.4% as a group.

Research In Motion (RIMM 27.75, -7.58) was dumped aggressively today. The company's downside guidance took the stock to its lowest level in more than four years.

Participants were dealt a small dose of data today. The Consumer Sentiment Survey for June from the University of Michigan came in at 71.8, which is less than the reading of 73.5 that had been broadly expected among economists polled by Briefing.com. Leading Indicators for May increased by 0.8%, which is greater than the Briefing.com consensus call for a 0.4% increase.

Share volume surged this session, but not because investors rushed in from the sidelines. Rather, quadruple-witching options expiration increased the number of shares traded among regular participants.

Stocks have slipped toward session lows in response to headlines that suggest analysts at Moody's have put Italy's debt rating on review for possible downgrade. The announcement, which follows news of efforts to shore up Greece's finances, offers a blunt reminder of the precarious fiscal conditions that exist among countries in the eurozone periphery.

Commodities closed the week in mixed fashion as energy prices were pared, but precious metals pushed higher.

Oil prices were under pressure all session. The price of crude oil in the continuous contract came down by 2.0% so that the energy component closed pit trade just a penny above $93 per barrel. Natural gas prices had been up in the early going, but contracts inevitably closed with prices down 1.8% at $4.33 per MMBtu.

Precious metals had been weak early this morning, but were able to make a push higher and settle in positive territory. Specifically, gold gained 0.5% to end the day at $1538.10 per ounce, while silver settled at $35.77 per ounce to score a 0.6% gain.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+0.9%), Telecom (+0.8%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.7%), Consumer Staples (+0.6%), Utilities (+0.6%), Industrials (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.2%)
Unchanged: Materials
Declining Sectors: Energy (-0.3%), Tech (-0.3%)DJ30 +42.84 NASDAQ -7.22 NQ100 -0.3% R2K +0.1% SP400 +0.2% SP500 +3.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1294/2.40 bln/1241 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1867/1.60 bln/1121