YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Large-cap Tech helped lift the Nasdaq to a strong gain, but both the Dow and S&P 500 spent most of the session mired in choppy, lackluster trade.

Although Greece’s Athex 20 climbed more than 4% on Monday in response to early election polls that pointed to a preference for the country's pro-austerity party, market sentiment was generally softened by renewed worries related to precarious conditions in Spain. Such concerns dropped the country’s IBEX 35 for a 3% loss and took the yield on its 10-year Note back above 7%.

The notion that the Fed could announce another round of quantitative easing in a couple of days also did little to support broad market buying. It also failed to weaken the dollar. For the day, the dollar advanced about 0.4% against a basket of major foreign currencies. Most of that move was against the euro, which was down about 0.5% by the end of the trading day. Still, that’s only about half the size of the loss that the euro had suffered in the early going.

Gains by the greenback and concerns about softer demand sent oil prices to a new multi-month low of almost $82 per barrel this morning. The energy component managed to cut its loss so that it ended the day down 0.8% at $83.34 per barrel.

Lower oil prices combined with a downtrend in Energy shares took the Energy sector to a 0.8% loss today. No other sector performed as poorly.

Financials also acted as a drag, especially shares of diversified banks and financial services players. Altogether the Financial sector fell about 0.6%.

In contrast, a 0.6% gain by Tech made the sector second only to Consumer Discretionary in terms of performance. Large-cap Tech issues like Apple (AAPL 585.78, +11.65), eBay (EBAY 42.49, +1.82), and Google (GOOG 570.85, +6.34) were especially helpful in pushing the Nasdaq out in front of its two counterparts. However, not all Tech stocks were strong; aggressive selling against Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 21.05, -0.59) took the stock, which is not a Nasdaq member, back near its two-week low.

No corporate reports or economic data of consequence were released today. Monthly housing starts and building permits numbers will be released tomorrow morning.

Crude oil spent its entire pit session in negative territory. It dipped to a session low of $82.04 per barrel moments into pit trade then inched its way up to a session high of $83.87 per barrel. Crude pulled back into the close and settled the session with a 0.8% loss at $83.34 per barrel. Natural gas, on the other hand, climbed higher as its floor session progressed. It settled with a 6.5% gain at $2.63 per MMBtu, just below its session high of $2.64 per MMBtu.

Precious metals erased most of their early losses despite a stronger dollar. Gold came off its session low of $1613.50 per ounce set in morning action and even popped into the black to touch a session high of $1630.90 per ounce. The move was short-lived, though, as gold spent the afternoon chopping around just below the unchanged line before it settled 0.1% lower at $1626.70 per ounce. Silver fell as low as $28.25 per ounce in morning pit action, but worked its way up near the break-even level. It settled with a 0.2% loss at $28.66 per ounce.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Discretionary +0.7%, Tech +0.6%, Materials +0.5%, Health Care +0.5%, Utilities +0.4%, Telecom +0.2%, Industrials +0.2%, Consumer Staples +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Financials -0.6%, Energy -1.0%DJ30 -25.35 NASDAQ +22.53 NQ100 +0.8% R2K +0.2% SP400 +0.8% SP500 +1.94 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1275/1.58 bln/1253 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1775/707 mln/1233