YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Renewed concerns about the fiscal future of Greece caused stocks to wobble before some broad buying gave the major equity averages some solid gains in afternoon action. Although some sellers tried to fade the advance in the final hour of trade, stocks were still able to settle with solid gains.

With European Union finance ministers calling on Greece to pass new austerity measures and the country's prime minister losing confidence, participants were inclined to sell stocks this morning. The euro was also put under pressure; it fell more than half of a percent against the greenback before it rallied back for a fractional gain.

Stocks also garnered support as traders showed a willingness to brush aside concerns related to Greece. Buying became broad in that nine of the 10 major sectors traded with solid gains for most of the session. Financials made up the only major sector that split its time between positive and negative territory before the group settled with a slight loss.

Financials recovered from morning losses for a time, but the sector was ultimately weighed down by a bevy of investment banks and diversified financial services stocks that had their targets and estimates cut by analysts at Citigroup. PNC Financial (PNC 56.66, -1.13) was actually one of the worst plays in the financial space following news that it will pay about $3.5 billion for the U.S. retail banking operations of RBC.

An empty economic calendar may have cut into the number of cues available to traders, but that has helped direct focus toward the FOMC's mid-week policy statement. The statement takes on added significance with the expiration of the Fed's second round of quantitative easing sets to expire soon. World markets are also wondering what the Fed has planned amid the precarious conditions that currently loom over countries in the eurozone periphery.

It was a relatively quiet session for commodities, as the dollar chopped around the flat line. July crude oil finished up 0.3% to $93.26 per barrel. It recouped overnight losses after the dollar gave back its overnight gains, but was unable to extend that rebound much above the flat line, closing with modest gains. July natural gas ended up 0.2% to $4.33 per MMBtu.

August gold ended higher by 0.2% to $1542 per ounce, while July silver closed up 0.8% to $36.03 per ounce. Both metals spent most of the session chopping around the flat line. They eventually traded into positive territory, but were unable to take out earlier highs and finished with modest gains on the session.

Advancing Sectors: Health Care (+1.0%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.9%), Materials (+0.8%), Industrials (+0.8%), Consumer Staples (+0.7%), Telecom (+0.6%), Utilities (+0.6%), Energy (+0.4%), Tech (+0.3%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.1%)DJ30 +76.02 NASDAQ +13.18 NQ100 +0.5% R2K +0.9% SP400 +0.8% SP500 +6.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1451/1.64 bln/1104 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2029/786 mln/967