YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Better-than-expected earnings and upside guidance from tech bellwether Intel drove the Dow and Nasdaq higher for the seventh straight session, but the S&P 500 settled fractionally below the neutral line for an anticlimactic end to its recent streak of gains.

A stellar report from Dow component Intel (INTC 21.36, +0.35) provided investors with a picture of an improved business environment and sent tech stocks to a 0.8% gain, collectively. The tech sector couldn't quite extend its gain above its 200-day moving average, though.

Meanwhile, the tech-rich Nasdaq outperformed the broader market for almost all of the session as the S&P 500 was mired in choppy, mixed trade. Broader market participants failed to rally around Intel's announcement. Their lack of interest was partly owed to the notion that the stock market had become overbought after it had advanced in six straight sessions for a cumulative gain of more than 7%.

Financials weighed on the broader market for the entire session. As a group they fell to a 0.9% loss as bank stocks showed weakness ahead of a quarterly report from Dow component and banking bellwether JPMorgan (JPM 40.35, -0.13) Thursday morning. The KBW Bank Index dropped 1.6%.

Economic data did little to help extend the recent buying effort. After all, the latest FOMC meeting minutes indicated that real GDP for 2010 is now expected to range from 3.0% to 3.5%, which is down from the previous range of 3.2% to 3.7%, while the projection for 2011 GDP ranges from 3.5% to 4.2% after it had previously ranged from 3.4% to 4.5%.

As for unemployment, the 2010 projection rate ranges from 9.2% to 9.5% after it had ranged from 9.1% to 9.5%. The expected unemployment rate for 2011 ranges from 8.3% to 8.7% after it had ranged from 8.0% to 8.5% before.

FOMC members agreed that it would be appropriate to keep the target federal funds rate at a range of 0.00% to 0.25%.

Advance Retail Sales for June fell a sharper-than-expected 0.5% and sales less autos slipped 0.1% when no change had been expected.

Import prices for June fell 1.3% month-over-month after a 0.5% monthly decline in May.

Business inventory data for May increased by 0.1%, which is slightly softer than the 0.2% increase that had been widely expected.

Results from the latest 30-year Treasury Bond auction saw strong dollar demand of $37.6 billion and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.9. Indirect bidder participation was 37%. The prior auction saw dollar demand of $37.3 billion and a bid-to-cover of 2.9 and indirect bidder participation of 36%.

Treasuries didn't make much of an immediate response to the numbers, but they were able to settle with strong gains, such that the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note moved below 3.05% and the yield on the 30-year Bond moved closer to 4.00%.

Today's modest (0.1%) gains in the CRB Commodity Index were led by the 1.7% rally in grains. Sept corn futures closed the session higher by 2.4% to $3.84 per bushel.

The precious metals sector had a relatively choppy session, as it closed higher by 0.1%. Aug gold shed 0.3% to finish at $1207.00 per ounce, while Sept silver closed up 0.5% to $18.29 per ounce. Both metals retraced their mid-morning rallies -spurred by weakness in the dollar index- to close near the flat line.

This morning's inventory data was a non-event for Aug crude oil, which finished lower by 0.1% to $77.04 per barrel. Aug natural gas had another very quiet session as it chopped around the flat line. It closed lower by 0.8% to $4.32 per MMBtu.

The euro managed to swing from a loss to fractionally improved two-month high against the greenback, but it eased back a bit to settle the session with a 0.1% gain.

Participation was underwhelming as hardly 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE. The 50-day moving average stands between 1.4 billion and 1.5 billion shares per session.

Advancing Sectors: Tech (+0.8%), Industrials (+0.2%), Consumer Staples (+0.2%), Health Care (+0.1%), Materials (+0.1%), Telecom (+0.1%), Utilities (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.9%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.5%), Energy (-0.3%) DJ30 +3.70 NASDAQ +7.81 NQ100 +0.5% R2K -0.4% SP400 -0.2% SP500 -0.17 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1092/2.16 bln/1505 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1331/1.06 bln/1629