YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The mood among market participants was dampened by a mixed bag of data, but the S&P 500 managed to swing to a slight gain on the back of a late spike by financials and energy plays.

Stocks spent almost the entire session in the red and were even down more than 1% at their lows, which were set after the Philadelphia Fed Index for July made an unexpected decline. Other data was more mixed as a lower-than-expected initial jobless claims count was overshadowed by a sharp climb in continuing jobless claims and a disappointing Empire Manufacturing Index was balanced by an in-line industrial production figure. There was a sharper-than-expected slide in overall producer prices, though.

Financial stocks had been down 2% after market participants refused to be inspired by Dow component JPMorgan (JPM 40.46, +0.11), which posted this morning better-than-expected earnings from earnings that were helped by a massive reduction in loan loss reserves.

However, the sector slashed its losses to finish the session down just 0.1% after CNBC reported that the SEC will make a significant announcement in regard to Goldman Sachs (GS 145.22, +6.16). Many believe that investigations of Goldman Sachs have been settled.

Meanwhile, embattled BP (BP 38.92, +2.74) got a late bid as reports surfaced that there is no flow going into the gulf after the start of a well test. Energy stocks finished with a fractional gain after they had been down close to 2% earlier in the day.

Stocks seemed to shrug off continued strength in the euro, which is currently spiked 1.6% against the greenback to set a fresh two-month high.

Though the euro was strong, Europe's major bourses booked steep losses. Asia's major market averages had also moved sharply lower overnight. China announced a hefty 10.3% year-over-year increase in its first quarter GDP, but that was slightly below what had been widely expected.

Gains once again led the CRB Commodity Index higher today after they posted a 3.8% gain. Sept wheat rallied for 6.7% to settle at $5.96 per bushel.

The energy sector was the second largest gainer on the day after it finished up 1.2%. August natural gas futures rallied for 6.6% to close at $4.59 per MMBtu. The catalyst for today's rally was this morning's inventory data, which showed a build of 78 bcf vs the consensus build of 80 bcf. August crude oil had a quiet session as it closed lower by 0.5% to $76.62.

It was another uneventful session for precious metals as the sector finished higher by 0.2%. August gold ended higher by 0.1% to $1208.30 per ounce and September silver gained 0.2% to finish at $18.362.

Advancing Sectors: Utilities (+0.6%), Health Care (+0.4%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.2%), Tech (+0.1%), Telecom (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.1%), Materials (-0.1%), Industrials (-0.1%)
Unchanged: Energy DJ30 -7.41 NASDAQ -0.76 NQ100 +0.1% R2K -0.9% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +1.31 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 865/1.98 bln/1756 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1459/1.12 bln/1523