YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Better-than-expected earnings from industry majors and economic bellwethers like IBM (IBM 115.42, +4.78), Google (GOOG 430.25, -12.35), Bank of America (BAC 12.89, -0.28), Citigroup (C 3.02, -0.01), and General Electric (GE 11.65, -0.75) couldn't dissuade participants from taking a breather after the stock market's recent run. That led to a fractional loss for the S&P 500, its first in five sessions, but the Dow was able to log its fifth straight gain while the Nasdaq made its eighth straight advance.

Even as participants digested earnings reports from several widely held companies stocks traded listlessly within a narrow trading range of just seven points. However, the sideways action did help the S&P 500 succeed in making its first weekly advance in more than one month. It climbed 7% this week.

Not even options expirations could induce volatility. Expected volatility also remains low, which has the Volatility Index, or VIX, trading below 25, near 10-month lows.

Trading volume didn't really pick up as a result of options expirations, either. Fewer than 1 billion shares exchanged hands on the NYSE this session. That's well below the 50-day moving average of 1.3 billion.

Tech was the session's best performing sector. It advanced 1.0% amid follow-through buying. The sector's strength started early this week when a thoroughly impressive report from Intel (INTC 18.79, +0.29) attracted buyers. Many pundits believe that continued strength among tech stocks will provide the leadership necessary to take the broader market higher. The stock market has already climbed to its best level in one month.

On an individual basis, some of this session's best gains were had by CIT Group (CIT 0.70, +0.29), which surged amid reports that the company is in talks to stave off bankruptcy by securing financing with Goldman Sachs (GS 156.84, unch.) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 36.89, +0.76).

Homebuilders (+2.3%) and home improvement retailers (+1.3%) made solid gains of their own amid news that housing starts and building permits data for June came in higher than expected. Still, annualized starts of 582,000 are roughly half of what they were one year ago.

On the other side of things, industrials showed weakness for the entire session. They finished with a 1.5% loss, worse than any other major sector. DJ30 +32.12 NASDAQ +1.58 NQ100 +0.6% R2K -0.5% SP400 -0.3% SP500 -0.36 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1097/1.90 bln/1534 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1438/916 mln/1499