YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A sharp rebound sent the S&P 500 back above its 50-day moving average, but the benchmark index couldn't quite make it to 1100, which marks a formidable point of resistance.

Stocks booked steep losses in the prior session as uncertainty undermined trade, but a rebound began to take shape in early morning futures trade as Europe's major bourses rallied amid a stronger-than-expected eurozone PMI reading and retail spending numbers for the United Kingdom. The euro also responded positively; it retraced its prior session slide to settle 1.1% higher against the greenback on Thursday.

In contrast to recent sessions, market participants appeared to cheer the latest round of earnings results, which featured more than 100 reports and were generally better-than-expected.

Some of the strongest gains were made by industrial plays, like Union Pacific (UNP 72.40, +3.28) and UPS (UPS 63.15, +3.14). Both bested expectations for the bottom line, but UPS complemented its report with an increased outlook.

Fellow industrial issues and Dow components 3M (MMM 84.75, +2.45) and Caterpillar (CAT 68.00, +1.13) also reported better-than-expected bottom line results. 3M also issued upside guidance, while CAT raised its forecast so that it is in step with what Wall Street has forecast.

Among other blue chips, AT&T (T 25.51, +0.59) posted an upside surprise and raised its outlook, but and Travelers (TRV 49.29, -0.58) came short of the consensus earnings estimate and even cut its forecast.

A battery of regional banks was also out with earnings. SunTrust Banks (STI 24.58, +2.16), Fifth Third (FITB 12.43, +1.15), KeyCorp (KEY 7.95, +0.41), PNC Bank (PNC 59.78, +1.24), and Huntington Banc (HBAN 5.85, +0.18) each beat, but BB&T Corp (BBT 25.34, -0.57) was a let down.

Banks will likely remain in close focus tomorrow, when results from a series of stress tests on European banks will be released.

Health care stocks generally lagged throughout the session, even though both Eli Lilly (LLY 35.15, +0.20) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY 24.93, +0.18) beat earnings expectations.

Nonetheless, all 10 major sectors advanced. Most had heady gains. That helped the S&P 500 sprint past its 50-day moving average, but stocks struggled to push the move to within reach of the 1100 line.

Once again, trading volume wasn't very impressive. It came short of 1.2 billion shares on the NYSE, which has averaged almost 1.4 billion shares per session during the past 50 trading days.

Fed Chairman Bernanke triggered selling in the prior session, when he spoke of unusual uncertainty in the economy before the Senate Banking Committee, but his comments to the House Financial Services Committee today had no real impact on trade since they were consistent with what he had already stated. Interestingly enough, his comments generally reflected what had already been indicated by the minutes from the latest FOMC meeting.

It was a sizeable up day for the CRB Commodity Index, which rallied for 2%. Energy was the leading index after it rallied for 3.3%, led by a 3.6% gain in Sept heating oil futures. The rally in equity indices, helped by better-than-expected earnings out of blue chips and some better-than-expected economic data in Europe, pushed Sept crude oil to put in highs at $79.42, its best levels since May 6. It finished the session higher by 3.6% to $79.30 per barrel. August natural gas finished higher by 2.7% to $4.634 per MMBtu. A tropical depression projected to head into the Gulf of Mexico helped natural gas futures higher.

Aug gold finished higher by 0.3% to $1195.60 per ounce, while Sept silver closed up 1.8% to $18.12.

Keeping a focus on the economy, the latest initial jobless claims count climbed 37,000 week-over-week to 464,000, which is more than the 445,000 initial claims that had been widely expected. Continuing claims dropped 223,000 week-over-week to just below 4.49 million, but that is likely due to the expiration of jobless benefits. To help support unemployed workers, the House approved today a bill to extend jobless benefits.

As for housing, existing home sales for June fell 5.1% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 5.37 million units. That is a better rate than the 5.09 million units that had been widely expected. News that total months supply climbed to 8.9 from 8.3 was disregarded.

Leading indicators for June got little attention. They reportedly slipped 0.2%, which is slightly less severe than the 0.4% decline that had been widely expected.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+3.1%), Industrials (+3.1%), Consumer Discretionary (+3.1%), Tech (+2.7%), Materials (+2.3%), Energy (+2.2%), Telecom (+2.0%), Utilities (+1.6%), Consumer Staples (+0.9%), Health Care (+0.5%)
Declining Sectors: (None) DJ30 +201.77 NASDAQ +58.56 NQ100 +2.5% R2K +3.7% SP400 +2.9% SP500 +24.08 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2206/2.27 bln/432 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2673/1.18 bln/396