YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Traders were guided by Greece today. Concern that the country could default on its debt initially stirred aggressive selling, but headlines that the country is close to securing funding helped the major equity averages slash their losses.

The stock market rallied more than 5% last week, but participants wasted little time paring their positions amid reports that a meeting between officials from Greece failed to produce an austerity plan that would ensure the placement of financial support, which would help the country avoid a default. To little surprise, worries over what could come of the country's moribund finances sent most overseas markets lower.

Global banking plays, especially those with a strong presence in Europe, were hit especially hard by sellers. The bleeding wasn't quite as bad among American banks, but the KBW Bank Index still suffered a loss of almost 3%.

Tech stocks, which collectively represent the largest sector by market weight, tried to help the market trim its loss in afternoon trade. The sector's attempt to turn higher was more influential in the tech-rich Nasdaq, which was able to reduce its loss to about half of what the broad market had been grappling with.

The broad market didn't really begin to rally until the final hour, when headlines surfaced suggesting that Greece's finance minister said the country is close to a deal with the International Monetary Fund, European Union, and European Central Bank, which are being collectively labeled the troika. The market's move lost momentum into the close, but both the Dow and S&P 500 were able to settle with losses that were less than half of what they had suffered at session lows. The Nasdaq, which already had a leg up on its counterparts, actually pushed into positive territory before slipping back into the red.

The dollar had been up more than 1% against a basket of major foreign currencies in the early going, but it pulled back as some participants made a late rotation out of the reserve currency and back into stocks before the closing bell. Still, the dollar ended the trading day about 0.7% higher than where it began.

Treasuries also traded with strong gains, but settled shy of their highs. For a time, the benchmark 10-year Note was up more than a full point, but it still finished with a gain good enough to keep its yield below 2.0%.

Strength in the dollar dictated trade in commodities today, as concerns about the debt crisis in the euro zone continued. Precious metals remained pressured throughout the session. Gold futures notched lows at $1771 heading into the close, and ended just above those lows at $1778.90 per ounce, off 1.9%. Silver put in lows at $39.03 per ounce heading into the close and finished just above those lows, off 3.9% on the day.

Crude oil prices fell as well, shedding 2.6% to close at $85.78 per barrel. Futures put in lows at $84.79 heading into afternoon trade but managed to rebound close to a full point heading into the close. Natural gas finished higher by 0.5% at $3.83 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary
Declining Sectors: Tech -0.1%, Utilities -0.5%, Health Care -0.9%, Consumer Staples -0.9%, Industrials -0.9%, Telecom -1.1%, Materials -1.4%, Energy -1.5%, Financials -2.7%DJ30 -108.08 NASDAQ -9.48 NQ100 +0.1% R2K -1.7% SP400 -1.4% SP500 -11.92 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 563/1.89 bln/2040 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 674/908 mln/2321