YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Despite an early slide, stocks were able to settle with solid, broad gains Tuesday.

The major averages opened with narrow gains after a member of the Bank of England made the case for further monetary stimulus. The comments, along with speculation that European central banks will purchase troubled debt, helped relieve worries about sovereign debt.

However, sellers were quick to step into the action. Their efforts intensified with the September Consumer Confidence Index, which made a surprise drop to a seven-month low of 48.5.

The stock market attracted support as it came within close contact of its summer trading range top. Technical support provided a floor from which stocks could rebound, but a lack of actual leadership left stocks to spend most of the afternoon hugging the neutral line until a late spurt of buying helped stocks finish near their session highs.

Thanks to better-than-expected earnings, Walgreen (WAG 33.81, +3.46) was the best performer of the day. Its spike made for its best single-session performance in more than a year.

In contrast, Monsanto (MON 48.75, -4.32) was the worst performer of the day. Its dive came amid cautious comments about the company's seeds products and some negative numbers from an Australian agricultural chemical company. The stock weighed on the broader materials sector, which had lagged for most of the session and only mustered a fractional gain in the moments ahead of the close.

Though the broader market's overall gain was a bit restricted, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by 4-to-1. More upbeat were small-cap stocks, which helped the Russell 2000 advance 1.1%.

Treasuries had a strong session as the 30-year Bond climbed a full point, the 10-year Note tacked on 16 ticks, and the 5-year Note gained about eight ticks. Results from the latest 5-year Note auction drew a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.96, dollar demand of $103.6 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 50.1%. Though the latest auction saw slightly better demand than the sale did in August, dollar demand still was not that strong since it was the third lowest of the last twelve auctions.

The dollar dropped to a new seven-month low as the euro rallied 1.0% against the greenback. From its session low to its session high the euro swung 1.6% to end the day near $1.36.

The grains sector was the largest decliner in commodities today. It shed 2.4%. That selloff was led by a 3.1% drop in December wheat futures, which settled at $6.85 per bushel. December corn shed 2.5% to end at $5.00 per bushel.

Weakness in the dollar helped precious metals finish in positive territory. December gold gained 0.8% to settle at $1308.60 per ounce. It was another record day for the continuous gold contract, which set a fresh all time high at $1309.80 per ounce. December silver rallied from a marked loss to a 1.3% gain to end at $21.73 per ounce. The continuous silver contract traded to a fresh 30-year high at $21.65 per ounce.

As for energy, November crude oil settled higher by 0.4% to $76.18 per barrel, while November natural gas gained 1.2% to $3.95 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: Health Care (+0.9%), Consumer Staples (+0.8%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.8%), Energy (+0.8%), Industrials (+0.5%), Financials (+0.3%), Utilities (+0.2%), Tech (+0.1%), Telecom (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: (None)
Unchanged: MaterialsDJ30 +46.10 NASDAQ +9.82 NQ100 +0.1% R2K +1.1% SP400 +0.8% SP500 +5.54 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1760/2.14 bln/853 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2114/1.03 bln/870