YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Tech helped lead the Nasdaq to a strong gain, but the broader market finished only fractionally above the flat line.

Participants opted to take a breather after the aggressive bout of buying in the prior session. Action was also subdued as participants awaited the EFSF vote by Slovakia and traders showed continued concern about the specter of a default by Greece, despite the Troika's decision to make another disbursement of financial aid to flagging country.

A lack of enthusiasm in Europe also left the euro to drift lower. It eventually rebounded against the greenback to end the day with a marginal gain at $1.364.

The Nasdaq scored another solid gain with help from the tech sector, which ended the day with a 0.6% gain. That has the tech-rich Index at a 10-day high.

Alcoa (AA 10.30, +0.21) offered leadership to the Dow ahead of its latest quarterly report, which unofficially marks the start of earnings season, but the blue chip average stayed close to the flat line all session. The broad-based S&P 500 did the same.

Treasuries stayed under heavy pressure all session. That took the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note is up to almost 2.20%. Since the U.S. bond market was closed yesterday in observance of Columbus Day, Treasuries were left to price in the stock market's prior session surge, which was actually its best single-day jump since August. They didn't really benefit from results of a $32 billion auction of 3-year Notes. The auction drew a yield of 0.544% on a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.30. The indirect bidder participation rate came in at almost 38%.

It was a quiet session for the precious metals, as the markets continued to wait for the EFSF vote in Slovakia, the final and maybe most contested of the 17 EU members. Gold ended lower by 0.5% at $1661 per ounce, while silver finished up 0.3% at $32 per ounce.

Crude oil futures, which ended higher by 0.5% at $85.81 per barrel, also had a relatively quiet session. Futures were able to recoup overnight losses after the dollar gave up earlier gains. They traded to $86.64 in afternoon trade, but pulled back from those highs heading into the close. Natural gas ended up 1.9% at $3.61 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: Tech +0.6%, Industrials +0.4%, Consumer Discretionary +0.3%, Materials +0.2%, Energy +0.1%
Declining Sectors: Financials -0.1%, Consumer Staples -0.2%, Health Care -0.4%, Telecom -1.0%, Utilities -1.1%DJ30 -16.88 NASDAQ +16.98 NQ100 +0.7% R2K +0.6% SP400 +0.1% SP500 +0.65 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1527/1.66 bln/994 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1666/882 mln/1320