YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Buyers fought off early selling efforts to help the market stage a steady climb that gave stocks their second straight session of strong gains. That has S&P 500 back in positive territory for the year.

The major averages started the session with gains on the order of 1%. Positive sentiment was underpinned by reports that Greece may abandon its eurozone bailout plan referendum in response to pressure from other countries as well as news that the European Central Bank became more accommodative by trimming its key lending rate by 25 basis points to 1.25%.

However, stocks failed to sustain early gains as the S&P 500 failed to display strength in the face of resistance near the 1250 line. All gains were given up before stocks began to bounce back. The S&P 500 continued to encounter resistance around the 1250 line before it ultimately pushed through. Momentum from the move took it back into positive territory for the year.

There wasn't a single sector that settled with a gain of less than 1%, but energy issues outperformed all session. They advanced 2.5% amid leadership from Alpha Natural Resources (ANR 27.11, +3.18), which rallied in response to an upside earnings surprise and an analyst upgrade.

Among the more widely held names that reported, Qualcomm (QCOM 56.11, +3.93) and CVS Caremark (CVS 37.31, +1.54) both exceeded earnings expectations, as did Dow component Kraft (KFT 35.78, +1.14).

Shares of retailers were slow to join the broad market's rally following a relatively mixed round of monthly same-store sales results. As a group, retailers only staged modest gains, as measured by the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 53.25, +0.26).

Data was given little attention today. Among the featured pieces, the ISM Services Index for October came in at 52.9, which is less than the 53.9 that had been broadly expected. Meanwhile, factory orders for September increased by 0.3%, which is a positive surprise since many had expected a 0.2% decline. Initial jobless claims for the week ended October 29 totaled 397,000, which is essentially in step with the Briefing.com consensus call for 401,000 initial claims.

Eyes were once again on the unfolding events in Greece. Markets also had to account for the ECB rate decision, released earlier this morning, which saw the bank cut interest rates by 25 bps. The uncertainty about what would happen in Greece caused precious metals to rally today. Gold futures posted gains of 1.9% top close at $1765.10 per ounce, while silver ended higher by 1.6% at $34.49 per ounce.

Natural gas, which settled higher by 0.9% at $3.78 per MMBtu, rallied on the back of this morning’s inventory data, which saw a slightly larger than expected build in inventories. Futures pulled back from session highs heading into afternoon trade to close at levels seen in overnight trade. Crude oil finished higher by 1.7% at $94.07 per barrel. Crude rallied on the ECB rate cut, as well as the strength in equities.

Advancing Sectors: Energy +2.5%, Industrials +2.5%, Tech +2.4%, Materials +2.1%, Financials +1.9%, Telecom +1.6%, Consumer Discretionary +1.3%, Consumer Staples +1.2%, Health Care +1.2%, Utilities +1.2%
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +208.43 NASDAQ +57.99 NQ100 +2.1% R2K +2.5% SP400 +2.4% SP500 +23.25 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1889/2.10 bln/652 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2354/1.05 bln/661