YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A lack of leadership left stocks to roll over this morning, but buyers provided an afternoon lift that helped the major averages settle near session highs with solid gains.

The mood this morning was relatively mixed as market participants ruminated over the implications of a resignation by Greece Prime Minister Papandreou. Last week the Papandreou unnerved many officials, and markets for that matter, by proposing a referendum for the country's bailout package. It is expected that a new prime minister will be named tomorrow. The future of Italy's prime minister was questioned this morning.

Rumors about his possible resignation came amid concerns about the country's fiscal and financial conditions, which continue to drive yields on the Italian debt to new heights. Italy canceled an auction of short-term Notes that was scheduled for later this week.

Although the primary market averages of Italy and Greece scored gains of 1.3% and 1.7%, respectively, the rest of the region failed to find inspiration from those headlines. In turn, the EuroStoxx 50 fell 0.7% in its first session of the new week. For that matter, many of Asia's major averages were weak in overnight trade.

Despite the generally weak action abroad, domestic stocks attempted to trade higher in the opening minutes of trade. Energy issues offered early leadership, but it proved fleeting as the sector inevitably rolled over alongside the rest of the market.

There wasn't any specific headline that brought buyers back into the fold, but the rally by stocks began around the same time that the euro rebounded against the greenback. Even then there weren't any individual leaders, but the Dow still bounced almost 200 points from its low to its high. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq was able to offset a 1% loss.

Although the climb continued right up until the close, share volume was quite paltry, suggesting that there wasn't a great deal of conviction underlying the bidding. By day's end, less than 800 million shares had been traded on the NYSE. Outside of averages, 1 billion shares often makes for a convenient benchmark for share volume and participation.

The focus of commodity markets was once again the European debt crisis. Focus shifted, momentarily, from Greece to Italy and whether or not the Italian Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, will step down. The continued uncertainty about what is happening in the Eurozone sent precious metals higher in a flight to safety. Gold futures rallied for 1.9% to close at $1791 per ounce, while silver futures ended up 2.2% at $34.83 per ounce.

It was a relatively quiet session for crude oil futures, which settled higher by 1.3% at $95.52 per barrel. Prices traded in a ~50 cent range for a majority of the session, but managed to catch a bid heading into the close to finish with gains of 1.3%. Dec natural gas ended lower by 2.2% at $3.70.

Advancing Sectors: Health Care +1.2%, Telecom +0.8%, Materials +0.8%, Energy +0.7%, Consumer Staples +0.7%, Tech +0.7%, Utilities +0.6%, Consumer Discretionary +0.5%, Financials +0.4%, Industrials +0.2%
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +85.15 NASDAQ +9.10 NQ100 +0.6% R2K -0.2% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +7.89 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1091/1.71 bln/1437 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1638/783 mln/1329