YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Broad-based buying helped both the Dow and the Nasdaq Composite close above their 50-day moving averages for the first time in almost one month, but the S&P 500 was met with resistance as it encountered the technical hurdle. Nonetheless, stocks still booked their third straight gain.

Stocks chopped along in a tight trading range for the first part of the session as participants tried to take their cues from fluctuations in the dollar. Relative to a basket of foreign currencies, the greenback oscillated between a gain of 0.4% and a loss of 0.2% before it settled with a fractional loss.

Though the dollar's final pullback brought buyers into the market, there didn't appear to be much conviction behind the move. In fact, fewer than 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE this session. It marked the most thinly traded session in one month.

Still, stocks were able to make to make a broad-based advance that saw advancing issues outnumber decliners by 3-to-1 in the S&P 500. Despite such positive market breadth, the S&P 500 couldn't push through its 50-day moving average, which stands at 1108. The line also marks an approximate 60% retracement of the stock market's slide from its January high to its February low. The line will almost certainly come back into play tomorrow.

Materials stocks (+1.2%) were the best performers of the session as gold stocks (+2.5%) bounced on better-than-expected earnings from Barrick Gold (ABX 39.23, +1.37) and Kinross Gold (KGC 18.86, +0.36). Steel stocks (+2.7%) were helped by an upgrade of Nucor (NUE 43.62, +1.18) by analysts at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 50.81, +0.69) helped the tech sector make its way to a 0.8% gain, thanks to better-than-expected earnings and upside guidance, but it wasn't much of a leader for the broader market.

Wal-Mart (WMT 53.47, -0.59) also failed to inspire. The retail giant posted better-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter and issued in-line guidance, but its fourth quarter U.S. comparable store sales fell more than expected.

Despite listless action among stocks and lack of conviction among participants, the stock market was still able to shrug off a flurry of disappointing data.

Specifically, weekly jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 13 totaled 473,000. That was up 31,000 from the previous week and worse than the 438,000 claims that had been widely forecast. Continuing claims came in at 4.56 million, which is unchanged from the previous week, but a bit worse than the 4.50 million continuing claims that many had come to expect.

The Producer Price Index for January spiked 1.4% month-over-month, which is sharper than the 0.8% increase that had been expected. Excluding food and energy, producer prices increased 0.3% month-over-month, which is a more rapid clip than the 0.1% monthly increase that had been expected after the core measure of producer prices was flat in the prior month.

Meanwhile, leading indicators increased 0.3% in January, but the pickup wasn't as strong as the 0.5% increase that was expected. It also marked a sharp pullback from the 1.2% increase that was posted in the prior month.

The Philadelphia Fed Index for February was the only economic report that exceeded expectations. It came in at 17.6, which topped the 17.0 that had been expected. It also marked an improvement from the 15.2 that was posted in January.

Amid the disappointing data and the stock market's advance, Treasuries had a tough session, which sent the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note up to 3.80% for the first time in more than one month.

In other trade, commodities had a generally solid session as the CRB Commodity Index advanced 0.8% to a fresh three-week high. It closed at its 50-day moving average.

Crude oil was a primary source of support for the CRB's gain. Prices settled pit trade 2.2% higher at $79.06 per barrel, even though the latest batch of weekly inventory data showed a larger-than-expected build of 3.085 million barrels. DJ30 +83.66 NASDAQ +15.42 NQ100 +0.7% R2K +0.7% SP400 +0.6% SP500 +7.24 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1543/2.05 bln/1074 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2107/960 mln/929