YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks made their way to solid gains after a soft start, but pressure picked up after stocks failed to extend the advance in afternoon trade. Still, the major indices finished the session modestly higher.

A lack of upbeat headlines and a stronger dollar left buyers with little reason to get back into the action. The tepid tone was reflective of broader sentiment, which has some in fear that the stock market may be overextended after its rally in the past year -- the S&P 500 is up nearly 70% since its multiyear closing low reached exactly one year ago. While no one wants to be in a vulnerable position if a correction takes place, few want to risk missing out on further gains.

Stocks are also just 1% off of their 52-week highs, which were reached in mid-January. A stronger dollar has been a hurdle for stocks to return to that mark, though. The buck advanced a mere 0.1% this session, but that was only after it pared its gain. Initially, the greenback garnered support as the euro and British pound were pressured by news that analysts at Fitch kept a Negative outlook in place for Portugal's AA rating and that Britain's plan to halve its deficit in four years was determined to be too slow.

There were a few corporate news items, but none of them caused any major swings in the stock market. Among the headlines, Texas Instruments (TXN 24.19, -0.50) announced an improved its earnings outlook, which remains in in-line with that of Wall Street. Still, the semiconductor company's shares slipped.

Meanwhile, Cisco (CSCO 26.13, +0.00) unveiled plans for its new router, which is expected to improve the flow of content and, in turn, inspire further content development. That helped AT&T (T 25.56, +0.28) and wireless service plays (+2.8%) prop up the telecom sector, which finished 1.2% higher. Apple (AAPL 223.02, +3.94) was also helped; it gave the Nasdaq a lead over its counterparts for the second straight session.

Northrop Grumman (NOC 64.00, -0.16) announced in-line guidance for fiscal 2010, but the bigger headline was the company's decision to take itself out of contention for a contract to build next generation refueling planes. The latter item buoyed Boeing (BA 67.79, +0.55).

Meanwhile, with few exceptions, commodities traded modestly lower for most of the session. To that point, the CRB Commodity Index closed 0.6% lower.

Precious metals prices recovered from session lows as the dollar index pared its gains from early in the session. April gold closed fractionally lower at $1121.80 per pounce after trading nearly 1.5% lower in the morning. May silver actually closed 0.4% higher at $17.34 per ounce after being down in excess of 2% in the morning.

Crude oil futures also hit lows early in the pit trade but recovered as the dollar gave up its gains. April crude oil finished 0.5% lower at $81.49 per barrel.

April natural gas, on the other hand, opened the pit session at a session high but traded lower for most of the session. It closed down just a penny at $4.52 per MMBtu.

Treasuries came into focus with news that a $40 billion auction of 3-year Notes attracted a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.1, which is above the recent average of 2.9, and an indirect bid of 51.8%, which is on par with the recent average of 52%.

There wasn't any economic data today, but tomorrow brings monthly wholesale inventory data and the Treasury's monthly budget statement.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+1.2%), Industrials (+0.8%), Tech (+0.4%), Financials (+0.3%), Energy (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Materials (-0.5%), Utilities (-0.3%), Consumer Staples (-0.2%), Health Care (-0.1%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.1%)DJ30 +11.86 NASDAQ +8.47 NQ100 +0.6% R2K +0.4% SP400 +0.1% SP500 +1.95 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1483/2.56 bln/1176 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1735/1.12 bln/1314