YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market finished the day with solid gains as the Nasdaq provided clear leadership throughout the session, bolstered by strength in semiconductor stocks. The stock market didn't get off to a great start, however, beginning the session with moderate losses. Before the market opened, investors and traders had two major news events to take in -- one domestic, and one overseas. On the home-front, the House of Representatives passed healthcare reform last night by a vote of 219-212. The news lifted a long standing overhang on healthcare stocks, which were strong all day. In particular, hospital stocks like Community Health Systems (CYH 40.51 +2.35) and Tenet Healthcare (THC 6.27 +0.52) put in impressive gains. Internationally, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, made waves by saying that Greece doesn't need financial support, and that European Union leaders shouldn't make the question of aid for Greece the focus of their summit later in the week. She believes that Greece should solve its own debt problems despite other European policy makers urging Germany to back support for Greece. These comments underscored the latest signs of divisions within the euro-zone countries on how best to provide help to Greece. The major European markets, including Great Britain's FTSE, Germany's DAX, and France's CAC, all closed lower today... After the lower open, the major averages quickly rallied higher into positive territory. Also, in early morning action, the dollar was showing considerable strength while commodities like crude oil and natural gas languished with losses. News flow tapered off as the morning progressed, although financial stocks whip-sawed around as Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner stated that he would not accept a financial reform bill that fails to provide strong protection for consumers. Furthermore, he stated that a reform bill must put strong constraints on risk-taking by large financial institutions, protect economy, taxpayers from future crises. Technology stocks also received a jolt when Google (GOOG 557.50 -2.50) announced that Google.CN site will now be redirected to Google.com.HK. The stock initially spiked higher on that news -- while BIDU sold off -- but the gains were short-lived as GOOG finished the day in the red... In the afternoon, commodities reversed course and erased their earlier losses. Crude oil finished higher by $0.68 to $81.65/barrel and gold finished down $8.10 per ounce to $1,099.50, still well off the lows of the day. The turnaround in commodities coincided with a pull-back in the U.S. dollar.

Commodity prices recovered from a notable loss as the dollar index paired its early gains. Despite a 0.7% loss in precious metals this session, the materials sector is outperforming the broader market. Materials are currently 1.4% higher.

April gold bounced off a session, and nearly one-month low, at $1092.10 per ounce. It inevitably closed 0.7% lower at $1099.50 per ounce. Silver futures also rebounded from morning lows, but still finished down on the session. May silver closed 0.6% lower at $16.94 per ounce.

April crude oil reached a low not seen since March 2 at $77.82 per barrel soon after the open. Weakness in the dollar allowed the futures to trend higher, however. April crude oil closed 0.8% higher at $81.65 per barrrel.

Natural gas futures, however, failed to sustain their upward momentum this session. After reaching a session high at the unchanged mark late in the morning, April natural gas reversed its course and closed 2.2% lower at $4.08 per MMBtu.

Stocks meanwhile, were able to extend their gains a bit, although there wasn't a clear catalyst for the late afternoon uptick. The economic calendar was empty and corporate earnings were very light, with only two companies (PVH, DXPE) scheduled to report after the bell... Looking ahead, existing home sales data will be released at 10:00 ET tomorrow morning with consensus at 5.0 mln units. Before the open tomorrow, there are four companies expected to report earnings, including Walgreens (WAG 35.33 +0.80), KB Home (KBH 17.44 +0.11), and Carnival (CCL 37.91 +0.29). DJ30 +43.91 NASDAQ +20.99 SP500 +5.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1732/2321.8 mln/970 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2005/953.9 mln/1015