YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks chopped along in mixed fashion for the entire session. Though that made for rather lackluster action, it allowed recent gains to consolidate.

Overall buying interest cooled among market participants this session. In turn, the major market averages lacked leadership and were confined to a relatively narrow trading range until a late slip led to a weak finish.

Financials hampered the broader market for the entire session. The sector dropped 1.7% as its declining issues outnumbered its advancers. Citigroup (C 4.61, -0.25), regularly one of the most actively traded names by volume, fell 5% after it disclosed that the Treasury will sell up to some 7 billion its shares.

Shares of BlackRock (BLK 192.95, -18.07) dropped more than 8% in their worst single-session percentage loss in more than one year after the company announced earnings that came short of the consensus.

Given that the broader market has come to expect both strong earnings and strong guidance from reporting companies, Dow component Caterpillar (CAT 71.65, +2.87) climbed to a fresh 52-week high after it had posted earnings that exceeded the consensus estimate and raised its outlook.

Whirlpool (WHR 112.42, +10.20) did the same and saw its stock hit an all-time high.

Humana (HUM 43.56, -1.97) also cleared the heightened hurdle with an upside earnings surprise and upside guidance, but its stock succumbed to the efforts of sellers. Its weakness bled into shares of other managed care companies, which dropped to a collective loss of 3.1%. Health care stocks, as a whole, shed 1.1%.

Weakness among financials and health care, two of the largest sectors in the broader market, kept stocks were mired for most of the session, but the dollar was able to garner modest support as the euro retreated amid persistent concerns regarding the deployment of funds for Greece from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. The greenback gave up some of its gain, but it still finished slightly higher for the session.

Stocks have steadied from their recent slip, which took the S&P 500 within just one point of the 1210 line. Meanwhile, commodities have wrapped up a rather lackluster session that saw the CRB Commodity Index slip 0.2%.

Oil was the weakest as the commodity's price fell 1.1% to $84.20 per barrel. Natural gas finished flat at $4.34 per MMBtu.

Among precious metals, gold eked out a fractional gain to close pit trade at $1154.00 per ounce. Silver prices settled 0.8% higher at $18.34 per ounce.

Treasuries had a quiet session. The at-record $11 billion 5-yr TIPS auction was met with a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.2, which is slightly above that of the prior auction, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 23.1%, which is below the rate of 47.8% from the prior average. Results from an auction of 2-year Notes will be released tomorrow at 1:00 PM ET.

Trading volume was strong once again. In fact, for the first time this year volume on the NYSE has exceeded the 200-day moving average for four straight sessions.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (+0.6%), Industrials (+0.2%), Materials (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.7%), Health Care (-1.1%), Utilities (-0.4%), Telecom (-0.3%), Tech (-0.2%), Energy (-0.2%), Consumer Staples (-0.2%) DJ30 +0.75 NASDAQ -7.20 NQ100 -0.3% R2K -0.4% SP400 -0.4% SP500 -5.23 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1306/2.38 bln/1420 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1429/1.22 bln/1616