YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Momentum from the prior session's rally took the stock market more than 1% higher this session, but a lack of leadership caught up with stocks when sellers returned to the fold. Their efforts caused stocks to roll over and settle with a loss.

Global participants showed a willingness to return to riskier holdings after they had watched many major equity averages retreat to multi-month lows in recent sessions. The change in attitude came after the S&P 500 swung from a loss of more than 3% to an incremental gain in the prior session.

With market participants motivated to buy, the S&P 500 staged a broad-based climb that put it up almost 5% from its prior session low. Despite such strength, stocks lacked a concerted form of leadership.

The lack of a guiding force left stocks susceptible to a slide in the euro, which was cut to a 1.4% loss. The euro settled at session lows under the 1.22 level, or fractionally above its four-year low. Meanwhile, stocks closed with broad losses near their own session lows.

The euro's weakness comes amid continued concern about the fiscal health of several European countries. As such, risk related to sovereign debt markets may act as a caveat to OECD GDP forecasts for 2010 and 2011, which were recently increased.

Participation was strong once again. More specifically, trading volume on the NYSE was close to 2 billion shares. Typical trading volume on the NYSE has been closer to 1.2 billion shares per session over the past 200 sessions.

While stocks fell to a late bout of selling, commodities were able to close with strong, broad-based gains. In turn, The CRB Commodity Index climbed 1.6% in its best single-session gain since March. Crude oil, which settled higher by 3.8% to $71.39 per barrel, was a primary source of support for the index. Oil's advance came in the face of a much larger-than-expected weekly inventory build of almost 2.5 million barrels.

Treasuries were unable to fully recover from their downturn. As such, the benchmark 10-year Note settled with a near 10-tick loss. The 5-year Note fell roughly seven ticks after an auction of 5-years attracted a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.7 and an indirect bidder participation rate of 40.6%. The prior auction attracted a bid-to-cover closer to 2.8 and an indirect bid rate of 48.9%.

Economic data for the day contained a couple of positive surprises. Total durable goods orders for April proved to be stronger-than-expected with a 2.9% increase, but orders less transportation made a surprise 1.0% slip. The downturn in orders less transportation has been forgiven by some since the prior month's number surged 4.8% to the best reading since 2005.

New home sales for April spiked more-than-expected to an annualized rate of 504,000 units, which was the highest level in two years.

Market participants showed a willingness to take on risk after several consecutive sessions of broad-based selling. The change in disposition helped drive the CRB commodity index to close higher by 1.6%.

Energy was the leading sector with July crude oil, which settled higher by 3.8% to $71.39 per barrel, the top advancer. Heating oil and RBOB gasoline futures added positive momentum with 2.8% and 2.6% gains respectively. July natural gas also partook in the rally, as it closed the session higher by 1.5% to $4.17.

Precious metals were also contributors to the strength in the CRB index, as they posted a 1.7% move. July silver gained 2.3% to close at $18.31, while June gold finished with a 1.1% gain at $1213.40.

Advancing Sectors: Industrials (+0.3%)
Declining Sectors: Telecom (-1.2%), Tech (-1.1%), Consumer Staples (-0.9%), Materials (-0.8%), Financials (-0.6%), Health Care (-0.6%), Energy (-0.3%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.3%), Utilities (-0.2%) DJ30 -69.30 NASDAQ -15.07 NQ100 -1.1% R2K +0.4% SP400 +0.3% SP500 -6.08 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1467/3.05 bln/1179 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1909/1.94 bln/1179