YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks made a broad-based rebound from the previous session's sharp decline, but there wasn't much conviction behind the advance since trading volume was exceptionally low. What's more, stocks struggled to break above near-term resistance levels.

The major indices got off to a solid start as many buyers looked to capitalize on lower prices following the previous session's loss, which was the worst in six weeks for the S&P 500. That favored financial stocks, which suffered the worst losses in the previous session by dropping more than 4%. Financials led gains by climbing 1.9% this session.

Other buyers were enticed by better-than-expected earnings and an increased outlook from Dow component Home Depot (HD 26.93, +0.82). Target (TGT 44.32, +3.11) also supported a positive bias by unveiling upbeat results, which drove the stock to its best single-session percentage gain since April and led retailers to a 1.8% gain.

Interest among buyers helped stocks shake off news that housing starts and building permits for July came in at a slower-than-expected annualized rate of 581,000 and 560,000, respectively. Though the July figures were above second quarter averages, they seemed to suggest expectations for the economy have become somewhat overextended.

Meanwhile, overall producer prices for July declined 0.9%, which was more than what had been expected. Core prices made a surprise 0.1% decline, which suggests that inflationary pressures remain restricted.

Stocks were able to finish just a few points shy of session highs. Gains were broad with nine of the 10 major sectors closing in positive territory. Health care (-0.1%) logged the only loss after outperforming in the previous session.

Despite the seemingly strong performance, the S&P 500 struggled to sustain any move above the 990 mark, which marks a near-term point of resistance. Instead, the broad-market index spent the entire afternoon dancing along the line.

Trading volume was exceptionally low this session as fewer than 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE. That's well below the approximate 1.5 billion shares that have been averaged during the past 200 sessions and the 1.2 billion shares that have been averaged during the past 50 sessions. The lack of participation this session suggests there wasn't much behind Tuesday's advance. DJ30 +82.60 NASDAQ +25.08 NQ100 +1.4% R2K +1.5% SP400 +1.3% SP500 +9.94 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1949/1.77 bln/714 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2415/991 mln/610