YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks started the session in the red as participants reacted negatively to further selling pressure overseas, but a jump in oil prices helped the energy sector lead a turnaround that took the broader market to a solid gain above near-term resistance levels. Participation remains unimpressive, though.

The dour mood among global participants left investors unimpressed with better-than-expected earnings from Deere (DE 43.73, -1.36) and Dow component Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 43.83, -0.13) and, instead, focused on Deere's pessimistic outlook and Hewlett-Packard's reaffirmed guidance. While shares of HPQ pared losses, DE spent the entire session markedly lower, which weighed on the industrial sector and left it to finish fractionally lower.

Financials also finished fractionally lower and made up the only other major sector to settle in negative ground.

Comments from renowned investor Warren Buffett in a New York Times article offered a reminder that the U.S. economy is on a slow path to recovery. With that in mind, the mood on trading floors started to change as chatter began to circulate that a second fiscal stimulus plan could be possible, but that was downplayed when a White House spokesman said in a Bloomberg.com article that there is no imminent economic announcement.

However, market participants jumped into the energy sector following news that weekly oil inventories showed a draw of roughly 8.40 million barrels in the face of calls for an inventory build. Oil prices had been down in early pit trade, but settled 4.7% higher at $72.42 per barrel. Energy stocks were able to recover from a loss of roughly 1% to finish with a 1.9% gain, better than any other major sector.

The run up in oil prices helped provide leadership to other commodities, which gave the CRB Commodity Index 1.5% gain -- its best performance in two weeks.

The improved tone among participants helped stocks build on the previous session's gain. In turn, stocks are down less than 1% week-to-date after Monday's 2.4% drop, which marked the stock market's worst single-session percentage loss in six weeks. The back-to-back gains have also taken stocks above near-term resistance levels, which stood just above 990.

Trading volume was exceptionally low again, however. For the second straight session fewer than 1 billion shares exchanged hands on the NYSE, suggesting that there hasn't been much conviction behind the recent moves.DJ30 +61.22 NASDAQ +13.32 NQ100 +0.6% R2K +0.9% SP400 +0.7% SP500 +6.79 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1683/1.98 bln/928 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1848/988 mln/1141