YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks spent almost the entire session trading with moderate losses until some late support helped the major indices improve their position and settle at afternoon highs near the neutral line. Like most of the session's moves, the late lift came on light volume and without leadership.

Moderate weakness in the broader market led stocks to open the session in negative territory. They did make an early run up to the neutral line in the minutes ahead of the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index, which came in at 60.0 to top expectations and hit its best level since 2006. However, stocks were met with resistance at the neutral line and spent the rest of the session without clear direction.

There wasn't much else in terms of news flow this session. The lack of cues left many to focus on the dollar, which had extended its rebound from the previous session to a gain of 0.5% against a basket of foreign currencies before it pulled back to settle with a gain of just 0.1%.

The greenback's reversal caused commodity prices to improve, thereby helping drive the materials sector higher. Materials stocks settled with a gain of just 0.1%, though.

The energy sector settled with a fractional gain even though oil prices closed pit trade with a 0.5% gain at $79.30 per barrel. The advance by oil came even though weekly oil inventories showed a smaller-than-expected draw of 1.54 million barrels.

Tech was this session's best performing sector. It booked a 0.5% gain with help from semiconductor stocks, which advanced 1.5%. With just one session left in this calendar year, semiconductor stocks are on track for a 70% annual gain, which is more than double the near 25% gain that the broader market is headed for.

Though the tech sector is the largest in the S&P 500 by market weight, the broader market refused to rally behind its strength.

Treasuries have had a quiet session, even in the wake of a $32 billion auction of seven-year Notes. The auction was met with a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.7, which is slightly below the previous auction's ratio, but above this year's average ratio of 2.6.

Trading volume was paltry for the second straight session as fewer than 650 million shares traded hands on the NYSE during the latest round of action. The average for the past 50 sessions stands close to 1.2 billion shares.

Advancing Sectors: Tech (+0.5%), Utilities (+0.1%), Financials (+0.1%), Materials (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (-0.4%), Industrials (-0.3%), Telecom (-0.1%), Health Care (-0.1%), Consumer Staples (-0.1%)
Unchanged: EnergyDJ30 +3.10 NASDAQ +2.88 NQ100 +0.4% R2K +0.0% SP400 -0.2% SP500 +0.22 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1406/1.33 bln/1291 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1370/644 mln/1623