YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Despite lackluster and listless action, stocks were able to advance modestly so that the S&P 500 extended its streak of gains to six straight sessions.

Stocks spent the majority of the session in a sideways drift. Buyers seemed absent, while downside moves were short and shallow due to technical support.

Action throughout the afternoon contrasted with the early going in that stocks had looked like they would make their way broadly higher during the opening minutes. The early move was led by natural resource plays like materials stocks and energy stocks. Both groups were up nearly 1% early on.

Strength among natural resource stocks stemmed from higher commodity prices, which were spurred by a weaker dollar after global participants learned that during December China saw its first increase in exports in more than one year. Though the buck spent the session mired in weakness and logged a 0.6% loss against competing currencies, commodity prices pulled back and left the CRB Commodity Index to lose 0.5%. Materials stocks closed with a 0.2% loss, while energy stocks eked out a 0.1% gain.

Metal mining giant and Dow component Alcoa (AA 17.45, +0.43) showed strength throughout the session, however. Its gains came ahead of its latest quarterly report and teamed up with other blue chips to help the Dow Jones Industrial Average outperform the other headline indices.

The Nasdaq Composite was the only headline index that failed to muster a gain this session. It lagged its counterparts for virtually the entire session, largely as a result of renewed weakness among large-cap tech.

News flow was slow and participants were without many trading cues this session, but the number of headlines aren't expected to pick up for another few days. Alcoa's report this evening marks the unofficial start to earnings season, but announcements don't begin in earnest until next week. Economic data will also remain sparse for a few more days, but Thursday's retail sales report and weekly jobless claims figures will be met with increased interest.

Advancing Sectors: Industrials (+1.2%), Utilities (+1.1%), Health Care (+0.4%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Energy (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Tech (-0.4%), Materials (-0.2%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.1%)
Unchanged: Telecom, FinancialsDJ30 +45.80 NASDAQ -4.76 NQ100 -0.3% R2K -0.1% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +2.00 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1307/2.09 bln/1367 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1808/967 mln/1220