YAHOO[BRIEFING.COM]: For the second straight session, the S&P 500 encountered resistance at the 850 level in the final hour of trading, but this time buyers responded by bidding shares higher to help the stock market to close just above 850 at its best level of the session. Financials were integral to the late rebound.

Financial stocks outperformed the broader market for the entire session and provided leadership to the stock market's late-session advance. The sector closed with a 4.5% gain, thanks largely to an 8.4% bounce by diversified bank stocks.

Bank stocks bounded as participants prepare for the Treasury's announcement regarding bank stress test measures. The announcement is scheduled for tomorrow, but actual stress test results won't be released until May 4.

With actual results of the tests still unknown, some investors are treating regional bank stocks with caution. Such caution caused regional bank stocks to trade as laggards in the financial sector for much of the session. Still, they finished 3.2% higher as PNC Financial (PNC 40.93, +2.87) garnered support after reporting better-than-expected earnings.

Better-than-expected earnings results from Apple (AAPL 125.40, +3.89), eBay (EBAY 16.62, +1.82), and ConocoPhillips (COP 39.93, +1.87) actually supported a stronger overall bias ahead of the opening bell. Disappointing earnings and guidance from UPS (UPS 53.33, -1.42) and Nucor (NUE 40.00, -4.07) did little to disrupt the early, positive tone.

However, stocks reversed early gains and spent the rest of the morning trading in choppy fashion after participants found out that existing home sales for March fell 3.0% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 4.57 million. Annualized home sales for March were expected to total 4.65 million units. At the current sales pace, the supply of unsold homes increased to 9.8 months from 9.7 months.

In other economic news, initial claims for the week ending April 18 were up 27,000 from the prior week to 640,000, which is spot on with expectations. Continuing claims advanced to another record high of 6.14 million.

Tomorrow's economic calendar features March durable goods orders data and new home sales data for March. 3M (MMM 54.21, +1.15), Ford (F 4.49, +0.21), and Honeywell (HON 32.38, +0.69) are among the more widely held companies due to report their quarterly earnings results tomorrow morning before the opening bell.DJ30 +70.49 NASDAQ +6.09 NQ100 +0.7% R2K -0.9% SP400 -0.4% SP500 +8.37 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 993/2.45 bln/1660 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1848/1.57 bln/1173