YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The S&P 500 rallied from a loss of more than 3% to an incremental gain on Tuesday. The move began with a technical bounce, gained momentum on the back of an upbeat consumer confidence figure, then extended the push into the final leg of trade amid leadership from financials.

Persistent concerns about the fiscal conditions of Europe and renewed geopolitical tensions between North Korea and South Korea caused global equity markets to fall sharply as investors shunned risk and sought safety. With stocks sharply out of favor roughly 95% of the components in the S&P 500 fell to a loss and the benchmark index dropped to a six-month low.

However, technical support at the 1040 line brought about a bounce from the morning low. The rebound gained upward momentum in the minutes that followed the midmorning release of the May Consumer Confidence Index, which topped expectations by coming in at a two-year high of 63.3.

Other data -- including a 0.1% monthly decline by the March S&P/CaseShiller 20-City Composite and a 0.3% increase in the FHFA's Home Price Index for March -- had no real effect on trade. Stocks looked like they were about to stagnate midsession as the S&P 500 ran into resistance at the 1060 line. That proved to be less of a hurdle once financial stocks started to provide leadership.

Financials found support after CNBC reported that Representative Frank stated that the financial reform bill's language regarding derivatives goes too far. The prospect that the proposed rules on derivatives may be diluted or thrown out helped the financial sector swing to a gain of 0.8%. It had been down more than 3% at its session low.

Materials stocks made one of the most dramatic turnarounds. The sector had been down more than 3% at its session low, but it rallied to finish with a 1.6% gain.

Retailers outperformed for virtually the entire session to finish with a 1.4% gain. Autozone (AZO 194.57, +10.32) was a leader after it posted quarterly earnings that exceeded Wall Street's consensus estimate with ease.

While a few pockets of strength helped the broader market stage a rally, the headline indices struggled at the neutral line in the final minutes of trade. However, a final flurry of buying pushed the broad-based S&P 500 into the green in the waning moments of trade. Though the Dow and Nasdaq couldn't make it into higher ground, they still settled near session highs.

The CRB Commodity index closed 1.6% lower this session as greater macro concerns weighed on the broader market. Grain commodities led the decline in the CRB, as corn and wheat futures were especially weak.

July crude oil ended lower by 1.7% to $68.75 per barrel, helped lower by the jittery equity markets. June natural gas finished higher by 0.8% to $4.05 per MMBtu, as it ignored surrounding markets to close with modest gains.

Precious metals finished the session with a 0.1% decline, helped mostly by the 1.2% drop in July silver futures, which closed at $17.78 per ounce. June gold futures settled higher by 0.3% to $1194 per ounce.

The afternoon sprint knocked Treasuries back a bit. The benchmark 10-year Note saw its yield fall to a near one-year low of almost 3.10% in the early going, but its yield stood closer to 3.15% at the close. Meanwhile, the 2-year Note finished slightly lower amid disappointing auction results, which featured a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.9 and indirect bidder participation of 36.2%. Results from an auction of 5-year Notes will be released Wednesday afternoon.

Advancing Sectors: Materials (+1.6%), Financials (+0.8%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.8%), Telecom (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Staples (-1.0%), Utilities (-0.7%), Health Care (-0.7%), Tech (-0.2%), Energy (-0.1%) DJ30 -22.82 NASDAQ -2.60 NQ100 +0.00% R2K -0.2% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +0.38 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 888/2.89 bln/1767 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1118/1.88 bln/1964