YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Choppy, listless trading kept stocks restricted to a relatively narrow range for most of the session, but stocks were still able to close higher for the fourth consecutive session -- a feat that hasn't been accomplished in nearly two months.

Though there weren't any primary leaders this session, gains were still respectable and broad-based. More impressive gains were sporadic.

Ford (F 6.41, +0.28) extended its four-session run up to 20% after announcing that it has achieved its highest market share in three years, while its U.S. auto sales for May fell a less-than-expected 24%. Recently bankrupt General Motors said its May U.S. sales fell almost 30%.

Meanwhile, Honda Motor (HMC 29.66, -0.11) said total American vehicle sales for May dropped 39% since the past year, and Toyota Motor (TM 80.99, -0.73) said May vehicle sales fell nearly 38% year-over-year.

PepsiCo (PEP 55.37, +2.24) logged its best single-session percentage gain this year after analysts at UBS raised their target for PEP shares. UBS also raised its target for shares of Pepsi Bottling (PBG 34.17, +0.96). Pepsi Bottling won additional favor by issuing upside guidance for 2009.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM 34.50, -1.61) led financial shares (-1.2%) lower after it announced plans to repay TARP funds by raising $5.0 billion in common equity. Also looking to get out from the yoke of government oversight and remove the stigma of holding TARP funds, American Express (AXP 24.71, -1.28) announced a $500 million common stock offering, while Morgan Stanley (MS 30.09, +0.20) announced it is looking to raise $2.2 billion.

Though the share offerings are aimed at raising capital to repay TARP funds, the announcements mark an extension of the stock offerings that financial companies have made in recent weeks. With financials up more than 100% since their March low, companies have been able to raise more funds with fewer shares, thus limiting the dilutive impact of recent offerings.

Banks have been among those to issue the most offerings as they attempted to quell capitalization concerns. To that point, Moody's stated that it expects U.S. rated banks will incur some $470 billion pretax loan losses and write-downs in 2009 and 2010, and also expects many banks will be unprofitable this year. Moody's is keeping a negative outlook on the banking industry rating and the industry's credit outlook. Shares of diversified banks dropped 4.1%.

Semiconductor stocks (-3.3%) showed weakness for the entire session. Their downturn came after Applied Materials (AMAT 11.61, -0.44) chief executive Mike Splinter stated that there will be more failures in the semiconductor equipment sector amid declining customers, according to Reuters.

Stocks started the session in the red, but were able to finish with a rather modest gain, which was near the middle of the session's trading range. Highs were hit early on following a surprise 6.7% monthly increase in April pending home sales, which is one of the best monthly increases on record and the third straight increase.DJ30 +19.43 NASDAQ +8.12 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +1.0% SP400 +0.4% SP500 +1.87 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1506/2.41 bln/1146 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1810/1.41 bln/1239