YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Despite a weaker dollar and a strong third quarter report from pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, the S&P 500 saw its six-session streak of gains come to an end Tuesday.

A weaker greenback has been a strong underpinning of the stock market's recent gains, but its affect on stocks this session was mitigated by caution among participants ahead of a flurry of upcoming earnings announcements. The Dollar Index returned to 52-week lows early this session, but participants paid more attention to the third quarter report from Dow component Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 61.01, -1.52), which brought in better-than-expected third quarter earnings of $1.20 per share and offered an increased earnings outlook of $4.54 to $4.59 per share for fiscal 2009. Those accomplishments were tainted by a softer top line, however. Johnson & Johnson's report came as a reminder that earnings for the latest quarter could very likely be driven by cost cutting rather than resurgent demand.

Participants get a better feel for things when JPMorgan Chase (JPM 45.66, -0.42) reports tomorrow morning and Goldman Sachs (GS 187.23, -2.92), IBM (IBM 127.02, -0.02), and Google (GOOG 526.11, +2.04) report Thursday. Bank of America (BAC 17.81, -0.22) and General Electric (GE 16.39, +0.06) lead the list for Friday.

Market participants were also unsettled this session by news that shares of Goldman Sachs were downgraded by Meredith Whitney Advisors, which was founded by analyst Meredith Whitney, who is credited with calling out many of the troubles facing banks and the broader financial sector during the last couple of years. The call on shares of GS weighed on the financial sector, which finished the session with a 1.1% loss, worse than any other sector.

Financials weighed on trade for virtually the entire session, though the broader market did manage to finish in mixed fashion after recovering from morning lows

Telecom stocks finally showed some strength after underperforming in each of the previous four sessions. The sector tacked on 0.4%.

Retailers saw some of the best gains, though. As a group, retailers advanced 0.9%.

Meanwhile, materials stocks settled 0.5% higher, helped by higher commodity prices.

Gold prices jumped to new record highs of $1069.70 per ounce in early trade, but saw some of those gains pared before finishing with a 0.7% gain at $1064.60 per ounce. Oil futures prices opened the session with a gain of roughly 1%, but reversed into the red as the U.S. dollar worked its way up from its lows. However, oil contracts garnered support and finished with a 1.2% gain at $74.15 per barrel.

Advancing Sectors: Materials (+0.5%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.1%), Health Care (-1.0%), Utilities (-0.6%), Consumer Staples (-0.2%)
Unchanged: Energy, Industrials, TechDJ30 -14.74 NASDAQ +0.75 NQ100 unch.% R2K -0.3% SP400 -0.4% SP500 -3.00 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1192/2.05 bln/1463 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1289/1.14 bln/1706