YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Early buying spurred strong, broad-based gains among stocks, but action quickly steadied so that the broader market spent the session moving sideways in a narrow range. Though that didn't make for much excitement, the advance was interesting in that it held firm despite a strong bounce by the U.S. dollar.

Moderate weakness in the greenback drove the Dollar Index to an early loss of 0.3%, which helped win support for stocks and keep all 10 major sectors in positive territory for the entire session.

The greenback gradually turned its loss into a 0.4% gain, though. That marked the fifth straight advance for the Dollar Index. The move undercut commodities considerably, sending the CRB Commodity Index from a 0.6% gain to a 0.5% loss, but it didn't disrupt the gains made by stocks.

Even with commodity prices pressured, materials stocks still booked a gain of 1.2%. Diversified metals and mining players (+2.0%) were a primary source of strength amid an upgrade of Alcoa (AA 15.73, +1.15) by analysts at Morgan Stanley.

Financials concluded the session as the best performing sector. They advanced 1.5% as diversified banks booked a 2.3% gain after Barron's published an article that portrayed major U.S. banks in positive light.

Meanwhile, continued support for large-cap tech drove the Nasdaq Composite to a fresh 52-week high. Intel (INTC 20.09, +0.46) was a primary leader in that move; it also hit its own 52-week high, thanks partly to an upgrade from analysts at Barclays.

Health care had been one of the better performing sectors in the early going, but scaled back its advance a bit. It still finished 1.1% for the better as participants responded favorably to news that Senate Democrats have come closer to moving past Republican objections to health care reform.

Global pharmaceutical Sanofi-Aventis (SNY 39.07, -0.04) made news this morning with the announcement that it will pay $93.50 in cash for each outstanding share of Chattem (CHTT 93.14, +23.16).

Chattem, which makes over-the-counter personal care products, won some support for smaller consumer staples plays as participants speculated over which companies could also become takeover candidates, but larger consumer staples stocks weighed on the sector. Consumer staples stocks, as a group, still settled with a 0.8% gain.

Walgreens (WAG 36.61, -0.03) was a primary laggard among consumer staples stocks. Though the company announced this morning better-than-expected adjusted earnings of $0.52 per share for the latest quarter, it wasn't enough to please its investors.

ConAgra (CAG 22.03, -0.13) had a similar struggle. It also brought in better-than-expected adjusted earnings of $0.52 per share for the latest quarter, but even went on to increase its expected earnings for fiscal 2010 to $1.73 per share, up from $1.70 per share. That still wasn't enough to win it favor, though.

Despite the relative weakness of a few consumer staples stocks, the broader market booked a solid gain. Nearly 90% of its components were able to stage an advance. Such support for stocks drove Treasuries sharply out of favor. In turn, the benchmark 10-year Note dropped more than one point to send its yield to a four-month high. It settled with its yield near 3.68%.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.5%), Consumer Discretionary (+1.3%), Materials (+1.2%), Energy (+1.1%), Tech (+1.1%), Health Care (+1.1%), Telecom (+0.9%), Consumer Staples (+0.8%), Industrials (+0.7%), Utilities (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +85.25 NASDAQ +25.97 NQ100 +1.2% R2K +1.3% SP400 +1.4% SP500 +11.58 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1814/1.84 bln/914 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2193/1.01 bln/844