Dow Gains; Nasdaq Trails; IBM Beats (ext)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Most stocks finished higher after moving above and below the flat line Monday, though tech stocks lagged before IBM's(IBM) late-afternoon earnings release, which beat the Street.

Investors also digested the Securities and Exchange Commission's fraud charges against Goldman Sachs(GS) and Citigroup's(C) surprise earnings beat.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 73 points, or 0.7%, to 11,092, near its high of the session. The S&P 500 gained 5 points, or 0.5%, to 1198, though the Nasdaq shed 1 point, or 0.1%, to 2480.

Before turning mostly higher by the closing bell, the major market averages swung between positive and negative for much of the day as investors remained concerned about the fallout from Goldman's legal headaches.

"There's a lack of certainty with the SEC. Is it just Goldman, or are other banks going to be targeted," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, before the closing bell, who also described the market's reaction to the news as "pretty mild."

But in the late afternoon, the banking sector broadly pulled back into positive territory and helped lift the indices, as the KBW Bank index gained 1% on the day. After shedding nearly 13% on Friday, shares for Goldman Sachs, in particular, finished 1.6%, or $2.62 higher, at $163.32 today after a Bloomberg News report said the SEC blessed the enforcement charges with a politically split 3-2 vote. The stock advance also comes ahead of the firm's highly anticipated earnings release and conference call Tuesday morning. Goldman general counsel Greg Palm is expected to be on the call to answer questions about the SEC's civil complaint.

With no other economic releases scheduled, the market's attention will likely remain fixed on the financial sector as the SEC investigates whether mortgage deals set up by other big Wall Street firms may have misled investors.

The most actively traded June crude oil contract went $1.54 lower to settle at $83.13 a barrel. The June gold contract, meanwhile, shed $1.10 to trade at $1,135.80 an ounce.