There was plenty of good news to go around today.  The banks in Athens reopened and Greece is beginning the slow process of getting back to normal.  And despite all the pessimism of the past two weeks that Q2 earnings were going to be a disaster, in actual fact as of today 70% of all companies have reported earnings above expectations, considerably higher than the average from the past 21 years.  But all this good news was not enough to balance the crash in commodities, particularly oil and gold.  Oil of course has been getting ripped for months now.  Today gold took such a hit that it is now at a 5 year low.  Of course anyone who's been paying attention has been able to chart gold's decline for the past several years.  Still the pessimists who insist we're on the abyss have fled to it as a safe haven.  Today they got a painful lesson in reality.  Anyone who's been buying gold since '08 has lost more than 40% of their investment.  But at 5.8 billion, volume was light so most of the market remains cautiously optimistic.

And for today's update from Greece:
Greece reopens banks, starts repaying some debts | Reuters

Markets | Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:28pm EDT

Wall Street ends flat as commodities weigh

* Morgan Stanley touches 7-year high

* Gold touches 5-year low; Copper, oil prices fall

* IBM falls in extended trade after earnings

* Indexes up: Dow 0.08 pct, S&P 0.08 pct, Nasdaq 0.17 pct (Updates to market close)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

DJ:     18,100.41  +13.96      NAS:      5,218.86  +8.72        S&P:      2,128.28  +1.64

July 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street finished little changed on Monday as a better-than-expected start to corporate earnings season boosted investor confidence, but gains were curbed by a drop in commodities.

Shares of technology companies were among the bright spots, helping the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite to its third straight record close as investor focus shifts to earnings from Greece and China. The top five boosts to the S&P 500 were from the tech sector.

Gold prices plunged to their lowest in more than five years while copper prices hit their lowest in nearly two weeks. Oil prices fell on signs of a growing glut in refined products to pull the S&P energy index down 1.3 percent.

The dollar index rose 0.17 percent to $98.04. It had earlier hit a three-month high due to expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike this year.

"You've got an interesting dynamic in the S&P 500, so you put Greece in the rear-view mirror and then have the first week of earnings end with a better-than-expected style, and that brings you back up to the top end of the range, or at least close to it," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

"But when you have commodity pressure, if you have energy down a full percentage point on the S&P today - that is going to be a tough hurdle to get over."

IBM lost 3.6 percent to $167.01 in extended trade after its quarterly results on Monday. Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft are due later this week.

So far, 70 percent of companies have reported earnings above analyst expectations, above the 63 percent average beat rate since 1994. Earnings are expected to decline 2.1 percent for the quarter, a modest improvement from the expected 3 percent fall on July 1.

However, 55 percent have topped revenue forecasts, below the 61 percent average beat rate since 2002. U.S. companies were expected to post their worst sales decline in nearly six years in the second quarter, in part due to the strong dollar that reduces the value of U.S. companies' overseas income.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.96 points, or 0.08 percent, to 18,100.41, the S&P500 gained 1.64 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,128.28 and the Nasdaq Composite added 8.72 points, or 0.17 percent, to 5,218.86.

The S&P 500 is less than 3 points from its record close of 2,130.82 on May 21.

Morgan Stanley touched its highest level in seven years after the bank's profit beat expectations. However, it relinquished gains and closed down 0.4 percent at $40.01.

NYSE declining issues outnumbered advancers 2,086 to 967, for a 2.16-to-1 ratio; on theNasdaq, 1,935 issues fell and 893 advanced for a 2.17-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 43 new 52-week highs and 31 lows; the Nasdaq Composite 121 new highs and 139 lows.

Volume was muted, with about 5.84 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.56 billion average so far this month, according to BATS Global Markets.