YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks faltered in the early going amid a revival of themes that plagued equities in 2011. They battled back, but finished flat after repeatedly failing to do anything more than periodically poke into positive territory.

Sentiment was dampened this morning by concerns about financial conditions in Spain and uncertainty over the financial flexibility of Hungary, which is not a eurozone member, but is significant enough that weakness there could undermine continental conditions. China's Premier, Wen Jiabo, made note of the economic difficulty that his country faces, stirring some to reconsider the ability of China to lead a global economic recovery.

A lack of leadership in the face of those themes left stocks to slide, but the broad market secured support when the S&P 500 came in contact with the 1268 line. From there stocks slowly worked their way to the flat line, but never made any truly meaningful move above the neutral line.

Although they lack market weight, consumer discretionary stocks displayed strength. Apparel and accessories plays joined automakers, which reported solid December sales results, to take the sector to a 0.7% gain. No other sector performed as well.

Financials were laggards for the entire session, but a bounce by regional lenders helped the sector improve its position in afternoon trade. Financials finished the session with a 0.5% loss.

A barometer of economic and financial sentiment in Europe, the euro traded lower today. Its 0.8% slide to $1.294 more than offset its prior session climb. Other currencies fared better so the Dollar Index made a more moderate advance of 0.5%.

Treasuries failed to attract support in the face of the stock market's struggle to trade higher. That left the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note to return to about 2.0%.

It was a somewhat quieter session in the commodities complex today. Gold, however, managed to extend its rally to a third consecutive session after it posted gains of 0.9% to settle at $1612.70 per ounce. Silver, however, shed 1.5% to end at $29.14 per ounce after it was unable to extend its mid-morning rally to trade into positive territory. Strength in the dollar pressured silver futures.

Crude oil futures settled higher by 0.3% at $103.22 per barrel. Crude prices spiked close to a point on headlines that EU governments reached a deal in principle to ban imports of Iranian oil. Futures quickly gave back those gains, and spent the remainder of the day chopping around unchanged. Natural gas rallied 3.5% to settle at $3.10 per MMBtu. Futures were aided by colder weather across the major-consuming portions of the country.

Advancing Sectors: Energy +0.2%, Tech +0.3%, Industrials +0.5%, Materials +0.6%, Consumer Discretionary +0.7%
Declining Sectors: Health Care -0.6%, Telecom -0.6%, Financials -0.5%, Utilities -0.5%, Consumer Staples -0.2%DJ30 +21.04 NASDAQ -0.36 NQ100 +0.3% R2K -0.7% SP400 -0.3% SP500 +0.24 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 970/1.68 bln/1536 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1479/759 mln/1548