YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The S&P 500 ended lower by 1.2% after European concerns returned to the forefront. Equities began the day with a broad sell-off as a downbeat European trade weighed. Italian and Spanish indices were the source of continent-wide weakness as controversy continued to plague the troubled sovereigns.

In Italy the MIB lost 4.5% as authorities continue to investigate several financials, including the world's oldest bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Today, five of eight banks listed on the Italian MIB experienced trading halts amid the selloff. However, Monte Paschi was not one of affected names.

Meanwhile, Spain's IBEX fell 3.8% as 34 of 35 listings ended in the red. The markets were rattled as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other members of the People's Party find themselves in the middle of an alleged kickback scheme uncovered by Spain's largest daily newspaper, El Pais. Recent days have seen Mr. Rajoy face resignation calls from opposition leaders as well as Spanish citizens.

European financials saw notable selling pressure with the weakness spilling over to their U.S. counterparts. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 17.41, -0.20) slipped 1.1% with Bank of America (BAC 11.48, -0.23) and Morgan Stanley (MS 22.88, -0.63) as two of the weakest majors. The pair saw respective losses of 2.0% and 2.7%.

In addition to financials, the tech sector was one of the day's biggest laggards. The largest sector component, Apple (AAPL 442.32, -11.30) underperformed, and lost 2.5%. Including today's loss, Apple is the weakest S&P 500 performer year-to-date. The computer company has lost 16.8% since the start of 2013.

3:30 pm :

• Mar crude oil fell deeper into negative territory as a strong dollar index and renewed concerns over the European debt crisis put pressure on prices. The energy component brushed a session low of $95.89 per barrel and settled with a 1.6% loss at $96.18 per barrel.
• Mar natural gas climbed up to a session high of $3.35 per MMBtu but retreated towards the unchanged line in afternoon floor trade. It eventually settled with a 0.6% gain at $3.32 per MMBtu.
• Apr gold lifted off its session low of $1661.80 per ounce set in morning action and broke into positive territory about two hours later. It continued to inch higher in afternoon action despite strength in the dollar index. The yellow metal settled 0.3% higher at $1676.30 per once, just below its session high of $1678.60 per ounce.
• Mar silver, on the other hand, lost momentum as it headed into afternoon floor trade. It pulled-back from its session high of $31.92 per ounce and settled 0.7% lower at $31.72 per ounce.