YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A late flurry of buying lifted the Dow almost 90 points in less than 30 minutes, but stocks still finished the day with marked losses as participants looked past an encouraging jobs report to focus on oil's climb to a new two-year high.

The highly anticipated monthly payrolls report was posted prior to the open of today's trade. It indicated that in February nonfarm payrolls increased by 192,000 and private payrolls increased by 222,000. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected, on average, increases of 185,000 and 198,000, respectively. What's more, upward revisions to prior month data helped trim the headline unemployment rate to a 22-month low of 8.9% from 9.0% in January.

A couple of disappointing features of the jobs report were that average hourly earnings were unchanged from the prior month and that average weekly hours worked held steady at 34.2. That is likely to contain consumption, despite the strength of the headline numbers.

Any enthusiasm for the jobs report was restrained by another spike in oil prices. Oil hit a new two-year high of $104.60 per barrel during pit trade before it closed at $104.42 per barrel with a 2.5% gain. Even after pit trade ended oil prices continued to climb so that they came within striking distance of $105 per barrel. The risk of spreading social unrest and political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East has given oil its momentum, which earned the energy component a weekly gain of about 6%.

Concern about the factors underpinning oil's spike, and the higher price itself, prompted many participants to dump stocks and seek safety in precious metals, such that silver prices set a new 30-year high of $35.41 per ounce before they closed at $35.22 per ounce with a 2.6% gain and gold hit a record high of $1432.80 per ounce before they settled at $1431 per ounce with a 1.0% gain.

Neither the dollar nor Treasuries garnered much interest from safety seekers, though. The greenback actually gave up 0.1% to a collection of competing currencies. Treasuries finished higher, but to varying degrees. Still, the benchmark 10-year Note saw its yield move below 3.50%.

At session lows, the Dow was down 1.5%, the Nasdaq was down 1.1%, and the S&P 500 was down 1.4%. However, each of the major averages was able to slash losses in half with the late resurgence of buying interest. There were no clear catalysts to account for the move, but it made for a rather strong finish to what otherwise would have been an entirely weak session for stocks.

Although the broad market was able to recoup a large part of its loss, financials still logged a 1.3% loss, which made them the worst performing sector. Investment banks and brokerages (-2.3%) weighed most heavily on the sector.

Health care stocks managed to finish with only a fractional loss. They were supported by a 2.4% gain among shares of life science tools and services.

Oil prices set a new record high of $104.60 per barrel in the April contract just before they closed with a 2.5% gain at $104.42 per barrel. For the week, the energy component climbed 6.7%, which was primarily underpinned by continued concern about social and political volatility in North Africa and the Middle East.

Natural gas prices finished 0.7% higher at $3.81 per ounce. That put an end to its three-session slide. Still, natural gas prices ended the week down about 5%.

Precious metals benefited from a flight to safety as stocks encountered renewed selling interest. Silver prices set a new 30-year high of $35.41 per ounce before they closed at $35.22 per ounce with a 2.6% gain. Gold hit a record high of $1432.80 per ounce and settled just off of that mark at $1431 per ounce with a 1.0% gain.

Cotton futures also climbed to a new record high as prices went limit up to almost $2.13 per pound.

Although it finished off of its session high, the CRB closed with a 0.6% gain for its sixth straight advance.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Health Care (-0.1%), Consumer Staples (-0.5%), Utilities (-0.6%), Energy (-0.6%), Tech (-0.7%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.7%), Materials (-0.7%), Telecom (-0.7%), Industrials (-1.2%), Financials (-1.3%)DJ30 -88.32 NASDAQ -14.07 NQ100 -0.5% R2K -0.5% SP400 -0.7% SP500 -9.82 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 912/1.92 bln/1697 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1029/1.04 bln/1928