YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Following a barrage of negative headlines the S&P 500 closed below its 50-day moving average for the first time in six months, but its one-month low of 1294 remained intact.

Stocks slumped at the start of trade as the tone turned decidedly negative among participants. The force of the sell-off was the culmination of several key headlines. Among them, China reported a surprise trade deficit of about $7 billion for February. Additionally, Japan revised its fourth quarter GDP downward to reflect a 1.3% drop. Asia's major averages all moved sharply lower and the yen lost ground against the greenback.

Europe also had a hand in stirring selling interest. Analysts at Moody's downgraded Spain's debt and issued a negative outlook. That sent Spain's IBEX to a 1.2% loss. The downgrade also weighed on Europe's other major bourses. Mixed industrial production data out of the continent and a downturn in Germany's trade balance to 10.1 billion euros during January didn't help the tone of trade there.

Selling in Europe extended to the continent's chief currency, the euro, which fell 0.8% to $1.379. The British pound was imbued by the weakness, such that it fell 0.9% to $1.605. The pound was uninspired by news that the Bank of England opted to keep its target interest rate at 0.5% and leave its 200 billion pound asset purchase plan intact.

As for domestic data, initial jobless claims for the week ended March 5 totaled 397,000. They had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com to come in at 382,000. A negative bias among participants framed the tally as being greater than expected, rather than remaining below 400,000.

Trade deficit data didn't do anything to help improve the mood among traders. The deficit for January totaled $46.3 billion, up from $40.3 billion in the prior month. A $41.5 billion deficit had been widely expected.

Despite widespread weakness at the open of trade, stocks tried to gradually trim their losses. However, sellers redoubled their efforts and dropped the broad market to a session low when it was reported that shots were fired at protestors in Saudi Arabia. The reaction was indicative of the headline risk related to the social and political volatility in the Middle East and North Africa.

Prior to the report out of Saudi Arabia, oil prices had been under sharp pressure. The energy component had actually fallen below $101 per barrel, but quickly rallied back in response to the news. It still finished with a 1.6% loss at $102.70 per barrel. Though trade in recent sessions was largely determined by the price of oil, its drop today mattered less to a market that returned its focus toward macro-related headlines.

There weren't many advancing issues this session. In fact, about 95% of the names in the S&P 500 logged losses as the benchmark index settled near session lows, which were just above the key one-month low set about two weeks ago.

Commodities finished lower across the board, with softs leading all decliners. May sugar prices fell 5.6% to close at $0.2781 per pound in the broad based sell off. Strength in the dollar also weighed on sugar prices.

April crude oil settled lower by 1.6% to $102.70 per barrel, well above its session lows at $100.62 per barrel. Crude oil spiked sharply in afternoon trade following reports that Saudi police in the eastern city of Qatif fired shots and stun grenades at several hundred protestors. Note that the eastern portion of the country is where the largest population of the minority Shiites is located. The protestors were defying a ban put in place by the Saudi government ahead of the planned "Day of Rage" rallies, one of which is scheduled for tomorrow. April natural gas shed 2.3% to close at $3.83 per MMBtu. This morning's smaller than expected draw down in sent prices to lows, and natural gas was never able to recover from there.

Weakness in the dollar and weakness in crude oil weighed on precious metals today. April gold finished lower by 1.1% to $1412.50 per ounce, while April silver dropped 2.4% to close at $35.27 per ounce. Both metals did spike on the heels of crude oil's rally, but finished largely lower on the day.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Energy (-3.6%), Materials (-2.2%), Financial (-2.1%), Tech (-2.0%), Industrials (-2.0%), Health Care (-1.6%), Utilities (-1.2%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.0%), Consumer Staples (-0.7%), Telecom (-0.6%)DJ30 -228.48 NASDAQ -50.70 NQ100 -1.7% R2K -2.6% SP400 -1.9% SP500 -24.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 383/2.37 bln/2257 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 474/1.15 bln/2511