YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: For the second straight session the stock market overcame selling pressure to finish flat. In both sessions stocks were able to do it without help from the financial sector.

Stocks dropped markedly in the first few minutes. Sellers were motivated by renewed weakness among several major foreign equity averages and a disappointing initial jobless claims count for the week ended April 9. Initial claims climbed 27,000 week-over-week to 412,000, which is greater than the 385,000 initial claims that had been widely expected. The surprisingly high tally marked the first time in more than a month that initial claims exceeded 400,000.

Separately, the Producer Price Index for March increased by 0.7%, which is less than the 1.1% increase that had been broadly expected. Excluding food and energy, producer prices for March increased by a much more tepid 0.3%, which is slightly greater than the 0.2% increase that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com.

Early pressure was primarily focused on tech stocks and financials. Although buying interest gradually emerged to help tech stocks pare losses, financials remained hampered by weakness among diversified bank stocks ahead of the latest report from Bank of America (BAC 13.13, -0.14) tomorrow morning. Investment bank stocks were also weak amid news that Goldman Sachs (GS 155.79, -4.38) has been accused by a Senate subcommittee for lying in a testimony during 2010. Additionally, Deutsche Bank (DB 60.57, -0.81) and Credit Suisse (CS 44.24, -0.42) were both downgraded by analysts at Societe Generale. Overall, the financial sector fell 0.9%, which comes on top of its 0.8% decline in the prior session.

Strong buying interest in consumer staples stocks and energy stocks helped lift the two sectors to gains of 0.6% gain, but the pair failed to provide much broad market leadership. Although their inability to provide a lift to the broader market left the major averages to settle near the neutral line, the flat finish actually represented considerable improvement over the tone of trade seen in the early going.

Waning negativity caused Treasuries to slip a bit. Results from the auction of 30-year Bonds didn't exactly bolster buying interest in the space. The auction drew a bid-to-cover of 2.83, dollar demand of $36.8 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 47.2%.

Ongoing pressure against the greenback led the Dollar Index down to a new 52-week low. Amid the decline in the dollar, oil prices climbed back above $108 per barrel, while gold gained more than 1% to eclipse $1472 per ounce and silver surged 3.5% to $41.69 per ounce.

Precious metals (+2.6%) led all commodities higher today, helped by a 3.5% rally in May silver, which closed at $41.69 per ounce. June gold also partook in the rally, after it gained 1.2% to end at $1472.40 per ounce. Weakness in the dollar, concerns about Greek sovereign debt, and a move higher in crude oil pushed precious metal prices higher today. The continuous gold contract pushed back towards its all time highs at $1478, notching session highs at $1475.20, while silver closed in on its recent ~31 yr highs (at $41.975) after posting highs at $41.78.

May natural gas gained 1.4% to close at $4.20 per MMBtu. This morning's smaller-than-expected inventory data pushed natural gas higher throughout the session. It pulled back modestly from session highs, at $4.26, heading into the close of pit trade. May crude oil posted gains for the second consecutive session after closing higher by 0.9% to $108.11 per barrel.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples (+0.6%), Energy (+0.6%), Health Care (+0.5%), Utilities (+0.5%), Materials (+0.3%), Telecom (+0.2%)
Unchanged: Industrials
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (-0.3%), Tech (-0.3%), Financials (-0.9%)DJ30 +14.16 NASDAQ -1.30 NQ100 -0.2% R2K +0.4% SP400 +0.0% SP500 +0.11 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1455/1.72 bln/1121 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1600/925 mln/1358