YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market extended its near three-year high this morning, but a lack of direction in afternoon action ultimately led to the broad market's first loss in five sessions.

News that U.S. forces killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden dominated headlines all day, but the stock market lacked a discernible reaction to the story. And since many overseas markets were closed for holiday observance, traders had few cues to follow.

The broad market was initially helped by modest buying this morning. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow came closer to fresh three-year highs, but the Nasdaq actually hit its highest level in a decade. A lack of leadership and a 1.3% drop among energy stocks eventually led the market lower, though.

Energy's decline came in the face of a rebound by oil prices, which had been down to about $111 per barrel overnight, but finished with a 0.4% loss near $113.50 per barrel. Oil's bounce was helped by another decline in the dollar, which set a new two-year low against a collection of competing currencies. The greenback cut its loss to finish the trading day unchanged, though.

Health care stocks made up the only sector to sustain any kind of strong gain. The sector settled 1.0% for the better amid support from biotech plays, which were propped up by news that Cephalon (CEPH 80.11, +3.09) will be acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA 47.27, +1.54) for $81.50 per share, which is a premium of almost 6% over its closing price from last week. Elsewhere in the health care sector, Humana (HUM 76.48, +0.36) reported in-line earnings and an upside forecast.

Data had little impact on trade, but featured the April ISM Manufacturing Index. It came in at 60.4, which is greater than the 59.7 that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Construction spending during March increased by 1.4%, which is surprisingly strong, given that the consensus among economists surveyed on behalf of Briefing.com had called for no change.

June crude oil finished lower by 0.4% to $113.52 per barrel, after recouping most of its overnight losses stemming from last night's news that the US had killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Crude did trade into positive during the session, but was unable to maintain those gains heading into the close of pit trade. It was an uneventful session for June natural gas, which finished near flat at $4.69 per MMBtu.

Margin concerns weighed heavily on July silver, which finished close down 4.8% to $46.25 per ounce. Technical selling also pushed prices lower after silver failed to break above $50 in overnight trade. June gold finished higher by 0.1% to $1558.70 per ounce. Weakness in the dollar helped gold prices move off the flat line in pit trade

Advancing Sectors: Utilities (+1.0%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.2%), Utilities (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Industrials (-0.1%), Telecom (-0.2%), Financials (-0.4%), Tech (-0.4%), Materials (-0.6%), Energy (-1.3%)DJ30 -3.18 NASDAQ -9.46 NQ100 +0.00% R2K -1.2% SP400 -0.6% SP500 -2.39 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 822/2.07 bln/1808 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1242/934 mln/1747