YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Aggressive selling threatened to take the major equity averages sharply lower, but for the second straight session losses were pared as pressure eased in afternoon action.

Little hullabaloo was made over news that Portugal has been offered a bailout worth about 78 billion euros, and no real reaction was made to a disappointing ADP Employment Change report for April. The Change report suggested that last month's private payrolls increased by 179,000, which is less than the 200,000 private payrolls that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com.

Stocks began to sell-off in the minutes that followed the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for April. It fell to 52.8 from 57.3, but was widely expected to remain near 57.4.

Energy stocks and materials stocks were the hardest hit. Both sectors were down in excess of 2% before paring losses in afternoon trade to finish the day down 1.6% and 1.7%, respectively. Their weakness was exacerbated by renewed pressure against commodities. Commodities collectively tumbled 1.8%, as measured by the CRB Commodity Index, even though the Dollar Index probed its two-year low before finishing flat.

At session lows the three major equity averages were down more than 1% in relatively heavy volume, but for no apparent reason pressure began to ease shortly after midday. The afternoon ascent actually took the Nasdaq to within striking distance of the neutral line, but resistance there ultimately caused the major averages to retreat back into the red.

Corporate news continues to have little impact on overall trade, given the dwindling number of blue chips and bellwethers making quarterly reports. CBS (CBS 27.21, +1.97), Time Warner (TWX 36.49, -1.24), Comcast (CMCSA 25.96, -0.65), and Las Vegas Sands (LVS 42.53, -3.34) were among the more widely held names to recently issue reports. Only LVS came short of the consensus earnings estimate.

Consumer staples stocks ConAgra (CAG 25.51, +0.76) and Ralcorp (RAH 87.39, +4.06) were able to put together strong gains in the face of broad weakness. Their strength followed an offer by CAG to acquire RAH for $86 per share, or a premium of more than 20% above the levels that RAH had traded at prior rumors of the offer last week.

For the second straight session, share volume on the NYSE broke 1 billion. That hasn't happened in more than a month.

Precious metals closed sharply lower today, with June gold dropping 1.7% to settle at $1514.80 per ounce, while July silver fell 7.4% to close at $39.45 per ounce. Follow through selling helped the metals close lower for the third consecutive session. Gold has now fallen over 62 points, or ~4%, from its all time high set on May 2 at $1577.40. Silver has dropped over 10 points, or ~21%, from its recent ~31 yr highs at $49.845.

This morning's inventory data, which showed a larger than expected build, helped June crude oil close lower by 1.6% to $109.24. Crude oil prices have now sold off three sessions in a row as well. June natural gas closed lower by 1.9% to $4.58.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Materials (-1.7%), Energy (-1.6%), Industrials (-1.4%), Financials (-0.9%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.4%), Telecom (-0.3%), Tech (-0.3%), Utilities (-0.3%), Health Care (-0.1%), Consumer Staples (-0.1%)DJ30 -83.93 NASDAQ -13.39 NQ100 -0.2% R2K -1.3% SP400 -0.9% SP500 -9.30 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 698/2.24 bln/1872 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 940/1.10 bln/2059