YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market attempted to fight off early selling interest, but it ultimately rolled over to log another loss.

The mood among market participants continues to sour. As such, the stock market fell for the fourth time in as many sessions. Prior to that losing streak, the stock market had advanced in seven out of eight sessions.

The inclination to sell increased with news that initial jobless claims for the week ended April 30 spiked to 474,000, which is the highest level in the series since August 2010. The spike in initial claims proved much sharper than what had been expected, given that the Briefing.com consensus had called for an initial claims count closer to 400,000. Additionally, the underestimated increases in jobless claims during the past few weeks, coupled with a disappointing ADP Employment Change report for April, has caused some concern about what tomorrow morning's official jobs report might look like.

Little attention was paid to news that first quarter productivity increased by 1.6%, which is better than the 1.0% gain that had been broadly expected. That was helped by a a 1.0% decline in unit labor costs, which had been expected to increase by 0.8%.

Stocks started to fight back after a few hours of selling. Semiconductor issues and other assorted tech plays helped the Nasdaq find higher ground. Electronic Arts (ERTS 21.68, +1.76) actually hit a 52-week high after it posted an upside earnings surprise for the latest quarter.

The S&P 500 couldn't quite follow its tech-rich counterpart into positive territory, though. Its failure to attract enough buying interest to sustain a rally allowed sellers to redouble their efforts in afternoon action. Aggressive selling took the stock market down to its lowest level in two weeks.

Retailers helped the consumer discretionary sector limit its loss to only 0.2%. The group's performance followed a round of stronger-than-expected same-store sales reports for April. Hott Topic (HOTT 7.30, +0.78) surged 12% so that it is now narrowly below its 52-week high. Automaker General Motors (GM 32.02, -1.02) posted a better-than-expected earnings report, but its shares were shunned.

Energy stocks continued to feel the brunt of sellers' efforts. Today the sector dropped another 2.3%, which leaves it down almost 7% week to date. Transocean (RIG 68.77, +0.31) was one of the few energy issues that managed to put together a gain; its performance came in the wake of an upside earnings surprise.

Outsized losses among energy stocks have come amid considerable weakness in oil prices, which dove 8.6% to settle at $99.80 per barrel. That marked their first close below $100 per barrel since mid-March.

Silver suffered another dramatic drop. Its 7.9% dive to $36.30 per ounce has left the precious metal more than 20% below the near 31-year high that was recorded at the end of last week's trade. Silver's slide has been exacerbated by several margin increases.

General weakness among commodities dropped the CRB Commodity Index for a 4.9% loss.

Sudden buying in the greenback certainly didn't help the commodities complex. The dollar's 1.4% advance against a basket of major foreign currencies was owed to a combination of short covering and disappointment over comments from European Central Bank President Trichet regarding plans to watch prices for the next few periods before making any monetary policy changes.

Treasuries were spurred higher, too. Buying interest in the traditional safe haven took the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note down to a 2011 low at 3.15%.

It was a broad based sell off in commodities today as the dollar surged on the back of commentary from ECB head Jean Claude Trichet as well as short covering from its recent sell off.

The free fall in July silver conintued today, with prices shedding another 7.9% to settle at $36.30 per ounce. Also weighing on silver was news that the CME raised margins for the fourth and fifth time in eight days. The fourth became at the close of business today, while the fifth becomes effective at the close of business on Monday. June gold fell 2.2% to close at $1481.70 per ounce. Gold prices are now down over $95 from their recent all time highs, while silver has shed over $13.50 from its recent ~31 yr highs.

July crude oil fell 8.6% to close at $99.80 per barrel, settling below the $100 level for the first time since March 16. The resurgent dollar, coupled with demand concerns from this morning's worse than expected econ data, weighed on crude oil throughout the session. In afterhours trade, crude oil is extending its sell off, recently dropping to new lows at $98.39. July natural gas shed 7% to end at $4.25 per MMBtu. Broad based weakness in the commodities, coupled with this morning's bearish inventory data, push nat gas prices to their lowest levels since April 19.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Energy (-2.3%), Telecom (-1.3%), Materials (-1.2%), Financials (-1.1%), Consumer Staples (-0.8%), Utilities (-0.7%), Industrials (-0.6%), Tech (-0.5%), Health Care (-0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.2%)DJ30 -139.41 NASDAQ -13.51 NQ100 -0.5% R2K -0.4% SP400 -0.4% SP500 -12.22 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 989/2.24 bln/1567 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1133/1.12 bln/1859