YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks were imbued this morning by sharp losses abroad and a concerted selling effort against commodities after China's central bank announced that another increase will be made to the country's reserve requirement ratio. A bounce by the dollar above its 50-day moving average for the first time in months also weighed on early trade.

However, the dollar failed to sustain its gain and inevitably fell to a fractional loss against a collection of competing currencies. Its pullback coincided with a climb by both stocks and commodities.

Stocks settled with solid gains after they had been down markedly. Defensive-oriented stocks were actually the top performers. Specifically, consumer staples (+1.3%), health care (+0.9%), and utilities (+0.9%) were three of the top sectors.

Energy stocks had experienced pronounced selling pressure this morning, but the broader market's bounce and an upturn in commodities prices helped the sector recover from a loss of more than 1% to finish flat. Oil prices rallied from a session low of about $95.25 per barrel to finish higher by 0.8% at $98.97 per barrel.

Corporate news flow remains light, but Dow component Cisco (CSCO 16.93, -0.85) came into focus for its latest quarterly announcement. The company posted an upside earnings surprise, but that mattered little to investors and analysts who were deeply disappointed by the company's forecast. Cisco CEO John Chambers couldn't quell concerns about the company during the a conference call or in an interview with CNBC.

Participants got a few doses of data today, but none had any meaningful impact on trade. The Producer Price Index (PPI) for April showed an increase of 0.8%, which is greater than the 0.5% increase that has been widely expected. Core PPI increased by a more moderate 0.3% in April, but the consensus among economists surveyed by Briefing.com had been pegged at a 0.2% increase.

Retail sales increased by 0.5% in April after an upwardly revised increase of 0.9% for the prior month. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected, on average, retail sales to increase by 0.6% in April. Excluding autos, retail sales actually increased by 0.6%, which is greater than the 0.5% increase that had been widely anticipated. Sales less autos for the prior month were revised upward to reflect a 1.2% increase.

Initial weekly jobless claims were also just posted. Once again the tally exceeded what had been expected. Initial claims totaled 434,000, which is greater than the 423,000 initial claims estimated in the Briefing.com consensus. The latest count is down from last week's upwardly revised total of 478,000 initial claims.

Treasuries erased some of the gains that they had achieved in the prior session. Traders took in results from an auction of 30-year Bonds that featured a bid-to-cover of 2.43, dollar demand of $38.9 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 33.0%.

June crude oil finished higher by 0.8% to $98.97 per barrel after erasing overnight losses. In overnight trade, strength in the dollar weighed on crude oil prices, however a pullback in the dollar allowed for crude oil to trade into positive territory. It momentarily traded back above the $100 level before closing. It was an uneventful session for June natural gas, which closed higher by 0.2% to $4.19 per MMBtu. This morning's in-line inventory data momentarily push prices into positive territory, but they were quick to pull back to near the unchanged mark, where they spent the remainder of the session.

June gold ended higher by 0.4% to $1507.50 per ounce, while July silver shed 1.5% to close at $34.99 per ounce. Both metals sold off in overnight trade as the dollar rallied. News that the People's Bank of China hiked the reserve requirement ration by 50 basis points also pressured the metals. However, gold and silver spent most of pit trade recouping losses, with gold ending in positive territory.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples (+1.3%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.9%), Health Care (+0.9%), Utilities (+0.9%), Telecom (+0.7%), Tech (+0.6%), Industrials (+0.1%)
Unchanged: Materials
Declining Sectors: Energy (-0.1%), Financial (-0.1%)DJ30 +65.89 NASDAQ +17.98 NQ100 +0.6% R2K +0.8% SP400 +0.7% SP500 +6.57 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1703/2.22 bln/903 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1898/949 mln/1130