YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Buying interest in the early going gave way to selling pressure that resulted in the ninth loss in 11 sessions for the S&P 500. Many traders took their cues from the euro.

Despite sizable losses in Asia during overnight trade and mixed action among Europe's major bourses, market participants bid stocks higher ahead of the open. Positive sentiment was supported by news that housing starts improved in April to an annualized rate of 717,000 from an upwardly revised rate of 699,000 in the prior month to exceed the consensus forecast for a rate of 680,000 units. Building permits were more on par with what had been expected -- the annualized rate of 715,000 came in only slightly below the rate of 730,000 that had been broadly anticipated.

Industrial production also proved impressive. It increased during April by 1.1%, which is more than double the 0.5% increase that had been broadly expected.

Within the first hour of action the S&P 500 was up almost 1% and within about five points of its prior session high, but the move failed to hold as early strength among Energy and Financials faded. Those two sectors descended to losses of 0.5% and 1.5%, respectively. That put the Energy sector at a new low for 2012, while Financials sit at their worst level since January.

Retailers JC Penney (JCP 26.75, -6.75) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF 39.50, -5.90) were among the poorest individual performers of the session. Both stocks plummeted to new multi-month lows in the wake of underwhelming quarterly reports. Target (TGT 55.32, +0.24) managed to maintain a modest gain following its latest earnings announcement, though.

Deere (DE 74.18, -2.44) was also out today with its latest quarterly report, which featured a better-than-expected bottom line. However, shares of the farming machinery outfit still fell.

A few minutes of broad market turbulence followed the release of the latest FOMC minutes, which indicate that broad financial market conditions have changed little. The minutes state that bank credit slowed in March, but overall it expanded at a solid pace for the first quarter. It was also noted that financial strains within the euro area increased.

The latter point in mind, headlines today suggested that the ECB may be suspending services to certain banks in Greece. That stirred some selling interest against the currency. It managed to recover to the neutral line, but by the closing bell it was back in the red to suffer a 0.2% loss against the greenback.

Crude oil experienced volatility in today’s pit trade as it continued its decline for a fourth consecutive session. It briefly popped into positive territory in morning action, but quickly returned to the red. Weaker-than-anticipated inventory data that showed a build of 2.1 million barrels in the face of calls for a build of 1.5 million barrels was in the mix. Crude touched a session low of $92.28 per barrel ahead of the FOMC minutes, and settled the session with a 1.3% loss at $92.78 per barrel.

Natural gas outperformed again. It soared 5.2% to $2.62 per MMBtu. The energy component is now up more than 30% since the low that it set last month.

Precious metals extended losses, despite only a marginal gain by the dollar. Both gold and silver spent the entire pit sessions in negative territory. Although they attempted to erase losses in morning action, taking gold up to $1552.20 per ounce and silver to $27.97 per ounce, the move was unsustainable. Gold and silver set respective session lows of $1534.10 per ounce and $27.13 per ounce before gold settled with a 1.4% loss at $1536.30 per ounce and silver finished at $27.18 per ounce for a 3.0% loss.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples +0.3%, Health Care +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Utilities -0.1%, Industrials -0.1%, Consumer Discretionary -0.1%, Telecom -0.4%, Energy -0.5%, Tech -0.8%, Materials -1.2%, Financials -1.5%DJ30 -33.45 NASDAQ -19.72 NQ100 -0.7% R2K -0.6% SP400 -0.9% SP500 -5.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 839/1.96 bln/1660 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 985/872 mln/2024