YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The Russell 2000 crosssed the 1,000 level for the first time ever today and the S&P 500 established a new all-time, intraday high.  Those were some of the more memorable highlights of what was an otherwise nondescript day of trading.

By and large, there just wasn't a lot of conviction on the part of either buyers or sellers.  The major indices spent time on either side of the unchanged line, but never put a whole lot of distance between themselves and that point for most of the day.

The lack of conviction was owed in part to a lack of stirring catalysts.  There was some M&A activity, which included Yahoo! (YHOO 6.58, +0.06) buying Tumblr for $1.1 bln in cash, Vista Equity Partners buying Websense (WBSN 24.76, +5.53) for $1.0 bln in cash, and Actavis (ACT 127.13, +1.63) acquiring Warner Chilcott (WCRX 19.60, +0.39) in an $8.5 bln stock deal.  Those transactions, though, didn't have market-moving punch.

All there mostly was today was a lot of sparring coming off last week's 2.1% gain in the S&P 500.  Nobody got hurt, except perhaps in the precious metals space, which got hit early on chatter of a possible forced liquidation trade that knocked silver prices down close to 4.0%.  Silver, however, made a resounding comeback, knocking out short sellers to settle the day up nearly 2.0% at $22.79/oz.  That comeback, which was aided by a weakening dollar, helped boost other commodities like gold ($1389.00, +24.30) and oil ($96.71, +0.69).

Gains in both precious metals and industrial metals helped the materials sector outperform early, but it would eventually roll over to end the day relatively flat.  In a mixed day of trading, the energy (+1.3%) and consumer staples (-1.0%) sectors were the only economic sectors to move 1.0% or more.

Presumably, some hesitation ahead of Fed Chairman Bernanke's testimony before Congress on Wednesday about the economic outlook played a part in today's mixed market.  There was a little gyration around remarks made today by Chicago Fed President Evans on his views about the economy and the Fed's asset purchase program, but the market ultimately did not get too hung up on his remarks.

There aren't any economic releases for the US tomorrow, but there will be a number of retailers (Home Depot, Best Buy, AutoZone, Dick's Sporting Goods, Saks, and TJX Cos.) reporting earnings before the open.  What they share could set the tone that helps determine if the Dow Jones Industrial Average is able score a gain for the 19th consecutive Tuesday.  DJ30 -19.12 NASDAQ -2.53 SP500 -1.18 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1364/1.68 bln/1126 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1724/653 mln/1299

3:30 pm :

• June crude oil rose for a fourth consecutive session, gaining support from a weaker dollar index and erasing earlier losses. The energy component lifted off its session low of $95.23 per barrel set moments after floor trade opened and advanced into positive territory by late morning action. It spent afternoon pit trade chopping around near its session high of $97.11 per barrel and eventually settled with a 0.8% gain at $96.76 per barrel.
• June natural gas touched a session high of $4.16 per MMBtu in early morning floor trade and traded just below that level until the last hour of floor trade. It then dropped to a session low of $4.06 per MMBtu and settled just 0.7% higher at $4.09 per MMBtu.
• June gold began today's floor trade in negative territory. However, prices broke into the black and rallied sharply to a session high of $1397.90 per ounce following reports of a potential U.S. downgrade this year. The yellow metal pulled-back slightly following the pop, but still managed to book a 1.4% gain as it closed at $1384.30 per ounce.
• July silver also popped into positive territory and to a session high of $23.24 per ounce in early afternoon pit action. It settled 1.1% higher at $22.61 per ounce despite trading as low as $21.28 per ounce earlier in the session.