YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Concerted selling sent stocks down sharply to their lowest level in a month this session. The effort came amid renewed concern about global economic growth, the fiscal condition of countries in the eurozone periphery and, as a corollary, a stronger dollar.

Stocks gapped down at the open and never really made any effort to recover. Weakness was largely rooted in the negative reaction to news that eurozone linchpins Greece and France both saw their latest PMI Manufacturing readings make marked pullbacks to 58.2 and 55.0, respectively, from the prior month. The overall eurozone PMI Manufacturing reading also pulled back; it came in at 54.8.

A downwardly revised forecast for Italy's debt and a cut to Greece's rating during the weekend offered another reminder to traders about the tenuous conditions of the eurozone economy.

The euro retreated in the wake of those headlines. That bolstered buying in the greenback, which climbed to a near two-month high before easing off of that mark into the afternoon. At the end of the trading day, the dollar was up 0.6% against a basket of competing currencies.

Eurozone concerns and a stronger dollar culminated in one of the market's worst single-day drops in months and also made for a new monthly low.

No sector went unscathed, but defensive-oriented issues like consumer staples stocks (-0.7%) and telecom (-0.7%) managed to limit their collective losses to less than 1%.

Commodities were also clipped this session. Their overall weakness led the CRB Commodity Index to drop in excess of 1%.

Such widespread selling interest stoked volatility, although it cooled as the session progressed. In the early going the Volatility Index spiked toward 20 for the first time in about two months. It later eased off of that mark, but was still up roughly 5% as of the close of trade.

Increased volatility and concerted selling among equities compelled some traders to rotate into Treasuries. In turn, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note returned to its 2011 low near 3.10% before a few basis points were added back in afternoon action.

Concerns about sovereign debt issues in Europe dictated the direction of some commodities today. July crude oil, which shed 2.4% to close at $97.70 per barrel, sold off as investors looked for safer havens. June gold, which finished up 0.4% to $1515.50 per ounce, was one of those havens. Gold prices have continued to push higher in electronic trade. July silver ended lower by 0.5% to $34.91 per ounce. In overnight trade it sold off on the back of a stronger dollar, but it was unable to recoup all of its losses.

June natural gas finished higher by 2.8% to $4.35 per MMBtu. Hotter than average temps in parts of the US helped natural gas higher today.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Staples (-0.7%), Telecom (-0.7%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.9%), Materials (-1.0%), Health Care (-1.0%), Utilities (-1.2%), Financials (-1.3%), Industrials (-1.4%), Energy (-1.5%), Tech (-1.5%)DJ30 -130.78 NASDAQ -44.42 NQ100 -1.5% R2K -1.8% SP400 -1.6% SP500 -15.90 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 487/1.80 bln/2117 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 615/865 mln/2379