YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks ended the day with modest losses after a half-hearted attempt to rebound from the prior session's drop failed in the early going. The decline keeps stocks at monthly lows.

Traders showed some buying interest this morning as markets abroad steadied and the dollar drifted lower. However, their lack of conviction quickly became apparent when they failed to defend early gains as stocks began to lose direction and then drift lower.

Most of the major sectors muddled along in mixed fashion, but weakness among tech stocks (-0.4%) weighed on the Nasdaq, which consistently underperformed its counterparts.

In contrast, energy stocks sported strong gains for the entire session. As a group, they settled with a 1.3% gain. Part of the sector's strength was owed to a near 2% gain by crude oil prices, which closed pit trade just a penny shy of $99.60 per barrel. Oil's gain came amid bullish analyst calls for the price of oil.

Corporate news flow was lacking and economic data was limited to April new home sales, which improved to an annualized rate of 323,000 units from a pace of 301,000 units in the prior month. On average, economists polled by Briefing.com had expected the rate to remain near the March pace. Homebuilders initially had a positive reaction to the data, but ultimately retreated. That left the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB 18.12, -0.08) to settle with a loss.

July crude oil rallied for 1.9% to close at $99.59 per barrel. Weakness in the dollar and some bullish calls out of Goldman and Morgan Stanley helped crude oil trade back toward the $100 level today. June natural gas finished near unchanged at $4.34 per MMBtu.

The flight to safety, once again spurred by euro-zone debt concerns, pushed precious metals higher today. June gold finished up 0.5% to $1523.40 per ounce, while July silver rallied for 3.7% to close at $36.17 per ounce. Gold notched highs at $1529.00, its best levels since May 11, while silver traded to session highs at $36.40, its best levels since May 3.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+1.3%), Materials (+0.5%), Telecom (+0.5%)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Staples (-0.1%), Financials (-0.2%), Utilities (-0.2%), Health Care (-0.3%), Tech (-0.4%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.5%), Industrials (-0.6%)DJ30 -25.05 NASDAQ -12.74 NQ100 -0.6% R2K -0.5% SP400 -0.3% SP500 -1.09 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1014/1.88 bln/1565 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1381/865 mln/1604

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