YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The major averages settled with modest losses as the S&P 500 shed 0.7%.

Equities slipped out of the gate as sellers drove the major averages to their lows 90 minutes into the session. This marked the return of bargain hunters, who helped the S&P return to its opening levels. However, the relative weakness of several influential groups kept the benchmark average from regaining its flat line.

Defensively-geared groups bore the brunt of today's selling as consumer staples, health care, telecom, and utilities all ended with losses larger than 1.5%.

Today's 1.5% decline in utilities ran the sector's month-to-date loss to 9.2% while the underperformance of consumer staples caused the sector to surrender all of its May gains.

While countercyclical sectors logged sharp losses, growth-sensitive groups held up generally well.

Financials and technology weathered the early selling as the relative strength of large components allowed the sectors to end little changed.

The financial space benefitted from the gains in Goldman Sachs (GS 162.87, +2.17) as the stock spent the entire day in positive territory before closing near its high.

Elsewhere, tech shares received a boost from key components like Apple (AAPL 444.95, +3.51) and Cisco Systems (CSCO 24.12, +0.23), as well as chipmakers. Intel (INTC 24.27, +0.19) settled higher by 0.8% while the PHLX Semiconductor Index rose 0.3%.

Industrials also outperformed, but the relative strength of the sector overshadowed the weakness of transportation related stocks. The Dow Jones Transportation Average fell 1.1% as 18 of 20 components ended in the red.

Also of note, homebuilders saw broad losses as the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB 31.20, -0.73) dropped 2.4%.

Today's early selling caused the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 14.86, +0.38) to jump above 15.00% for the first time in over a month as investors adjusted their near-term volatility expectations.

Although below-average volume has been a recurring theme in the market, today's decline occurred on above-average volume as 723 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Economic news of the day was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which decreased 8.8% to follow last week's decline of 9.8%.

Tomorrow, weekly initial claims and the second estimate of first quarter GDP will be reported at 8:30 ET while April pending home sales will be announced at 10:00 ET.DJ30 -106.59 NASDAQ -21.37 SP500 -11.70 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 758/1.72 bln/1726 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 617/722.9 mln/2452

3:30 pm :

• July crude oil fell during today's floor trade as weakness in the equities markets and concerns that the Federal Reserve will cut its stimulus program weighed on prices. The energy component brushed a session high of $95.22 per barrel in early morning pit action put dropped sharply by about 1.5% around 11:00am ET. It continued to trend lower and eventually settled with a 2.0% loss at $93.11 per barrel.
• July natural gas also slid into the red and touched a session low of $4.12 per MMBtu despite opening floor trade at the unchanged mark. It managed to erase some of the earlier loss as it inched higher in afternoon action and settled at $4.18 per MMBtu, or 0.9% lower. o Precious metals, however, gained support from a weaker dollar index and rose for the first time in three sessions.
• June gold dipped to a session low of $1381.40 per ounce in morning action but trended higher for the remainder of floor trade. It closed 0.9% higher at $1391.20 per ounce, just below its session high of $1392.90 per ounce.
• \July silver also lifted off its session low of $22.19 per ounce and trended higher as the session progressed. It brushed a session high of $22.47 per ounce just before settling at $22.45 per ounce with a 1.1% gain.