YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The major market averages finished near their worst levels of the session, with all three losing close to 2.3%. Equities were knocked lower following this morning's disappointing data as both the ADP Employment report and ISM Index fell short of expectations. Selling continued over the course of the session with stocks moving to their worst levels of the day following a late downgrade of Greek debt by Moody's. The rating agency announced it was dropping the rating of Greek debt to Caa1 from B1, and assigned a negative outlook.

The euro slipped to its worst levels of the day following the Greek downgrade, and ended the U.S. session down 70 pips to near 1.4325.

Treasuries were a favorite among market players as buying across the complex ran maturities to their best levels since early December. Today's rally dropped the 10-yr yield below 3.00% for the first time since December 6, and when it was all said and done the benchmark yield ended at 2.966%. As traders moved more aggressively into the longer dated paper the 2-10-yr spread flattened to 251.1.

Financial shares lagged the broader market, and were the worst performing sector within the S&P 500. As a whole the group lost 3.5% with heavyweights Wells Fargo (WFC 26.94, -1.43) and Bank of America (BAC 11.24, -0.50) under pressure all session long. Regional banks Sun Trust Banks (STI 26.32, -1.81) and Regions Financial (RF 6.54, -0.52) also saw heavy losses.

Microsoft (MSFT 24.43, -0.58) was back in the headlines today on reports that the company was set to purchase the phone business of Nokia (NOK 6.69, -0.33) for $19 billion. The report by technology blog Boy Genius was later denied by a Nokia spokesperson who said it was "100% baseless." Nonetheless, both stocks saw heavy volume on the session.

Gold miners were among the best performing stocks for most of the session as the yellow metal climbed above $1550 per ounce earlier this morning. A sell off in precious metals following the pit close pushed most of the miners into negative territory. Large miners like Barrick Gold (ABX 47.28, -0.48) and Newmont Mining (NEM 55.67, -0.90) underperformed some of the smaller ones like Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM 64.32, -0.38) and Kinross Gold (KGC 15.75, +0.03).

Utilities outperformed the broader market, posting a loss of 1.1% for the day. None of the stocks in the S&P 500 Utilities Index closed in positive territory. Other "defensive" sectors outperformed with health care and telecom each losing 1.4%.

July crude oil settled lower by 2.4% to $100.29 per barrel. Demand concerns following this morning's weak economic data pushed crude oil back toward the $100 level, where it found some support. July natural gas finished lower by 0.8% to 4.63 per MMBtu, giving back some of yesterday's rally.

The economic data helped August gold, which finished higher by 0.4% to $1544.70 per ounce, move in to positive territory on the session. Gold traded to its best levels in close to a month, at $1551.60 per ounce, in morning trade but pulled back from those highs throughout the day. July silver shed 1.9% to close at $37.58 per ounce.

Data scheduled for an 8:30 a.m. ET release tomorrow includes initial and continuing claims, productivity, and unit labor costs while factory orders will be released at 10 a.m. ET.DJ30 -279.65 NASDAQ -66.11 SP500 -30.65 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 420/2.03 bln/2205 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 547/916.3 mln/2486