YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks finished in the red again today after this morning's employment report came in below what were already low expectations. The S&P 500 finished -1.0%, just off its lows, while the Nasdaq Composite finished -1.5%.

Today's losses were sparked by the morning employment data, which showed that Nonfarm payrolls for May climbed by 54,000, which is less than the 169,000 additions that had been expected, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1%. Although the data was still disappointing, it may have been somewhat priced in after Wednesday's weaker-than-expected ADP employment report, which was followed by a 2.3% selloff in the market. While today's employment data was weak, the ISM Non-manufacturing Survey of 54.6 surpassed the 53.3 Briefing.com consensus, in contrast to Wednesday's disappointing ISM Survey. Today's weakness adds to losses earlier in the week, and leaves the S&P 500 down 2.2% on the week, with disappointing economic data being the driving factor.

Today, energy stocks outperformed with the S&P 500 Energy Index finishing the day flat and representing by far the best performing sector. Baker Hughes (BHI 74.58, +0.98) was among the best performers in the S&P 500 1.3% gain while other oil & gas equipment service names such as Schlumberger (SLB 85.04, +0.75), and Halliburton (HAL 50.28, +0.13) also fared quite well. Tech stocks were the worst performers of the S&P 500 components, trading down 1.5% as a group. Consumer Discretionary, Materials and Industrials all lost 1.3%.

Shares of Orexigen Therapeutics (OREX 2.12, -1.06) are a standout on the downside, losing 33% after a Food and Drug Administration division advised the company that its proposed cardiovascular outcomes trial would not adequately address the approval deficiency for its Contrave weight-loss drug candidate. Instead, the division requested a pre-approval cardiovascular outcomes trial that Orexigen believes would generate significantly more information than is feasible. In response, the company has put on hold any further clinical development for its obesity programs in the U.S. and will accelerate the exploration of opportunities outside of the country. Vivus (VVUS 8.25, -0.29) and Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA 1.38, -0.03) are the two other companies competing for approval of their obesity drug candidates.

Crude oil began to rally from around the $99.50/barrel area into the close of pit trade and just before the close, crude pushed into positive territory. Crude closed at $100.31/barrel, down 3 cents. In electronic trade, crude is around $100.43/barrel.

Natural gas extended losses late in today's session and shortly before the close, traders saw another leg down in the energy component, falling ~1% to $4.70/MMBtu quickly. After some minor consolidation, the energy component continued to extend losses and is near $4.70/MMBtu in electronic trade. It closed at $4.71, 8 cents lower.

Gold displayed little volatility late in today's session staying around $1543.00/oz. Silver hit session highs of $36.42/oz. just before 2:00pm EST and trended lower for the rest of the session from that level. At the end of pit trade, gold ended $9.60 higher at $1542.30, while silver shed 8.2 cents to $36.12/oz.

The benchmark 10-yr yield slipped below 2.95% earlier this morning, but rose back up to 2.997% and traded near there most of the day.DJ30 -97.29 NASDAQ -40.53 SP500 -12.78 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 555/1.77 bln/2062 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 852/800.2 mln/2155