YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Aggressive selling dropped stocks to a new three-month low. In turn, the S&P 500 is now within close contact of its 200-day moving average and down about 8% from the three-year high that it set in May.

Stocks rallied in the prior session to register their strongest single-session gain in almost two months, but that advance was completely erased by a sell-off today. Selling was rekindled by concerns related to a mix of fiscal instability and social unrest in Greece. Concerns over Greece's precarious position undercut the euro, which suffered one of its worst daily losses in months with a 1.8% drop against the dollar to $1.417.

The greenback garnered additional support in the wake of the May CPI reading, which showed a 0.2% increase in overall consumer prices. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com had been pegged at a 0.1% increase. Core CPI increased by 0.3%, which is greater than the 0.1% increase that had been broadly anticipated.

As for the rest of today's data, the Empire Manufacturing Survey for June came in at -7.8, which contrasts sharply with the reading of 10.0 that economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected after the prior month's reading of 11.9. That was followed by news that industrial production for May increased by a mere 0.1%, which is less than the 0.2% that had been broadly anticipated.

Not a single sector in the S&P 500 managed to limit its loss to less than 1%. Cyclical plays suffered some of the sharpest losses after they had scored some of the strongest gains in the prior session. Materials, energy, and financials all fell more than 2%.

Widespread weakness stoked volatility today. As such, the Volatility Index spiked about 17% to a near three-month high.

Treasuries, traditional safe havens, attracted strong buying interest, which took the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note back below 3.00% after it had spiked to a 10-day high of about 3.10% during the prior session.

Commodities were largely driven by the events taking place in Greece today and the resulting euro weakness and dollar strength. Reports that the Greek PM would step down, in order to make way for a unity government, sent ripples through the markets including the commodities markets.

July crude oil shed 4.6% to close at $94.81 per barrel. This morning's inventory data pushed crude into positive territory, where it notched highs at $99.95, but those gains were very short lived, as the main focus soon became the events in Greece. Crude dropped to lows at $94.01, with approx an hour left in pit trade, its worst levels since Feb 22. July natural gas finished lower by 0.4% to $4.58.

August gold ended higher by 0.1% to $1526.40 per ounce, while July silver shed 0.4% to close at $35.28 per ounce. Both metals pushed higher this morning in the wake of worse-than-expected econ data, in a flight to safety. However, the strength in the dollar eventually forced the precious metals lower. Gold traded back to the flat line, where it chopped around into the close, while silver fell into negative territory, where it closed.

Advancing Sectors: None
Declining Sectors: Materials -2.3%, Energy -2.2%, Financials -2.2%, Tech -1.8%, Industrials -1.5%, Consumer Staples -1.5%, Consumer Discretionary -1.5%, Health Care -1.3%, Telecom -1.3%, Utilities -1.2%DJ30 -178.84 NASDAQ -47.26 NQ100 -1.8% R2K -1.8% SP400 -1.6% SP500 -22.45 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 550/1.98 bln/2059 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 487/1.07 bln/2592