YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Choppy, lackluster trade gave way to a broad-based selloff that left stocks to settle at session lows on Tuesday. The slide also sent the stock market back below its 200-day moving average.

Stocks had attempted to put together a relatively solid start. Early participants seemed to shrug off news that analysts at Standard & Poor's raised their estimates on loan losses for Spain's banking sector, though that news, along with a credit rating downgrade of BNP Paribas, weighed on foreign banks in overseas trade. Positive attention was paid to an upturn in the euro and British pound, which was helped by revised plans to accelerate debt reduction in the United Kingdom. The pound was quoted with a 0.3% gain against the greenback at the close, but the euro never made its way out of the red and finished 0.3% lower against the dollar.

The early attempt at an advance was undercut by disappointment related to the latest existing home sales figures. Existing home sales for May decreased 2.2% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 5.66 million units, which is less than the expected rate of 6.12 million units per year. Both homebuilders and home improvement retailers were dropped for a 2.9% loss as investors considered the implications of a slower recovery in housing.

Trade had been largely uninspired for most of the session, but weakness became widespread in the final hour. More than 95% of the names in the S&P 500 settled in the red as a result. What's more, the drop left the S&P 500 to close below its 200-day moving average.

Energy stocks were hit with some of the worst selling. In turn, the sector dropped 2.7% in its sharpest slide of the past two weeks. Drillers were given temporary relief from the selling effort as word circulated that a judge ruled against the deepwater drilling moratorium. To the point that the ruling could be challenged, CNBC reported that the White House will appeal the judge's decision. Drillers dropped 3.6%.

Even tech stocks, which had been up more than 1% in the early going, were dropped for a 0.9% loss. Large-cap tech had even helped drive the Nasdaq up to a gain of more than 1%, but the tech-rich index succumbed to the same late barrage of selling that sank the broader market.

Treasuries attracted support amid the stock market's selloff. Solid results from an auction of 2-year Treasuries helped. Dollar demand at the auction hit $138.0 billion, which is the second highest of the eight most recent auctions and the bid-to-cover came in at 3.5, which was above the 2.9 ratio seen in the previous auction.

Trading volume barely broke 1 billion shares on the NYSE. That's well below the average of more than 1.4 billion shares that the NYSE has seen during the past 50 sessions, but it is in-line with the Big Board's share volume for the past 10 sessions. The drop in share volume comes as many trading desks become more thinly staffed as summer vacation season gets into full swing.

Trading volume certainly wasn't helped by the lack of corporate news items this session. Walgreen (WAG 28.17, -1.97) was one of only a few names to issue a quarterly report this morning. The drug and convenience retailer brought in an adjusted $0.53 per share, but that missed Wall Street's consensus earnings estimate. Investors responded by dumping the stock for its worst single-session slide this year.

The CRB Commodity Index finished with a 0.4% loss today, led by the 1.3% sell off in the energy sector.

July natural gas futures shed 2.3% to finish at $4.76 per MMBtu, marking a third consecutive down-day. Profit taking from its recent run up above the $5 level has been responsible for the recent losing streak. August crude oil finished down 1% to $77.90 per barrel.

It was a rather uneventful session for precious metals. August gold closed more-or-less flat on the session at $1240.80 per ounce. July silver finished higher by 0.4% to $18.90 per ounce.

Corporate news flow is expected to remain sluggish in the near term, but a steady flow of data remains on tap. Tomorrow, the latest in new home sales is due in the morning, followed by the Federal Open Market Committee's latest policy statement in the afternoon.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Energy (-2.7%), Utilities (-2.5%), Industrials (-2.4%), Materials (-2.2%), Consumer Discretionary (-2.2%), Financials (-1.5%), Consumer Staples (-1.0%), Tech (-0.9%), Health Care (-0.9%), Telecom (-0.6%) DJ30 -148.89 NASDAQ -27.29 NQ100 -0.8% R2K -2.1% SP400 -2.2% SP500 -17.89 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 579/1.90 bln/2076 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 617/1.12 bln/2446