YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Four straight losses have the stock market down nearly 4% week-to-date. The most recent slide came amid some rather uninspiring data and some mixed earnings reports.

Market participants initially had a somewhat positive reaction to premarket data that showed durable goods orders for May fell 1.1%, which was softer than the expected 1.3% decline, and orders less transportation increased 0.9%, which was a slower clip than the 1.3% increase that had been anticipated.

The durable goods orders figures were released at the same time as the initial jobless claims count for the week ended June 19. The latest lot of claims declined 19,000 week-over-week to 457,000, which was largely in-line with the 460,000 initial claims that had been widely expected. Continuing claims fell 45,000 week-over-week to 4.55 million, which was also on par with what had been expected.

Though the data wasn't inspiring, it didn't disappoint either. In turn, there was a sense of relief among many market participants, given the salience of yesterday's worst new home sales report on record and the disappointing jobless claims report from the prior week. Still, the stock market started the session in the red and quickly fell under a sharp, broad-based selling effort.

Earnings didn't do anything to offer support. Nike (NKE 69.63, -2.89) posted in-line earnings and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY 39.12, -2.34) brought in better-than-expected earnings, but that was overshadowed by the company's weak forecast. Best Buy (BBY 35.74, -0.89) treated investors to a 7% increase in its dividend, but that was largely ignored by the broader market. Shares of retailers were dropped for a collective loss of 2.7%.

All 10 major sectors settled in the red after an afternoon attempt to lessen losses failed. Instead, the broader market finished near its session low in its worst performance of the week. Even utilities logged a 0.3% loss after it had spent the first several hours in higher ground.

Volatility spiked as result of the stock market's selloff. That sent the Volatility Index more than 10% higher. It has been nearly three weeks since it moved so sharply.

Despite the increase in volatility and the widespread weakness among stocks, Treasuries were unable to sustain gains. Early support for the benchmark 10-year Note caused its yield to set a new 52-week low near 3.07%, but the Note fell to a fractional loss after a 7-year Note auction produced a bid-to-cover of 3.0 and dollar demand of $90.3 billion.

Currencies oscillated for most of the session before the U.S. dollar made a flat finish. The euro managed to make a modest gain of 0.2% against the greenback after it had been in the red during early action.

Weakness among stocks failed to taint the commodity complex this session. In turn, the CRB Commodity Index closed with a solid 0.7% gain.

Precious metals provided some of the most strength. They had actually been weak in the early going, but were able to attract buyers as the stock market succumbed to broad-based selling. Gold prices closed pit trade at $1245.80 per ounce, up 0.9%, and silver settled at $18.71 per ounce, up 1.3%.

Energy was split, though. Specifically, oil prices managed to muster a 0.1% gain to close at $76.46 per barrel after displaying weakness in the first part of pit trade. Natural gas prices dropped 1.1% to $4.75 per MMBtu after an in-line inventory report pulled the prices down from a modest gain in the early going.

Precious metals found support. They had actually been weak in the early going, but were able to attract buyers as the stock market succumbed to broad-based selling. Gold prices closed pit trade at $1245.80 per ounce, up 0.9%, and silver settled at $18.71 per ounce, up 1.3%.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (-2.5%), Materials (-2.4%), Financials (-2.1%), Energy (-2.1%), Tech (-1.8%), Industrials (-1.8%), Telecom (-1.5%), Consumer Staples (-0.9%), Health Care (-0.8%), Utilities (-0.3%) DJ30 -145.64 NASDAQ -36.81 NQ100 -1.6% R2K -1.7% SP400 -1.8% SP500 -18.35 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 637/2.05 bln/1998 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 690/1.26 bln/2336