YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Participants opted to sit on last week's gains, so the major equity averages spent the entire session chopping along before booking a mixed finish.

Even though the observance of Independence Day yesterday allowed stocks an extra 24 hours to rest after last week's climb -- the strongest in about two years -- the broad market moved sideways today. Underlying action was consistently without leadership.

The major averages saw some selling interest stem from news that analysts at Moody's downgraded Portugal's debt. Moody's has also been reviewing banks in China because audits may have understated the amount of money that the banks doled out to local governments.

Domestic bank stocks were out of favor all session. Their weakness weighed on the overall financial sector, which fell to a 0.6% loss.

Energy stocks were the best performers, as a group. The group was helped by the spike in oil prices during pit trade. Forward contracts saw oil prices push up by 2.1% to almost $96.90 per barrel. Ameron International (AMN 85.08, +18.81) surged in response to a takeover offer from National Oilwell Varco (NOV 80.02, +1.71). Exxon Mobil (XOM 81.60, -0.41) suffered a slight loss, even though reports suggested that a swelling Yellowstone River could complicate the company's efforts to clean it up after an oil leak was discovered recently.

Immucor (BLUD 26.99, +6.26), which will be required by TPG Capital, was another top performer, but the health care sector remained stuck in the red. The group settled with a 0.3% loss.

The dollar caught a nice bid on the back of Portugal's downgrade. At the close of trade, the greenback had advanced 0.6% against a collection of competing currencies, namely the euro, which dropped 0.9% to $1.442.

The only piece of domestic data on today's calendar was a 0.8% increase in factor orders for May. Orders had been expected to increase by 1.0%, though. Foreign data featured underwhelming PMI Services readings. The flow of data will remain slow for the rest of the week, but participants get their hands on a highly anticipated jobs report this coming Friday. The current consensus calls for the headline unemployment rate to remain at 9.1%.

A flight to safety, following a warning on Chinese banks from Moody's, helped precious metals rally throughout the session. August gold finished higher by 1.9% to $1512 per ounce, while Sept silver closed up 5% to $35.40. Both metals have extended their rallies in afterhours trade, with gold trading to fresh highs at $1515.40, while silver has put in highs at $35.56.

August crude oil ended up 2.1% to $96.89 per barrel, on light volume trade, in what was a technical break out. It put in session highs at $97.48, its best levels since June 15, in afternoon trade but pulled back from those highs heading into the close. August natural gas finished the day higher by 1.5% to $4.38 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: Energy +0.5%, Consumer Discretionary +0.4%, Tech +0.2%, Materials +0.1%
Declining Sectors: Consumer Staples -0.1%, Telecom -0.2%, Health Care -0.3%, Industrials -0.6%, Utilities -0.6%, Financials -0.8%DJ30 -12.90 NASDAQ +9.74 NQ100 +0.4% R2K +0.2% SP400 +0.1% SP500 -1.79 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1296/1.56 bln/1266 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1462/907 mln/1546