YAHOO [ BRIEFING.COM ]: Stocks traded listlessly again today. The lack of action comes after last week's heady advance, but precedes the payrolls report on Friday.

The broad equity market was mired near the neutral line for the second straight session. Participants continue to rest on the laurels of last week's 5.6% gain, which was the best weekly performance for the S&P 500 in about two years.

There weren't many headlines that acted as trading cues for participants this session. The only item on the economic calendar was the ISM Non-Manufacturing Survey for June. It came in at 53.3, which is less than the 54.0 that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. The reading is also less than the 54.6 that was reported for the prior month.

Tomorrow's calendar features the latest weekly initial jobless claims tally and the ADP Employment Report, which is offers a glimpse into the always pivotal official Nonfarm Payrolls Report on Friday. Uncertainty surrounding the jobs report ahead of its release often results in range bound trade.

Tech stocks and industrial issues displayed strength today. Those sectors settled with 0.5% gains, but that was offset by weakness among financial stocks, which collectively shed 0.6%.

Financials were a primary source of weakness for foreign markets in their latest round of trade. More specifically, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank (DB 58.40, -1.02) weighed down Germany's DAX; BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole undercut France's CAC, and; Britain's FTSE faltered amid weakness in Barclays (BCS 16.15, -0.59) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS 12.12, -0.45). Banks in China were weak a day after Moody's made it know that loans to local governments were likely understated by about a half trillion dollars. As an aside, China tacked on another 25 basis points to its target interest rate, as had been widely speculated in recent weeks.

The dollar displayed strength all day long. Relative to a basket of competing currencies, the dollar advanced 0.6%. Most of the move was against the euro, which slid 0.8% to $1.431 as it extended its prior session slide after analysts at Moody's downgraded Portugal's debt yesterday afternoon.

Without any major surprises or new catalysts to drive trade, share volume remained depressed. Participation has been anemic all summer, but it has been especially sluggish in the days that have bracketed the Independence Day holiday.

Precious metals extended their respective rallies to a second session, with August gold gaining 1.1% to settle at $1529.00 per ounce, while Sept silver rallied for 1.6% to end at $35.97 per ounce. Despite strength in the dollar, both metals moved higher in light of yesterday afternoon's news that Moody's cut Portugal's debt rating, as well as inflation concerns following a rate hike in China.

It was an uneventful session for August crude oil, which shed 0.3% to close at $96.65 per barrel. Crude spent the session chopping around the unchanged mark, as the market awaits tomorrow's inventory data, as well as Friday's jobs data. August natural gas finished lower by 2.7% to $4.22 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples +0.6%, Industrials +0.5%, Tech +0.5%, Materials +0.4%, Health Care +0.3%, Utilities +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Energy -0.2%, Consumer Discretionary -0.3%, Financials -0.6%, Telecom -0.8%DJ30 +56.15 NASDAQ +8.25 NQ100 +0.3% R2K +0.4% SP400 +0.6% SP500 +1.34 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1453/1.65 bln/1101 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1686/820 mln/1299