YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Disappointment over the latest payrolls report drove broad selling pressure today, but stocks were able to battle back. That helped the stock market score a slight weekly gain.

Official data for June showed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 18,000 and private payrolls increased by 57,000. Respective increases of 80,000 and 110,000 had been expected, on average, among economists surveyed by Briefing.com. Participants were also surprised by an increase in the headline unemployment rate to 9.2% from 9.1%, even after some 270,000 people left the labor force. The negativity of the data seemed doubly surprising since just yesterday the ADP Employment Change Report for June had exceeded expectations.

Given that job growth isn't what it was expected to be during June, many called into question the trajectory of the economy. Suspicion of anemic growth put participants on the defensive and drove broad selling pressure that took all 10 major sectors into the red and each of the three major equity averages down more than 1%.

Financials felt the brunt of the selling effort after they had outperformed in the prior session. As a group, financials fell 1.3%, but regional banks generally represented the sector's worst performers.

In the face of widespread weakness, stocks were able to attract some buying interest into the close. That helped the stock market moderate its loss and secure a modest weekly gain of 0.3%, which comes on top of last week's 5.6% climb. The stock market last scored back-to-back weekly gains in April.

Although pressure eased in late afternoon trade, defensive-oriented plays were still the top performers. Specifically, consumer staples slipped just 0.3%, while telecom stocks, health care stocks, and utilities stocks declined only 0.4%.

Treasuries traded with heady gains all session. At the closing bell the benchmark 10-year Note was quoted with a gain of more than a full point. That dropped the Note's yield back to within a couple of basis points of 3.0% after it had traded narrowly below 3.2% in the prior session.

Among commodities, gold prices gained 0.7% to close pit trade at $1541.90 per ounce. Silver only gained an incremental 0.1% to close the week at $36.56 per ounce. Oil grappled with aggressive selling all session. The cyclically sensitive commodity was clipped for a 2.5% loss as it settled at $96.20 per barrel.

Concerns about the U.S. economy caused the dollar to surrender an early gain that came in response to a weaker euro, which was cut down in response to concerns about the financial systems of countries in the eurozone periphery, but it was able to rebound for a 0.3% gain against a basket of major foreign currencies.

Trade in commodities today was largely driven by this morning's dismal jobs data. That data caused for a sharp pullback in the dollar. Energy: August crude oil finished lower by 2.5% to $96.20 per barrel. Crude oil futures dropped approximately 2.5 points following the release of the data, and extend that sell off another point, later in the morning, to session lows at $95.60. It spent the remainder of the session pushing slowly lower off those lows to end around $96 per barrel. August natural gas finished higher by 1.8% to $4.21 per MMBtu, recouping some of its losses from yesterday's inventory induced sell off.

A pullback in the dollar, coupled with a flight to safety, on the back of the jobs data sent precious metals higher today. August gold finished higher by 0.7% to $1541.90 per ounce, while Sept silver ended up 0.1% to $36.56 per ounce. Gold futures put highs, at $1546, early in the session and spent the remainder of the day trading in a small range. Silver gave back most of its gains to trade near the flat line for the remainder of the session.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Staples -0.3%, Health Care -0.4%, Utilities -0.4%, Telecom -0.4%, Tech -0.5%, Consumer Discretionary -0.6%, Energy -0.7%, Materials -0.7%, Industrials -1.2%, Financials -1.3%DJ30 -62.29 NASDAQ -13.77 NQ100 -0.3% R2K -0.7% SP400 -0.7% SP500 -9.42 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 836/1.50 bln/1725 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec