YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A negative response to comments from Fed Chairman Bernanke sent the stock market to a sharp, broad-based loss after most of the session had been spent in choppy, sideways trade.

Stocks opened with solid gains as market participants initially showed a more positive response to the latest round of earnings than they had in recent sessions. Strength was broad in the early going, but some of the best gains came from financials, which were up as much as 1.5% on the back of better-than-expected results from Morgan Stanley (MS 26.80, +1.58), Wells Fargo (WFC 26.06, +0.15), and US Bancorp (USB 23.07, -0.08) ahead of the adoption of new financial regulation into law. Despite the sector's early strength, it succumbed to broader market pressure and settled with a 1.8% loss. That put it among the worst performing sectors of the session.

The broader market spent the middle of the session chopping along the neutral line, but then made a sharp pullback in response to comments from Fed Chairman Bernanke, who made his semiannual monetary policy report to the Senate Banking Committee this afternoon. Bernanke spoke of continued uncertainty in the economy and made note of the Fed's preparations to take more policy actions as needed. The comments generally reflected the downgraded economic outlook that was communicated in the FOMC Minutes, but the stock market's negative response seemed to reflect its relatively nervous state, which was further underscored by the drop in the yield of the 10-year Treasury Note below 2.90% to its lowest level since April 2009.

Industrial stocks managed to limit their losses. Specifically, the sector settled just 0.4% into the red. Textron (TXT 19.65, +1.57) and Eaton (ETN 73.14, +4.08) provided support after both companies posted better-than-expected earnings and issued upside guidance. Eaton complemented its report with a dividend increase, while shares of TXT were upgraded.

United Technologies (UTX 67.03, -0.51) became a drag on the industrial sector when the Dow component succumbed to selling as participants shrugged off the outfit's better-than-expected bottom line.

Fellow Dow component Coca Cola (KO 54.08, +0.84) also bested earnings expectations, but it shares were able to hold their gain into the close.

The Nasdaq has lagged the other headline indices for most of the session. It was undercut by losses among large-cap tech plays after Yahoo! (YHOO 13.91, -1.29) reported a rather unimpressive revenue figure that overshadowed its upside earnings surprise. Better-than-expected earnings from Apple (AAPL 254.24, +2.35) provided some support, though.

In commodities trade, oil prices opened pit trade more than 1% higher, but settled at $76.56 per barrel with a 1.3% loss. Pressure was largely underpinned by the latest weekly inventory data, which showed a surprise build of 360,000 barrels of crude oil when a draw of 1.2 million barrels had been expected.

Gold prices finished flat at $1192 per ounce after a rather lackluster session of sideways trade. Silver prices settle 0.6% higher at $17.80 per ounce. However, both precious metals were pressured in electronic trade after pit trade closed because the dollar worked its way higher in response to the comments from Bernanke.

Oil prices opened pit trade more than 1% higher, but some bearish inventory data, which showed a surprise build of 360,000 barrels of crude oil, caused the commodity to give up that gain. Futures prices settled roughly $2 below their session highs at $76.56 per barrel with a 1.3% loss.

Natural gas prices also succumbed to a rather stiff selling effort. The commodity closed with a 1.7% loss fractionally below $4.50 per MMBtu. Natural gas inventory data is due tomorrow morning.

As for precious metals, gold prices finished flat at $1192 per ounce after a rather lackluster session of sideways trade. Meanwhile, silver prices managed to hold on to a solid gain and settle 0.6% higher at $17.80 per ounce. However, precious metals prices have been pressured in electronic trade as the U.S. dollar gains ground against competing currencies following comments about the economy and policy from Fed Chairman Bernanke and a selloff among stocks.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.8%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.8%), Health Care (-1.5%), Utilities (-1.4%), Tech (-1.4%), Energy (-1.4%), Consumer Staples (-1.0%), Industrials (-0.4%), Materials (-0.4%), Telecom (-0.2%) DJ30 -109.43 NASDAQ -35.16 NQ100 -1.3% R2K -1.9% SP400 -1.5% SP500 -13.89 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 668/2.23 bln/1959 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 992/1.20 bln/2018