YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Briefing.com covered more than 150 earnings reports between the prior session's close and this morning's open. The vast majority of those announcements featured upside earnings surprises, but market participants were generally unimpressed, such that stocks ultimately succumbed to a broad selling effort that left the major averages to settle lower between 0.4% and 1.0%.

Managed care providers Aetna (AET 27.56, -0.80) and WellPoint (WLP 50.82, -1.98) both produced better-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter and even increased their forecasts, but the pair was dropped markedly, such that shares of managed care stocks sank a collective 2.5%.

Such weakness weighed on the overall health care sector for the entire session. As a result, health care stocks shed 1.4% this session. That made them the worst performing sector of the day.

Telecom traded with relative strength for the entire session and settled with a 0.4% gain. That made it the only sector to stage a gain this session. Wireless services provider Sprint Nextel (S 4.84, +0.01) was a primary leader after it posted an upside earnings surprise. However, integrated giant AT&T (T 26.20, +0.05) lagged after it was placed on Standard & Poor's ratings watch list.

Boeing (BA 67.32, -1.30) was one of the worst performing blue chips this session. Investors ignored the company's better-than-expected bottom line since it came amid a light revenue figure and failed to lead to an increased forecast.

In other earnings news, Las Vegas Sands (LVS 26.69, +1.41), Comcast (CMCSA 19.56, +0.23), Broadcom (BRCM 37.47, -0.06), and Aflac (AFL 49.52, -1.19) each exceeded earnings expectations for the latest quarter. CVS (CVS 31.54, +0.94) had in-line results, but Newmont Mining (NEM 55.40, -0.38) missed.

Data did nothing to inspire traders this session. That was largely because durable goods orders for June made a surprise 1.0% decline when a 1.0% increase had been anticipated. Orders less transportation fell 0.6%, which contrasted with the 0.6% increase that had been widely expected. Both total orders and orders less transportation for the prior moth were revised downward to reflect a 0.8% decline a 1.2% increase, respectively.

The Fed's latest Beige Book saw a muted response since it failed to provide any new insight into economic conditions. In step with recent comments from Fed Chairman Bernanke at his semiannual testimonies to the Senate and House, the Beige Book stated that the economic recovery has slowed in some areas.

Treasuries were flat for most of the session, but a bid surfaced in the afternoon to take the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note back below 3.0%. The move came as stocks encountered increased selling and market participants digested results from an auction of 5-year Notes. The auction produced a bid-to-cover ratio of almost 3.1 and had an indirect bidder participation rate of 47.3%. Dollar demand for the auction totaled $113.2 billion. Each measure was above that of the prior session.

In the commodity pits, oil prices settled with a 0.7% loss at $76.99 per barrel after they had been as low as $75.90 per barrel amid news that oil inventories for the week ended July 23 had increased by 7.31 million barrels, which was far more bearish than the draw of 1.73 million barrels that had been expected.

Grains led all advancers in the CRB Commodity Index, after it tacked on 2.8%. Sept corn futures rallied for 3.7% to close at $3.76 per bushel. Sept wheat futures gained 3.5% to end at $6.15 per bushel. Wheat traded to a 13-month high, helped by forecasts of a sharp decline in Russian wheat exports.

Sept natural gas rallied for 1.1% to close at $4.71 per MMBtu. While natural gas did close comfortably higher, it gave back the majority of its gains as it sold off in afternoon trade to close nearly 15 cents below its highs. Sept crude oil settled lower by 0.7% to $76.99 per barrel.

Sept silver shed 0.7% to close at $17.44 per ounce. Silver has dropped over 75 cents in the past two sessions and is trading at its worst level since June 7. Aug gold ended higher by 0.2% to $1160.40 per ounce.

In contrast, natural gas prices staged a 1.4% gain to settle at $4.71 per MMBtu.

Precious metals prices diverged as gold gained 0.2% to close pit trade at $1160.40 per ounce and silver prices extended their slide from the prior session to settle with a 1.0% loss at $17.44 per ounce. DJ30 -39.81 NASDAQ -23.69 SP500 -7.72 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 762/1.84 bln/1841 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 995/1.00 bln/2013