YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market will head into Friday with a week-to-date loss of almost 4% after an ugly jobless claims report sent stocks on their third straight slide.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended August 7 totaled 484,000, which is not only a larger tally than the 465,000 claims that had been widely expected, but it also marks the highest weekly claims count since February.

Continuing claims eased to 4.45 million from 4.57 million, but the decline is mostly due to the expiration of jobless benefits among the unemployed.

Disappointment over the data drove the S&P 500 to an opening loss of more than 1% and below its 50-day moving average for the first time in about three weeks. The Dow also dropped sharply at the open, but it was quick to bounce up from its 50-day average.

A tepid revenue forecast from Cisco (CSCO 21.36, -2.37) overshadowed its better-than-expected bottom line and caused a barrage of selling in the tech sector, which sank 1.7%. That weighed heavily on the tech-rich Nasdaq, which lagged its counterparts all day.

Stocks managed to trim some of their losses as broader market participants eased up from their selling efforts. Despite several attempts, the S&P 500 was never able to break back above its 50-day moving average near 1088.

The stock market's lackluster action led to continued support for the relative safety of the dollar. In turn, the greenback gained 0.4% in its fourth straight advance, which has culminated in a week-to-date gain of about 2.6%.

Gold also garnered support. The precious metal settled pit trade with a 1.4% gain at $1216.70 per ounce.

Treasuries failed to build on recent gains. Specifically, the benchmark 10-year Note gave up 10 ticks, while the 30-year Bond fell about 15 ticks. This afternoon's $16 billion auction of 30-year Bonds attracted strong dollar demand of $44.3 billion and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.8, which was actually below that of the prior auction. The auction also drew a yield of 3.95%, which is slightly above both the Bond's current yield and what had been widely expected.

The CRB Commodity Index closed with a modest gain today, despite the 2.5% sell off in the energy sector. Soft commodities, led by sugar, did post a 2% gain.

Sept crude oil futures shed 2.9% to close at $75.74 per barrel, extending its sell off to a third consecutive session. Concerns about the economy and bearish fundamentals once again pressured crude futures. Note that crude oil is now down ~9% from its three month highs, set on Aug 4, at $82.97. Sept natural gas closed lower by 0.5% to $4.29 per MMBtu.

Dec gold futures ended higher by 1.4% to $1216.70 per ounce while Sept silver closed up 0.7% to $18.07 per ounce. The flight to safety supported prices in the precious metals.

Trading volume remains unimpressive as barely 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE. Volume on the NYSE has averaged just 955 million shares for the past 10 sessions.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+0.9%), Materials (+0.5%), Health Care (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: Tech (-1.7%), Industrials (-0.8%), Financials (-0.6%), Energy (-0.5%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.4%), Utilities (-0.4%), Consumer Staples (-0.2%)DJ30 -58.88 NASDAQ -18.36 NQ100 -0.7% R2K -0.6% SP400 -0.6% SP500 -5.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1040/2.20 bln/1561 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1292/1.01 bln/1713