YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Although it fought to finish above its low, the stock market still logged a 1% loss in response to reminders that the global economy remains challenged and that there aren't any new plans to address the weakness.

Over the course of the past three sessions the stock market climbed to a cumulative gain of more than 6%, but that heady move was pressured amid news that during the second quarter Germany's economy grew at a paltry pace of 0.1% and that broad eurozone GDP grew just 0.2%. The relatively dour data was released ahead of a press conference between German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy, who offered only a proposal for eurozone government leadership, rather than a new plan intended to restore the region's fiscal and financial challenges with the ultimate goal of protecting economic growth.

The euro rallied in the wake of the conference, though; by the end of the trading day it swung from a loss to a 0.5% gain at $1.646.

Amid Europe's persistent problems, participants were uninspired by Fitch's affirmation of its AAA rating on US debt and news that domestic industrial production increased by 0.9% during July. That not only surpassed the 0.4% increase that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com, but marked the strongest clip in about three years.

Other data was uninspiring. Specifically, annualized housing starts for July totaled 604,000 units, which is slightly less than the rate of 608,000 units that had been broadly expected. Building permits fell to an annualized rate of 597,000, which is less than the annual rate of 606,000 that had been anticipated. Still, that didn't slow a 5% rally by Home Depot (HD 33.12, +1.66) following its latest quarterly report, which featured a better-than-expected bottom line.

Wal-Mart (WMT 51.92, +1.94) traded almost 4% higher to test a two-week high following news that its latest quarterly report featured better-than-expected earnings, despite a decline in same-store sales. That helped consumer staples stocks muster a 0.1% gain. They were the only major sector that managed to settle in positive territory.

Other defensive-oriented plays -- health care, telecom, and utilities -- were able to limit losses. Each of those sectors suffered losses of just 0.3%.

Financials were at the opposite end of the spectrum. They slumped 1.9% as diversified financial services issues slid sharply.

At its session low, the S&P 500 was down 2% to the 1180-1181 area, but near-term technical support there provided a floor for stocks to trend higher. Although momentum faded in the final leg of trade, the stock market was still able to cut its loss by more than half.

Trade in the precious metals was largely driven by economic news in both the US and abroad. In overnight trade, gold and silver rallied after GDP data in Germany came in light of expectations. They extended their respective rallies following econ data in the US that also came up shy of expectations. There was a very limited reaction to the headlines that came out of the Sarkozy/Merkel conference. Dec gold settled higher by 1.6% to $1786.90 per ounce, while Sept silver finished up 1.4% to $39.87 per ounce.

Concerns about the euro zone pressured Sept crude oil futures today, which ended with losses of 1.4% at $88.65 per barrel. The meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to ease concerns about the euro zone. The worse-than-expected economic data in Germany and US also pressured prices. Sept natural gas ended lower by 2.1% to $3.94 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Staples +0.1%
Declining Sectors: Telecom -0.3%, Utilities -0.3%, Health Care -0.3%, Consumer Discretionary -0.4%, Tech -1.0%, Materials -1.5%, Industrials -1.5%, Energy -1.7%, Financials -1.9%DJ30 -76.97 NASDAQ -31.75 NQ100 -0.9% R2K -1.9% SP400 -1.4% SP500 -11.73 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 564/2.07 bln/2005 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 739/1.13 bln/2311