YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market surrendered an early gain of more than 1% to end the day with only an incremental gain. Tech stocks acted as a particularly heavy drag, which led the Nasdaq to suffer a sizable loss.

Although action among the major foreign averages overnight and this morning was rather unimpressive, stocks climbed to an early gain of more than 1%, which was enough to offset the prior session's loss. Such positive posture provided stocks with an opportunity to resume the three-day, 6% climb that was interrupted yesterday. However, the failure to extend its early move made traders question the market's legs. That prompted some participants to pare their positions.

Tech stocks were sold most aggressively. That left the sector to log a 0.9% loss. Dell (DELL 14.20, -1.60) was an especially heavy drag on the space. The company's downside guidance cast a pall over its upside earnings surprise. Pessimism about the company's near-term prospects lends credence to concerns that some analysts have about tech spending amid a slowdown in macro activity. Such a notion imbued the rest of the tech space and, as a result, undercut the tech-rich Nasdaq.

Deere & Co. (DE 74.26, -0.90) reported better-than-expected bottom line results of its own. The company also increased its earnings forecast to exceed what Wall Street had projected, but that didn't stop the stock from succumbing to selling pressure.

Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF 64.87 -6.15) also slumped, even though it posted an upside earnings surprise of its own. Target (TGT 50.55 +1.18) separated itself from the pack following its better-than-expected earnings announcement and increased earnings forecast. Despite the divergence, general weakness in the retail space left the group to slide more than 1%, based on the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 46.68, -0.55).

The stock market's inability to preserve early gains led many participants to move into telecom and utilities issues, which boast relatively stable businesses and rich dividend yields. The two sectors advanced 1.6% and 0.8%, respectively.

The dollar didn't attract any favor from safety seekers, though. It actually fell to a 0.4% loss versus a basket of major foreign currencies after the Swiss National Bank stated that its franc is overvalued, but offered no proposal to peg it to a currency like the euro.

With stocks still trying to settle into a clear path following last week's wild swings, many investors have moved to the sidelines. In turn, trading volume on the NYSE today totaled less than 1 billion shares.

Data didn't do anything to encourage trade. The only item on the economic calendar was a Producer Price Index that increased by 0.2% during July. Core prices increased by 0.4%. The consensus call among economists polled by Brieifng.com had sought no change in overall producer prices and a 0.2% increase in core producer prices.

Metals: It was a choppy session for gold and silver futures, which finished higher by 0.5% to $1793.80 per ounce and up 1.2% to $40.36 per ounce respectively. Both metals traded back toward the flat line in midmorning trade, but managed to retrace those sell-offs to finish with modest gains on the day. Weakness in the dollar aided the gains in precious metals.

Dec crude oil finished higher by 1.1% to $87.56 per barrel. Futures traded as high as $89 heading into this morning's inventory data. The data showed a build of 4.2 mln barrels vs expectations for a modest draw down, and that caused futures to pull back from those highs. Crude was able to stem its pullback around the $87.50, where it ended on the day. Sept natural gas finished higher by 0.3% to $3.94 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: Health Care +0.1%, Materials +0.3%, Energy +0.5%, Financials +0.6%, Consumer Staples +0.8%, Utilities +0.8%, Telecom +1.6%
Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary -0.3%, Industrials -0.4%, Tech -0.9%DJ30 +4.28 NASDAQ -11.97 NQ100 -0.6% R2K -0.1% SP400 -0.5% SP500 +1.12 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1189/1.91 bln/1358 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1827/973 mln/1232