YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks attempted to stage another gain in the latest round of trade, but some late selling pressure left the major indices to finish in mixed fashion.

Cautious trade in the early going left stocks to start the session in the red. Participants were generally uninspired by Advance Retail Sales for August. The report indicated that retail sales in August increased 0.4%, which is slightly stronger than the 0.3% increase that had been expected, on average, among economists surveyed by Briefing.com. Excluding autos, August sales increased 0.6%, which is double the 0.3% increase that had been widely expected. Enthusiasm over August sales was partly tempered by downward revisions to sales for the prior month.

In other data, business inventories for July increased 1.0%, which is more than the 0.7% increase that had been widely expected. The greater-than-expected increase in business inventories ought to bode well for third quarter GDP.

Stocks overcame initial weakness to stage a steady climb, but the advance failed to take the S&P 500 through 1128, which marks the "flash crash" close and the top of the summer trading range. The major averages lacked direction after being rebuffed by the resistance line.

Shares of retailers still fared well, though. As a group they settled with a 1.2% gain. Best Buy (BBY 36.73, +2.08) was a primary leader in the group after it posted better-than-expected earnings and an increased profit outlook. The stock made its biggest bounce by percent in four months to book a two-month closing high.

Tech stocks were strong, too, although their gains were more than halved to 0.5%. Cisco (CSCO 21.46, +0.20) was a leader in the bunch after hinting at a potential dividend in 2011 during a presentation today.

JPMorgan (JPM 40.72, -0.40) resumed the discussion on its dividend during a conference as well by saying that it plans to restore its dividend payout ratio to a range of 30% to 40%. That did little to get bank stocks out of their funk, though some banks briefly benefited from news that embattled SunTrust Bank (STI 25.91, +0.60) believes it will post a third quarter profit, rather than log a loss as many have forecasted.

Trading volume on the NYSE failed to break 1 billion shares for the eighth straight session. Participation could pick up as monthly options come closer to their expiration at the end of the week.

Gold prices under the continuous contract set a new all-time high of $1274.60 per ounce, well above the previous all time high of $1266.50 per ounce. Silver prices continued their ascent as well. Specifically, the December contract for the precious metal hit $20.55 per ounce.

Meanwhile, the greenback dropped sharply against competing currencies. Specifically, the euro rallied 0.9% against the dollar and the yen climbed 0.7% and, in doing so, booked a fresh 15-year high against the dollar.

Though stocks settled with mixed results and volatility was muted, Treasuries caught a strong bid this session. In turn, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note pulled back below 3.70% after it broke above its 50-day moving average in the prior session.

The real story today in the commodities sector was the new all-time highs set in the continuous gold contract, which traded to $1274.60, well above the previous all time high of $1266.50. Dec gold futures finished higher by 2.2% to $1271.70 per ounce while Dec silver settled up 1.6% to $20.43 per ounce. The precious metals rallied on the back of a substantially weaker dollar. Note that today's highs in silver futures represent a fresh ~2.5 year high.

It was a much quieter session for the energy commodities. Oct crude oil finished lower by 0.5% to $76.80 per barrel, after it was unable to maintain early gains. Oct natural gas closed up 0.5% to $3.96 per MMBtu. Natural gas futures did trade back above the $4 level for the first time in ~3 weeks, but was unable to close above that level.

Advancing Sectors: Tech (+0.5%), Health Care (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.1%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.0%), Industrials (-0.3%), Energy (-0.3%), Utilities (-0.2%), Materials (-0.1%)DJ30 -17.64 NASDAQ +4.06 NQ100 +0.4% R2K -0.5% SP400 +0.1% SP500 -0.80 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1108/2.10 bln/1486 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1369/922 mln/1581