YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The three major indices ended lower on Tuesday with varied losses as tech stocks and financial shares were cut down by participants, many of whom showed favor for precious metals amid a drop in the dollar.

Stocks attempted a modest move higher in the early going, but fleeting support resulted in a broad wave of selling. Early pressure was most pronounced among large-cap tech plays after Adobe (ADBE 26.67, -6.27) issued mixed guidance that overshadowed better-than-expected earnings from the company. Meanwhile, Microsoft (MSFT 24.61, -0.54) was pressured after it announced that it will hike its dividend by 23%. eBay (EBAY 24.34, -0.40) failed to find support following an improved outlook, which is still on par with what has been projected by analysts. Tech stocks recovered some of their losses to finish 0.6% in the red.

Financials fell the most. Their 1.6% decline came on top of a 1.0% loss in the prior session and marks the sector's fourth slide in five sessions. Insurers were initially the weakest performers in the sector, but bank stocks proved to be the biggest drag as the KBW Bank Index dropped 1.8%.

With two of the more widely followed sectors under pressure, the broader market violated near term support before it stabilized along secondary support lines. Still, stocks spent the afternoon chopping along in negative territory.

A 0.6% gain made utilities the strongest sector of the session. Many investors remain attracted to the sector's 4.3% dividend yield, based on current prices.

Treasuries were strong in the early going, but they finished mixed. For example, the 10-year Note gained just a few ticks so that its yield moved to just below 2.56% after it had been down to a three-week low of about 2.50%.

Among the more widely watched commodities, precious metals outperformed as the continuous gold contract price set a new all-time high of $1296.20 per ounce. Gold contracts for December settled at $1292.10 per ounce with a 1.4% gain. Meanwhile, silver prices rallied to a new 30-month high as prices for the December contract hit almost $21.14 per ounce. They settled with a 2.4% gain at $21.05 per ounce.

The big bounce by the metals came amid another sharp downturn by the dollar, which set a fresh five-month low against competing currencies.

Crude oil prices started the session in higher ground, but finished with a 0.3% loss at $74.94 per barrel on the back of the latest inventory data, which showed a build of 970,000 barrels when a draw of some 1.75 million barrels had been expected.

Natural gas prices managed to make a 0.9% gain to settle at $3.97 per MMBtu.

Overall action among commodities left the CRB Commodity Index to finish with a 0.2% gain.

Advancing Sectors: Utilities (+0.6%), Materials (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.1%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.6%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.7%), Tech (-0.6%), Industrials (-0.5%), Energy (-0.5%), Telecom (-0.1%)DJ30 -21.72 NASDAQ -14.80 NQ100 -0.3% R2K -1.2% SP400 -0.8% SP500 -5.50 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 859/2.20 bln/1755 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1126/953 mln/1873