YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks had looked like they might muster a slight gain in the final hour of trade, but a late-session selloff led stocks to finish at their lows with broad losses.

Financials led the slide into the close. The sector shed 1.2%, which makes for the worst loss of any major sector. Regional banks were under some of the most pressure; they dropped 2.2%.

In contrast, telecom stocks held on to their gains. In turn, the sector made it out with a 0.9% gain. The sector's lack of market weight left it unable to provide legitimate leadership to the broader market, though.

Airline shares also outperformed. Their strength helped the Amex Airline hit its highest level in almost three years. Its 1.8% gain was underpinned by news that Southwest Air (LUV 13.35, +1.07) will acquire Air Tran Holdings (AAI 7.34, +2.79) for $7.69 per share, a 69% premium over AAI's closing price from Friday.

Alberto-Culver (ACV 37.64, +6.16) also made merger and acquisition news with word that it will be acquired by Unilever for $37 per share, which represents a premium of about 17% over ACV's closing price from last week.

A lack of data, market moving headlines, and the absence of a consensus regarding the direction of the stock market kept participants on the sidelines. That depressed share volume, such that trading volume on the NYSE failed to break 1 billion shares again. Since the start of September trading volume on the Big Board has only broken above 1 billion shares on four occasions.

Treasuries had a strong session that saw the yield on the 10-year Note slide to 2.52%. The yield on the 2-year Note eased to just below 0.42% following an auction of 2-year Treasuries that drew a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.78, dollar demand of $136.1 billion, and indirect bidder participation of 39.0%. For comparison, the prior auction had a bid-to-cover of 3.12, dollar demand of $115.4 billion, and indirect bidder participation of 29.2%.

Oil prices closed pit trade flat at $76.52 per barrel after swinging from a gain in morning trade to an afternoon loss. As for natural gas, its price fell 2.6% to $3.02 per MMBtu. Stiff pressure weighed on the energy component for the entire session.

A quiet session left gold prices unchanged so that the yellow metal ended pit trade at $1298.60 per ounce. Silver settled 0.3% higher at $21.47 per ounce. Silver prices had extended their recent highs by hitting $21.65 per ounce in early electronic trade.

The CRB Commodity Index extended its eight-month high this session, though it settled just 0.2% for the better.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+0.9%), Utilities (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.2%), Industrials (-0.8%), Health Care (-0.8%), Materials (-0.7%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.6%), Consumer Staples (-0.5%), Energy (-0.4%), Tech (-0.2%)DJ30 -48.22 NASDAQ -11.45 NQ100 -0.6% R2K -0.4% SP400 -0.2% SP500 -6.51 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1036/1.89 bln/1614 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1260/919 mln/1706