YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The major averages slipped modestly on Wednesday as the broader market followed the financial sector.

Financial stocks completely reversed a 1% loss in the going only to give up the move and finish with a 0.8% loss, which was largely the result of weakness in bank stocks.

Bank stocks had also undermined action in Europe, where Germany's DAX dropped 0.5%, France's CAC fell 0.7%, and Britain's FTSE finished 0.2% lower.

With the financial sector unable to fight off sellers, the broader market faltered with the arrival of the final hour.

Resistance along the top end of recent trading ranges didn't help the case for stocks. Even at their best levels of the day the major averages were hung up near the neutral line.

Energy stocks booked relatively big gains, however. The sector's 0.7% advance was broad in that 35 of the 39 sector members advanced. Only Exxon Mobil (XOM 61.59, -0.47), Murphy Oil (MUR 61.26, -0.28), and Spectra Energy (SE 22.50, -0.01) logged losses. BP Plc (BP 40.00, +0.71) was among the better performers in the sector, despite contradicting reports regarding settlement talks related to the company's recent oil spill.

Only a fractional gain was made by the tech sector, despite strong guidance from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 42.53, +0.91) and strength among semiconductor stocks (+0.7%). Xerox (XRX 10.29, -0.26) and Electronic Arts (ERTS 16.23, -0.32) ended up dragging down the sector.

There were no major economic releases today, but tomorrow brings the third reading on second quarter GDP. No changes to the economy's 1.6% annualized second quarter growth rate are expected.

Ahead of the data, Philadelphia Fed President Plosser stated that he does not favor additional asset purchases at this time. Those comments sent bonds lower in afternoon action. The benchmark 10-year Note ended with a loss of about eight ticks. Treasuries had trimmed some of their midday losses amid results from an auction of 7-year Notes. The auction drew a yield of 1.89%, a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.04, and had indirect bidder participation of 50.2%. The bid-to-cover was the best in more than a year.

The dollar dropped to a new eight month-low this session and finished with a 0.3% against a basket of competing currencies. Most of its weakness was owed to a bounce by the euro and a gain by the yen.

A lack of direction over the past few sessions has stocks flat for the week. Should that theme hold into tomorrow it will mark a rather anticlimactic close to the third quarter. Despite such a finish, the S&P 500 is on track for a third quarter gain of almost 10%. Most of that is the result of a 9% by the S&P 500 so far this month. The strong month-to-date move has the stock market on pace for its best monthly gain since April 2009.

Energy was the largest advancing sector in commodities today, after it posted a 2.1% gain. Nov heating oil futures finished higher by 3.4% to $2.19 per gallon. Nov crude oil gained 2.2% to finish at $77.86 per barrel. This morning's inventory data showed a large, unexpected build in gasoline, and that sent crude oil futures into positive territory. From there, they extended their rally all session and closed just shy of highs at $78.13 per barrel. Nov natural gas gained 0.4% to end at $3.97 per MMBtu, in what was an uneventful session.

Despite sizeable weakness in the dollar index, Dec gold only managed to close higher by 0.2% to $1310.30 per ounce. The continuous gold contract did trade to a new all-time high, which is becoming an every day occurrence, at $1312.50. Dec silver, on the other hand, ended up 0.8% to $21.95 per ounce. The continuous silver contract set a new ~30 yr high above the $22 level at $22.075.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.7%)
Declining Sectors: Materials (-0.9%), Financials (-0.8%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.7%), Telecom (-0.5%), Utilities (-0.4%), Consumer Staples (-0.4%), Health Care (-0.3%)
Unchanged: Industrials, TechDJ30 -22.86 NASDAQ -3.03 NQ100 -0.2% R2K +0.3% SP400 +0.00% SP500 -2.97 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1378/2.09 bln/1215 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1650/1.01 bln/1317