YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market's recent win streak was snapped by a concerted selling effort that left stocks to settle at session lows with steep losses. The sell-off precedes a highly anticipated European Union Summit.

Sellers made their presence felt in the first few minutes of action. Their push against stocks was made as headlines surfaced that a meeting between finance ministers of the European Union originally scheduled for Wednesday is cancelled. That caused concern that officials might also postpone an EU Summit scheduled for tomorrow. The Summit is expected to produce some definitive details on just how to improve financial conditions in Europe.

Although no delays to the Summit were announced, participants displayed concern that the meeting may not produce the results wanted by the market. That prompted many to pare their positions in stocks, thereby pocketing profits earned in the past three sessions, during which time the broad market climbed almost 4%. Pressure persisted into the close, leaving stocks to settle at session lows.

Financials were hit the hardest. The sector slumped to a loss of little more than 3%. Bank stocks fell sharply out of favor, primarily due to concerns about their exposure to Europe. However, European-based investment banks and brokerage plays Deutsche Bank (DB 39.44, -0.17) and UBS (UBS 12.57, -0.02) were able to limit losses after the pair posted upside earnings surprises for the latest quarter.

Most quarterly reports featured better-than-expected earnings. Texas Instruments (TXN 30.97, -0.72), BP Plc (BP 43.52, +1.68), Coach (COH 61.56, -1.10), DuPont (DD 44.94, -1.15), Illinois Tool (ITW 45.65, -2.58), UPS (UPS 69.35, -1.52), US Steel (X 22.40, -2.37), AK Steel (AKS 7.47, -1.18), and Netflix (NFLX 77.37, -41.47) all exceeded consensus earnings estimates, but concerns about the futures earnings of the final three names tore their prices down. 3M (MMM 77.04, -5.14) was a notable name on the short list of companies that came short of what Wall Street had expected. Weakness among stocks provoked interest in Treasuries.

Results from an auction of 2-year Notes also displayed strong demand for safety. The auction drew a bid-to-cover of 3.64, dollar demand of $127.4 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 39.2%. For comparison, an average of the past six auctions results in a bid-to-cover of 3.33, dollar demand of $116.4 billion, and an indirect bidder rate of 31.2%.

Data today featured the August S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Housing Price Index, which fell by 3.8%. A 3.5% decline had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Still, the slide wasn't as steep as the 4.1% decline experienced in the prior month.

The Conference Board released its October Consumer Confidence Index, which fell to 39.8. Not only did that miss the 46.0 that had been expected, but it also proved to be the worst reading in more than two years.

Precious metals rallied sharply today. Gold prices surged 2.9% to settle at $1700.40 per ounce, while silver prices finished up 4.4% at $33.05 per ounce. Worse-than-expected consumer confidence data, coupled with concerns about what was happening over in the euro zone, helped the precious metals rally throughout the day. Gold put in highs at $1704.70, a ~1 month high, while silver notched highs at $33.34, also a ~1 month high.

Crude oil prices added to yesterday's rally, adding 2.1% to finish at $93.17 per barrel. Most of crude's gains came in electronic trade. Futures traded in a relatively small range throughout the session, but once again closed the gap between Brent prices. Shrinking stocks in Cushing, Oklahoma helped crude oil trade higher for its second consecutive session. Today's highs, at $94.65, are crude's best since August 2. Natural gas ended higher by 1.6% at $3.66 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Consumer Staples -1.1%, Utilities -1.3%, Tech -1.7%, Telecom -1.8%, Health Care -2.0%, Energy -2.0%, Industrials -2.0%, Consumer Discretionary -2.2%, Materials -2.5%, Financials -3.1%DJ30 -207.00 NASDAQ -61.02 NQ100 -2.0% R2K -3.0% SP400 -2.4% SP500 -25.14 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 474/1.78 bln/2053 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 528/1.01 bln/2504