YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks settled mixed with the major equity averages near the neutral line. The lack of direction came despite encouraging data and a sharp drop by the dollar, but preceded the advance GDP report for the third quarter.

The S&P 500 was up about 0.6% at its session high and down about 0.5% at its session low before it muddled its way to a flat finish. Early gains were helped by a positive reaction to initial jobless claims for the week ending October 23. They totaled 434,000, which is well below the 458,000 initial claims that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. The tally was also the smallest since July. More impressive is that continuing claims fell to 4.36 million, which is a near two-year low.

It took little time before the stock market's early gain was dashed, even though the dollar was under stiff pressure. The dollar, which has had an inverse relationship with stocks for several months, dropped to a 1.1% loss.

While the greenback was less of a factor than in recent sessions, stocks worked their way out of the red to finish slightly above the neutral line.

Actual leadership was limited, but health care managed to book a 0.5 gain, one of the better performances. The group advanced 0.5% amid strength in Cardinal Health (CAH 34.33, +0.92) and Celgene (CELG 61.20, +1.80). Both had upbeat earnings reports.

Industrials were at the other end of the scope as 3M (MMM 85.07, -5.30) dropped precipitously despite an upside earnings surprise. However, the sector pared losses into the close to finish just 0.3% into the red.

Market participants had varied reactions to earnings Akamai (AKAM 51.11, +0.72), Visa (V 76.45, -3.47), Colgate-Palmolive (CL 74.92, -0.58), Norfolk Southern (NSC 60.79, -0.56), Las Vegas Sands (LVS 44.63, +3.57), Noble Energy (NE 34.32, -0.11), Zimmer Holdings (ZMH 49.41, -2.48), Motorola (MOT 8.13, +0.04), and Dow Chemical (DOW 30.86, -0.35), all of which had better-than-expected earnings. To be fair, though, revenue results remain less impressive.

Outside of earnings, Halliburton (HAL 31.68, -2.74) ran into stiff selling on heavy volume following reports regarding the stability of the cement mixture foundation of the Deepwater Horizon well.

Treasuries finally caught a bid after slumping earlier this week. They were helped by strong results from a $29 billion auction of 7-year Notes. Yields settled a bit above session lows.

Tomorrow brings the advance GDP report for the third quarter. It will be released ahead of the market's open and is likely to be a major trading event. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com pegs growth at 2.0%.

The dollar drove trade in precious metals again this session. Precious metals collectively rallied for a 1.9% gain as the dollar dove to a loss of more than 1%. Gold specifically gained 1.5% to finish at $1342.50 per ounce. Silver settled 2.3% higher at $23.88 per ounce. They set respective highs of $1346.20 and $24.04 per ounce, which came in late-morning trade.

Natural gas prices started pit trade in the red with a marked loss, but jumped 3.6% to finish at $3.88 per MMBtu on the back of a smaller-than-expected build in weekly inventories. Meanwhile, crude oil prices lagged, but still finished with a 0.3% gain at $82.18 per barrel.

Advancing Sectors: Health Care (+0.5%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.4%), Consumer Staples (+0.3%), Telecom (+0.3%), Utilities (+0.2%), Tech (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Industrials (-0.3%), Materials (-0.1%), Financials (-0.1)
Unchanged: EnergyDJ30 -12.33 NASDAQ +4.11 NQ100 +0.2% R2K -0.5% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +1.33 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1088/2.02 bln/1504 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1498/1.01 bln/1442