YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A stronger dollar restrained buying so that the stock market spent the session chopping along in the red without any clear form of leadership.

Global sales growth of 6.5% in October for McDonald's (MCD 79.31, +0.01) and more delivery delays from Boeing (BA 70.21, -1.06) represented two of the more meaningful announcements ahead of this session, but neither had any impact on broader market action.

Given the slow news flow from the corporate space and the absence of data today, participants took their cues from the dollar. The greenback sported steady gains for most of the session and was up 0.6% at the close of trade. The dollar's advance today marked an extension of the 0.9% gain that it had logged last Friday, when it bounced off of an 11-month low.

Despite the greenback's gain, commodities were able to make varied gains. That helped push the CRB Commodity Index up another 0.5% so that it extended its two-year high.

Strength in the commodities complex helped natural resource stocks of the materials sector and energy sector advance 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

Tech made up the only other major sector to muster a gain as Cisco (CSCO 24.39, +0.13) attracted support ahead of its quarterly announcement on Wednesday. As a group tech stocks settled just 0.1% higher. Still, that was enough for the Nasdaq Composite to eke out a fractional gain. The tech-rich index has now advanced for five straight sessions and for 20 of the past 23 sessions.

Financials fell under renewed selling pressure after the sector had outperformed in each of the three previous sessions. Coming off of a near 7% weekly gain, financials fell to a 0.8% loss today. Insurers weighed most heavily on the sector.

Treasuries had a lackluster session that saw the benchmark 10-year Note slip a few ticks and the 30-year Bond pick up a few ticks. Their yields settled at about 2.55% and 4.11%, respectively. Results from an auction of 3-year Notes featured a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.26, dollar demand of $104.3 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 35.0%.

The gain in commodities was once again led by the surge in precious metals, which finished higher by 1.8%. Dec silver rallied for 2.9% to finish at $27.43 per ounce, while Dec gold gained 1% to settle at $1405.00 per ounce. Gold futures traded to a new all-time high at $1409.40, while silver futures put in fresh 30-yr highs at $27.64. Despite a strengthening dollar, precious metals trended higher on momentum following last week's confirmation of a new round of QE.

Dec natural gas gained 2.4% to finish at $4.09, helped higher by forecasts for colder-than-usual temperatures. Session highs in natural gas, at $4.097, were its best levels in a week. Dec crude oil finished up 0.1% to $87.06. Despite having a rather pedestrian session, it did trade to fresh 2 yr highs, at $87.49, in overnight trade.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.3%), Materials (+0.2%), Tech (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.8%), Utilities (-0.6%), Consumer Staples (-0.3%), Telecom (-0.3%), Health Care (-0.3%), Industrials (-0.3%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.1%)DJ30 -37.24 NASDAQ +1.07 NQ100 +0.1% R2K +0.0% SP400 -0.1% SP500 -2.60 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1279/1.80 bln/1375 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1354/908 mln/1609