YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks managed to slash losses, but still settled in the red following another gain by the greenback and disappointing guidance from Dow component Cisco.

The S&P 500 was down about 1% at its session low and the Nasdaq was off by close to 2% at its worst level of the session. The selloff came as participants responded negatively to another gain by the greenback -- 0.6% this session. The dollar has now advanced in five straight sessions for a cumulative gain of about 3%, which makes for its longest and strongest streak in months.

Support for the dollar has come amid concerns about the debt of such fiscally challenged eurozone countries as Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Wider yield spreads on their debt has made for a less than tacit indication of that concern.

Participants were also inclined to sell after Cisco (CSCO 20.52, -3.97) dropped a disappointing outlook on investors. The downside forecast completely overshadowed the firm's better-than-expected earnings results and sent shares of CSCO to their worst single-session percentage drop of the year. Such extreme weakness imbued the rest of the tech sector, which logged a 1.8% loss.

Stocks gradually recovered from their session lows so that broader market losses on the session were less than half of what they had been at the depths of today's trade.

Momentum was lost late in the day, though. Disney (DIS 35.93, -1.06) disrupted some of the action by posting an earnings miss shortly before the close.

Despite the broader market's failure to fully recover, resource-linked stocks staged some impressive gains. More specifically, energy stocks swung to a 1.0% gain while materials settled 0.9% higher. The two sectors outperformed for virtually the entire session, but the broader market never really rallied around the pair.

With stocks settling in the red for the third time this week, they enter Friday with a weekly loss of close to 1%, which would be its worst weekly loss in about three months.

There were no economic releases today. The U.S. Treasury market was closed in observance of Veterans Day.

Commodities were mixed today, with precious metals rallying for 1.9% while soft commodities fell 3.2%. March sugar futures plunged 9.6% to finish at 29.66 cents a pound following news that India could produce a bigger-than-expected surplus.

Dec gold finished higher by 0.6% to $1403.30 per ounce, while Dec silver gained 3% to settle at $27.41 per ounce. Both metals finished higher despite a stronger dollar.

Dec natural gas extended its sell off to a second session after it shed 2.9% to end at $3.93 per MMBtu. Forecasts for milder-than-usual temps weighed on prices. Dec crude oil finished flat on the session at $87.81 per barrel.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+1.0%), Materials (+0.9%), Health Care (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Tech (-1.8%), Financials (-0.9%), Telecom (-0.7%), Industrials (-0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.1%)
Unchanged: Utilities, Consumer StaplesDJ30 -73.94 NASDAQ -23.26 NQ100 -0.7% R2K -0.5% SP400 -0.2% SP500 -5.17 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 897/2.57 bln/1739 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1041/951 mln/1903