YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Listless trade left stocks to spend the afternoon stuck in a tight range before a late fit of selling threatened to undercut the major averages. Stocks settled mixed.

Yesterday the stock market dove 1.6% for its fourth straight loss and worst decline in three months. But participants were slow to wade back into the waters of the equity market, especially amid lingering concerns about tighter monetary policy in China and the tenuous state of Ireland's finances. Though China's State Council announced price control guidelines to reassure consumers facing rising inflation and Ireland's Finance Minister will meet with officials from the European Union, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund, participants showed restraint.

Broader market advances were limited so that the S&P 500 was kept within a three-point trading range for almost the entire afternoon. An absence of legitimate leadership helped sustain the range bound trade.

Of the major sectors, consumer discretionary fared the best. Its 0.7% advance was underpinned by strength among retailers. Target (TGT 55.62, +2.08) was a standout in its space as participants responded positively to its latest quarterly report. The stock booked its best percentage gain in about five months.

The discretionary sector was also helped by strength in automakers ahead of the initial public offering pricing of General Motors.

Financials were out of favor for the entire session. Their 0.6% loss made for the worst sector performance of the session. Diversified financial services (-1.5%) and regional banks (-1.7%) were the worst offenders in the sector.

Aware of the mixed underlying action and the broader market's inability to break free from the day's trading range, sellers attempted to apply some late pressure. Part of it came after a weaker-than-expected outlook from NetApp (NTAP 49.25, -3.44) was leaked ahead of its scheduled report. However, support surfaced to keep stocks from rolling over.

For the second straight day data had little meaningful impact on trade. Among the most recent reports, the Consumer Price Index for October increased 0.2% after a 0.1% increase in the prior month. It had been expected to increase 0.3% month-over-month. Core consumer prices for were flat for the second month in a row. The Briefing.com consensus called for a 0.1% increase for October.

Housing starts for October fell 11.7% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 519,000, which is less than the rate of 600,000 starts that had been expected among economists polled by Briefing.com. Building permits edged 0.5% higher to an annualized rate of 550,000, which is also less than the rate of 570,000 permits that had been expected.

For the most part, commodities were mixed today. Industrials shed 4.5% after March cotton shed 4.4% to finish at $1.235 per pound.

Dec crude oil shed 2.3% to settle at $80.44 per barrel. An unexpected draw down in inventory data this morning did little for prices. Crude sold off throughout the afternoon to finish the day near its session lows at $80.06. Those lows also represent crude's worst levels in almost a month. Dec natural gas rallied for 4.4% to finish at $4.02 per MMBtu. It traded to session highs at $4.037 just ahead of the close of pit trade.

Dec silver ended higher by 1.3% to $25.51 per ounce. It took advantage of a weaker dollar to recoup some of its losses from yesterday's sizeable sell off. Dec gold ended lower by 0.1% to $1336.90 per ounce. It spent the day chopping around the flat line in what was an uneventful session.

Trading volume retreated from the robust amounts seen in the prior session. Today's tally on the NYSE did not even break 1 billion shares.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (+0.7%), Energy (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-0.6%), Telecom (-0.2%), Utilities (-0.1%), Tech (-0.1%), Materials (-0.1%), Industrials (-0.1%)
Unchanged: Consumer StaplesDJ30 -15.62 NASDAQ +6.17 NQ100 +0.3% R2K +0.3% SP400 +0.6% SP500 +0.25 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1374/1.83 bln/1245 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1807/953 mln/1182