YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks fought their way to a fractional gain late in the day as the dollar pulled back, but the effort failed to attract enough support to prevent a flurry of selling in the final few minutes of trade.

Stocks spent most of the session trying to push through moderate selling pressure, which came as some market participants opted to take profits following last week's 3.0% gain by the S&P 500.

Added pressure came in response to the dollar's first advance in four sessions. The greenback was up as much as 0.7% against a basket of competing currencies after Fed Chairman Bernanke stated in a weekend interview that the Fed could provide further stimulus to the economy, if necessary. The dollar was also driven higher as the euro dropped in response to reports of division among European leaders on the matter of increasing Europe's recently announced bailout plan. The euro was also implicated in a downgrade of Hungary's credit rating by analysts at Moody's to Baa3 from Baa1. Hungary's principal currency, the forint, had been down almost 3% before it recovered to a 1.5% loss by the end of the trading day.

As the dollar pared its gain to end the day just 0.3% higher, buyers returned to the stock market so that the S&P 500 finally turned positive. The market's move proved unsustainable, though, as it fell to its first loss in four sessions. The Nasdaq Composite was able to extend its streak of gains to four, though.

Health care stocks made up the worst performing sector of the session. They fell 0.7% as a group, even though Pfizer (PFE 16.80, +0.08) showed strength after its surprise announcement that its CEO will soon retire.

Borders (BGP 1.39, +0.31) led small-cap stocks of the Russell 2000 to a 0.6% gain after Pershing Square stated that it would be prepared to finance, on mutually acceptable terms, an offer by Borders Group to purchase all of the equity securities of Barnes & Noble (BKS 14.69, +1.41) in an all-cash transaction valued at $16 per share.

In other corporate news, MetLife (MET 40.75, +0.61) issued a strong outlook that helped its shares move higher. Still, that was too little to offset weakness in shares of regional banks (-0.4%) and diversified bank (-0.9%). The financial sector still finished with a 0.2% loss.

Energy stocks were the best performers of the session, but the sector's gain was clipped to 0.3% by the close. The sector's relative strength came even though crude oil prices finished higher by just 0.2% at $89.38 per barrel after the commodity had been down for most of the morning and early afternoon. Natural gas had a much stronger session that saw contract prices climb 3.3% to $4.49 per MMBtu.

Outside of the energy complex, silver prices set a new 30-year record at $30.12 per ounce before easing back to $29.74 per ounce for a 1.5% gain. Gold prices were up in pit trade to $1422.40 per ounce before they settled with a 0.6% gain at $1416.10 per ounce. The yellow metal later spiked in electronic trade to a new record high above $1428 per ounce.

The commodities sector finished higher today, despite sectors being mixed. Soft commodities (+2.4%) and precious metals (+1.6%) led the way higher for commodities. Orange juice was the largest gaining soft commodity after it rallied for 4.8%.

March silver closed higher by 1.5% to $29.74 per ounce. It traded to a fresh 30-yr high at $30.12 in morning trade, but ended well below those highs. Feb gold ended up 0.6% to $1416.10 per ounce. It notched highs at $1422.40, just shy of its all time highs at $1424.30.

Jan natural gas ended up 3.3% to $4.49 per MMBtu. Cold weather is helping increase demand. Prices touched their best levels, at $4.54, since Aug 9. Jan crude oil finished higher by 0.2% to $89.38 per barrel.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.3%), Tech (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Health Care (-0.7%), Utilities (-0.5%), Consumer Staples (-0.3%), Financials (-0.2%), Industrials (-0.2%)
Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary, Telecom, MaterialsDJ30 -19.90 NASDAQ +3.46 NQ100 -0.1% R2K +0.7% SP400 +0.0% SP500 -1.59 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1522/1.61 bln/1122 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1464/803 mln/1502