YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market lacked direction during the first half of the trading day, but the financial sector ultimately helped lead the broader market to a modest gain.

Stocks started the day in positive territory, but they retreated into the red as the dollar fought off selling efforts to secure support at the neutral line. The dollar oscillated thereafter and finished the day with fractional gain.

Buyers were slow to respond to the stock market's morning slide, but their gradual move back into the market helped stocks muster gains. Financials attracted the most support. The sector swung to a 1.8% gain. Banks were some of the best performers in the space as the KBW Bank Index climbed 2.9%. Banks have had a strong start to December; the KBW is already up 10.0% in the first six sessions of this month. For comparison, the S&P 500 is up 4.0% in that same time span.

Two IPO's out of China accounted for some of today's best individual performances. Dangdang (DANG 29.91, +13.91), labeled by many as China's Amazon.com (AMZN 176.29, -0.48), almost doubled in price. Youku.com (YOKU 33.44, +20.64), which is conceptually similar to YouTube, more than doubled in price.

Home Depot (HD 34.08, +0.53) had a strong session of its own, but it couldn't keep the Dow from trailing its counterparts. The stock challenged six-month highs after it issued an improved outlook.

Fellow Dow component McDonald's (MCD 78.74, -1.60) reported this morning global comparable sales growth of 4.8% for November, but that could not help the stock from extending its record high. MCD was the worst performing stock in the Dow.

Treasury prices continued to turn lower, such that the yield on the 10-year Note hit a six-month high of almost 3.33% before it eased back to 3.24% around the close of trade. A $21 billion reopening of 10-year Notes attracted a yield 3.34% and produced a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.92. Dollar demand was the weakest in a year; it came in at $61.3 billion.

The sell-off in precious metals continued as silver prices plummeted 5.1% to settle at $28.25 per ounce and gold dropped 1.9% to $1383.20 per ounce. In contrast, natural gas prices climbed 4.5% to $4.60 per MMBtu, a four-month closing high. Weekly natural gas inventory data are due tomorrow morning. Today's larger-than-expected draw of 3.82 million barrels of crude oil initially pressured oil prices, but the commodity pared its loss to settle the day down 0.5% at $88.28 per barrel.

Commodities finished higher today, with precious metals the (-3%) the sole declining sector. Industrials (+1.3%) and grains (+1%) led the way higher. Orange juice futures had another volatile session, spurred once again by concerns about freezing in Florida, after they gained 3.1% to end at $1.668 per pound.

March silver dropped 5.1% to settle at $28.25 per ounce, while Feb gold ended off 1.9% to $1383.20 per ounce. Both metals were helped lower by the continued rally in the dollar, as well as some profit taking following yesterday's new-all time highs for gold and 30-yr highs for silver. Silver futures shed almost 9% from yesterday's 30-yr high to today's close.

Jan natural gas ended up 4.5% to $4.60 per MMBtu. It spent the afternoon consolidating around the $4.55 area before ticking to its best levels heading into the close at $4.61 --a fresh 4-month high. Cold temperature across the country one again helped prices move higher. Jan crude oil finished lower by 0.5% to $88.28 per barrel.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.8%), Tech (+0.9%), Consumer Staples (+0.3%), Health Care (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: Materials (-0.9%), Utilities (-0.5%), Energy (-0.3%), Industrials (-0.3%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.1%)
Unchanged: TelecomDJ30 +13.32 NASDAQ +10.67 NQ100 +0.5% R2K -0.1% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +4.53 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1316/1.77 bln/1321 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1160/1.11 bln/1844