YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Financials put on another strong performance, but the broader market was slow to follow. Even after a late lift, the S&P 500 finished the day with only a modest gain.

The broader market moved higher in the early going with help from news that initial jobless claims for the week ended December 4 fell to 421,000, which is less than the 429,000 claims that had been predicted by economists polled by Briefing.com, and that continuing claims declined to a two-year low of 4.09 million.

However, early buying lacked the conviction necessary to extend the S&P 500 past its two-year high of 1235, which was set earlier this week. The loss of momentum near that point coincided with a bounce by the dollar. That ultimately fed into a flurry of selling.

Sellers tried to send the S&P 500 into the red a couple of times, but support limited both the depth and duration of those declines. Though the benchmark index was able to move back into positive territory, most of the afternoon was spent session chopping along with a narrow gain. The Nasdaq did the same, but the Dow spent most of the day down with a slight loss.

Financials displayed leadership for the second straight session, but the broader market refused to rally around it. Financials finished the day with a 1.3% gain, which puts it on pace for a weekly gain of 2.9%.

Banks have backed most of the financial sector's recent gains. The KBW Bank Index added to the prior session's 2.9% spike by booking a 2.2% gain today. It is up 4.8% week-to-date.

Although gains by the greenback acted as a headwind in the early going, the dollar's strength dwindled into the close. At the end of the day the dollar was only up fractionally against a basket of competing currencies. Waning support for the greenback came at the same time that Bloomberg TV reported that PIMCO raised its estimate for U.S. growth based on the Fed's second quantitative easing effort. Stocks responded positively, but the S&P 500 stalled near its session high. The Dow finished at the flat line.

Treasuries caught a bid after two straight sell-offs. They set their highs following the release of results from a $13 billion auction of 30-year Bonds. The auction's results generally indicated that there is a market for Treasuries at current interest rates.

Commodities were mixed today, with soft commodities (-1.1%), energy (-0.6%) and grains (-0.2%) all finishing lower, while industrials (+1.2%), precious metals (+0.9%), and livestock (+0.2%) ended up on the day. Orange juice futures, for the fourth consecutive session, saw volatility after they shed 2.6% to close at $1.6255 per pound.

Jan natural gas shed 3.7% to finish at $4.43 per MMBtu, giving back most of its gains from yesterday's weather-induced rally. This morning's inventory data showed a draw that was more-or-less inline and that was enough to send prices plummeting. Jan crude oil finished up 0.1% to $88.37 per barrel.

Precious metals finished quietly higher today, after Feb gold posted a 0.3% gain to end at $1389.00 per ounce and March silver gained 1.7% to finish at $28.82 per ounce.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.3%), Telecom (+1.1%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%), Materials (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.3%), Energy (+0.3%), Industrials (+0.2%), Health Care (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: (None)
Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary, Tech DJ30 -2.42 NASDAQ +7.51 NQ100 +0.0% R2K +0.5% SP400 +0.4% SP500 +4.72 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1528/1.92 bln/1069 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1673/1.01 bln/1336