YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The FOMC statement made for a volatile afternoon as stocks sold off, treasuries sold off, and the dollar rallied. The Dow had been trading up as much as 85 points following the FOMC statement, but sold off as traders digested the news, and closed with a gain of 48 points. Today's gains in the Dow allowed the index to close at its best level since September 2008. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each finished with gains of 0.1%.

Telecom (+1.6%), health care (+1.1%), and utilities (+0.3%) were among the best performing sectors for a second consecutive session as traders seem to be rotating out of more economically sensitive stocks, and into some of the recent laggards. Those investors seeking yield will be happy to know that today's leading sectors sport healthy dividend yields.

Health care was one of the top performing sectors buoyed by a strong gain in Amgen (AMGN 56.78, +2.67) after the company announced its bone drug Xgeva allows prostate cancer patients to live longer without the disease spreading to their bones. Other stocks in the sector to see solid gains included C.R. Bard (BCR 89.55, +3.50), and Mylan (MYL 20.68, +0.85).

Shares of Best Buy (BBY 35.49, -6.21) were hit hard today after reporting weaker-than-expected results before the opening bell. The company announced earnings of $0.54 per share when the Thomson Reuters consensus was looking for earnings of $0.61 per share. The company also missed analysts' expectations by posting revenues of $11.89 billion which represented a 1.1% drop in year/year. The poor earnings hit other electronics retailers with Radioshack (RSH 18.63, -0.58) and Gamestop (GME 21.76, -0.16) also seeing losses.

Financials (-0.9%) closed lower today as weakness in the regional banks were a drag. Huntington Bancshares (HBAN 6.29, -0.37), Regions Financial (RF 6.21, -0.34), and First Horizon National (FHN 10.46, -0.46) finished the day among the worst performing stocks in the S&P 500 Financials Index. Within the index, 63 of 81 members ended the session in negative territory.

Treasury yields were higher all session long, and spiked to new highs following the FOMC statement. Selling in the 10-yr pushed its yield up to a session high of 3.490%, a level it had not seen since mid-May. As traders more aggressively sold the longer dated maturities, the 2-10-yr spread steepened to a session high 285. The spread now trades within striking distance of its all-time steepest level of 293.9.

The dollar strengthened post FOMC statement, and will end the day near its best level of the session. As the dollar moved higher, the euro fell back below the 1.3400 level, and the pound retreated further from 1.5800. After trading flat near 83.35 for much of the afternoon, dollar/yen will finish near its session high of 83.78.

Economic data was mixed with better-than-expected November retail sales, and a bigger-than-expected rise in producer prices. Business inventories saw a gain, but failed to meet expectations.

Commodities finished mostly lower today, with industrials (+1.4%) the sole advancing issue. Energy shed 1.2%, while grains lost close to 1% on the day. The volatility in March orange juice futures continued today after they shed 4% to close at $1.6015 per pound.

Jan natural gas ended lower by 3.3% to $4.25 per MMBtu, posting its third loss in four sessions. Forecasts for above avg temps across the Midwest helped prices move lower today. Jan crude oil finished lower by 0.4% to $88.28 per barrel in what was an uneventful session.

Feb gold ended higher by 0.5% to $1404.30 per ounce, while March silver gained 0.6% to finish at $29.78 per ounce. Both metals bounced off of their intraday lows, in midmorning trade, to recoup some of their overnight gains. In electronic trade, both metals have give up those gains as the dollar has recouped its losses following the release of today's FOMC decision.

Volume was light yet again with less than one billion shares trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. DJ30 +47.98 NASDAQ +2.81 SP500 +1.13 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1327/1.85 bln/1297 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1334/956.9 mln/1694