YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market's third straight tumble has it down more than 3% this week. The downward path comes as participants revert to a negative bias bolstered by the absence of progress related to the improvement of Europe's precarious conditions.

For three straight days the path of least resistance for stocks has been downward. Negative sentiment has been induced by a muddled and tenuous macro outlook. Moreover, participants are growing weary of the lack of progress by Europe's leaders in restoring economic and financial conditions in both the core and periphery of the continent. That has provided fodder for rumors of further sovereign debt downgrades in the region.

Dwindling confidence in the region has the euro on a downward path. It dropped to an 11-month low, before stabilizing and finishing the session with a 0.4% loss at $1.298.

Efforts to pare risk extended to commodities, causing the CRB Index to drop 3.4%. The CRB hasn't had such a poor performance since September. Among the more closely tracked commodities, gold futures prices fell 4.6% to settle at $1587.70 per ounce, while silver futures prices were pressed to $28.86 per ounce for a 7.6% loss. Crude oil ended down 5.2% at $94.95 per barrel -- a smaller-than-expected weekly inventory draw didn't help.

The combination of sharply lower oil prices and broad market weakness made energy plays today's poorest performers. The sector slid almost to a loss of almost 3%. Everything from exploration plays to drillers to refiners were caught up in the sector's sell-off.

Benefiting from the drop in oil prices, airline shares ascended in the face of broad market weakness. Meanwhile, financials managed to limit losses to a collective decline of only 0.3%, despite the possible implications if problems in Europe persist, let alone worsen.

Treasuries extended their gains. Another strong auction helped. Results from an offering of 30-year Bonds drew a bid-to-cover of 3.05, dollar demand of $39.7 billion, and an indirect bidder rate of 32.5%. For comparison, an average of the past six auctions gives a bid-to-cover of 2.62, dollar demand of $36.4 billion, and indirect bidder participation of 31.6%.

Concerns over the euro zone caused a broad base sell-off today in the commodities complex. Chatter about a possible French downgrade added additional strength to the dollar and increased downward pressure on commodities. Gold futures fell 4.6% to settle at $1587.70 per ounce. Futures broke below their 200-sma, which added some technical selling pressure, to put in lows at $1565 - gold's lowest level since Sept 29. Silver futures dropped 7.6% to end at $28.86 per ounce. Futures put in lows at $28.53, their worst level s since Oct 5 but managed to bounce around 30 cents off those lows.

Crude oil ended down 5.2% at $94.95 per barrel, pressured by euro zone concerns, technical selling after futures broke below the $96 support area, and inventory data which showed a smaller-than-expected draw down. Futures put in lows at $94.21, their lowest levels in over a month, but managed to bounce off those lows heading into the close. Natural gas fell 4.2% to finish at $3.14 per MMBtu. Futures put in lows at $3.13, a fresh +2 month low, and closed just above those lows. Inventory data will be released tomorrow at 10:30 ET.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Health Care -0.2%, Financials -0.3%, Consumer Staples -0.5%, Telecom -0.6%, Utilities -0.8%, Industrials -1.1%, Consumer Discretionary -1.2%, Materials -1.2%, Tech -1.7%, Energy -2.7%DJ30 -131.46 NASDAQ -39.96 NQ100 -1.6% R2K -1.3% SP400 -1.6% SP500 -13.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 902/1.78 bln/1672 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 844/929 mln/2195