YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The major indices held near the unchanged mark for the first half of the session, but a wave of selling pressure sent stocks into negative territory.

Despite the 2.0% decline in the S&P 500, it was an overall slow session with no economic data, or major corporate news items. Trading was choppy and volume was on the heavy side, with 2.15 billion shares exchanging hands on the NYSE, due to the quarterly expiration of stock options, index options, index futures and single stock futures.

The headline event of the session, a speech by Ben Bernanke on the financial system, didn't give the market any big surprises. Bernanke said that issue of "too-big-to-fail" companies need to be addressed, as firms became complacent in their risk management. While he feels the government has had no real alternative to preventing failures, he does feel there are efforts that can be made going forward.

Bernanke feels we must "vigorously address the weaknesses at major financial institutions with regard to capital adequacy, liquidity management, and risk management." In addition, Bernanke believes compensation needs to be matched to risk and attention must be placed to financial firms other than just banks.

Meanwhile, at the same conference, FDIC Chairman Bair said that the fee hikes for banks on FDIC insured accounts is necessary to prevent the reserve from falling to zero.

Eight of the ten sectors posted a loss. Financials (-5.3%) fell the most, but are still up 40% since March 6. The industrial sector was also a laggard, with GE (9.51, -0.62) dropping despite several brokerages making positive comment about the company's liquidity and capital positions following yesterday's GE Capital business update.

Defensive sectors, which are underperformed for the week, outperformed this session. Consumer staples rose 0.1% and healthcare gained 0.2%.

For the week, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose 0.8%, 1.8% and 1.6%, respectively.DJ30 -122.42 NASDAQ -26.21 SP500 -15.50 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 887/2.41 bln/1868 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 751/2.15 bln/2307