YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks spent most of the session slogging along the flat line in a sideways chop, but a late bout of selling dropped the major equity averages into the red and left them to settle at session lows.

An absence of headlines and trading catalysts made for a rather mixed open, but the broad market did manage to muster enough of a gain to set an incrementally improved multi-year high before backing down amid a lack of leadership. Market participants opted to apply pressure to stocks with the release of the Conference Board's latest Consumer Confidence Index, which declined to 70.2 from an upwardly revised 71.6 for the prior month, even though the decline was on the order of what had been widely anticipated.

Selling failed to gain momentum, but participants weren't willing to do anything more than provide enough support to keep stocks near the neutral line, or at least until the final hour.

Strength among Tech stocks had helped the Nasdaq stay in positive territory for nearly the entire session. However, it broke below the neutral line in the final minutes of trade as the Tech sector traded lower alongside the rest of the market. Tech still eked out a 0.1% gain so that the sector stands alongside Utilities and Health Care as the only sector to score a gain. Utilities and Health Care booked gains of 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively.

Resuming the weak price action displayed during trade last week, Energy stocks were a drag today. The sector suffered a 0.9% loss, which came even though oil prices were able to overcome a mid-session slip to settle with a 0.2% gain just above $107.30 per barrel.

Walgreen Co. (WAG 34.80, +0.43) was a strong performer in the face of broad market listlessness. The stock scored its gain on the back of an upside earnings surprise, which is also what helped Lennar (LEN 27.63, +1.23). Education services provider Apollo Group (APOL 39.54, -3.66) also announced better-than-expected earnings, but the company's cautious outlook was enough of a reason for traders to cut down the stock.

The stock market's late slide stoked volatility expectations, such that the Volatility Index spiked more than 9% to close out the day comfortably above 15.

That helped Treasuries reclaim some of their gains and settle near session highs. Treasuries were treated positively following results from an auction of 2-year Notes. The offering drew a bid-to-cover of 3.69, dollar demand of $129.2 billion, an indirect bidder rate of 34.1%. For comparison, the prior auction drew a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.54, dollar demand of $123.9 billion, and an indirect bidder rate of 35.7%, while an average of the past six auctions drew a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.70, dollar demand of $129.6 billion, and an indirect bidder rate of 34.7%.

The dollar ended the day with a gain of about 0.2% after it had spent the better part of the session plodding along near the unchanged mark. Most of the greenback's gain is owed to a downturn by the euro, which settled the session at about $1.332.

Crude oil opened pit trade on a strong note, running to a session high of $107.75 per barrel. However, the energy component began to sell-off shortly before headlines suggested that the release of an oil reserve is being considered. Crude set a session low of $106.52 per barrel before it began to steadily recover losses. It settled pit trade with a mild gain of 0.2% at $107.33 per barrel.

Natural gas prices took a dive in the last hour of electronic trade to then spend all of pit trade in negative territory. Prices closed with a 0.9% loss at $2.30 per MMBtu.

After reaching respective highs of $1696.90 per ounce and $33.13 per ounce in morning trade, gold and silver gave up all of their gains and slid into negative territory. Gold settled its floor session with a loss of just 0.1% at $1684.80 per ounce, and silver settled at $32.67 per ounce, or 0.3% lower.

Advancing Sectors: Utilities +0.4%, Health Care +0.3%, Tech +0.1%
Declining Sectors: Materials -0.2%, Consumer Staples -0.2%, Consumer Discretionary -0.2%, Industrials -0.2%, Energy -0.9%, Telecom -0.9%, Financials -1.0%DJ30 -43.90 NASDAQ -2.22 NQ100 +0.2% R2K -0.7% SP400 -0.4% SP500 -3.99 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 945/1.65 bln/1581 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1243/730 mln/1736