YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: News that G8 leaders believe the world economy still faces significant risks didn't stop stocks from starting the session in higher ground. However, the absence of positive catalysts led sellers to challenge the early advance and send stocks lower before strong Treasury auction results encouraged buyers to step back into the action.

The S&P 500 surrendered early gains and fell more than 1% before paring losses as the results from a $19 billion auction of 10-year Treasury Notes were announced midsession. Strong demand fueled buying in Treasuries and sent the benchmark 10-year Note more than one full point higher and its yield down to 3.3% for the first time since May.

Sellers redoubled their efforts later in the afternoon, but stocks were able to hold their session lows and rebound into the close. The major indices finished a bit mixed, though.

Retailers showed resilience by advancing 2.0%. Family Dollar's (FDO 31.18, +3.43) better-than-expected quarterly earnings results helped win support for the sector ahead of a barrage of monthly same-store sales announcements.

Health care also performed well. It held above the broader market for the entire session as favorable drug trial results from Amgen (AMGN 59.50, +7.27) catapulted biotechs.

Integrated telecom giants AT&T (T 23.54, -0.38) and Verizon (VZ 28.65, -0.53) were primary laggards in the Dow and lagged the S&P 500 for the entire session. The telecom sector finished 3.0% lower, worse than any other major sector.

Financials felt stiff selling pressure, too. The sector had been down approximately 4% at its session low, but was able to pare its losses and finish with a loss of 1.7%. Regional banks (-2.8%) and diversified banks (-1.9%) were laggards in the financial sector, but specialized financial and investment services firms (-5.7%) saw some of the worst losses.

Commodities were knocked sharply lower as gold prices fell 2.1% to $909.20 per ounce, which marks its lowest level in nearly two months. Meanwhile, crude oil prices fell for the sixth straight session by dropping 4.5% to settle near $60.10 per barrel. The sharp drop came as bearish gasoline inventory data overshadowed a larger-than-expected draw in weekly crude oil inventories. More broadly, the CRB Commodity Index fell 2.3% and is now down approximately 5% this week.

The drop in commodities prices came despite a moderately weaker U.S. dollar. However, it was the Japanese yen that slid 2.3% against the greenback. That marked one of the worst percentage losses by the yen this year.

Trading volume climbed to its highest level in two weeks as 1.4 billion shares exchanged hands on the NYSE. Trading volume is expected to remain at higher levels now that earnings season is here to attract participants.DJ30 +14.81 NASDAQ +1.00 NQ100 +0.5% R2K -0.9% SP400 -0.5% SP500 -1.47 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 860/2.50 bln/1782 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1025/1.44 bln/1972