YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Many had expected a shortened session of subdued trade to follow the Thanksgiving holiday, but sellers moved concertedly to pressure stocks amid news of credit troubles in Dubai. Their actions gave the stock market its worst single-session percentage drop of the month and caused volatility to spike.

News that the Dubai government took charge of restructuring its corporate flagship, Dubai World, and asked creditors to defer payments of some $20 billion of debt due in the next 18 months sent U.S. stock futures reeling. Though pressure eased prior to the opening bell, stocks still started the session sharply lower.

The weakness reflected that of Europe's major indices during Thursday's trade, when U.S. markets were closed in observance of Thanksgiving, and Asia's weakness in its final session of the week. The news of Dubai was the primary focus for the entire session. Updates for the progress of "Black Friday" promotional sales were secondary.

Financials felt considerable pressure in the wake of the Dubai debacle. The sector shed 2.8% as bank stocks and diversified financial services stocks were imbued with weakness associated with news that the likes of Lloyds Group (LYG 5.71, -0.49) and HSBC (HBC 58.46, -3.61) and other European banks are closely tied to lending to Dubai.

The news also gave broader market participants a nudge to lock in gains from the market's multimonth rally. Losses were broad based, too. In fact, all 30 Dow components logged a loss, while roughly 95% of the listings in the S&P 500 finished in negative territory.

Amid the pressure, many global participants looked for quality. That favored the U.S. dollar, which exacerbated weakness among stocks. The dollar surrendered more than half of its early advance to settle with a gain of just 0.3%.

The greenback's initial advance also pressured commodities, which had already been suffering from global selling pressure, too. The CRB Commodity Index had been down roughly 4% in the early going, but finished with a loss of 2.0%.

Broader market pressure and weakness among commodities took their toll on the materials sector and the energy sector. The two led declines for most of the session and both finished with a 2.4% loss.

Though stocks slumped, volatility spiked this session. As such, the Volatility Index surged 20%. That's its biggest single-session percentage advance since a 23% spike late last month.DJ30 -154.48 NASDAQ -37.61 NQ100 -1.6% R2K -2.5% SP400 -2.0% SP500 -19.13 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 453/947 mln/2108 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 424/653 mln/2528