YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks attempted to reverse modest losses in the final minutes of trading, but the effort failed, which made for an anticlimactic finish to what was already a choppy and listless session.

Stocks spent the entire session struggling to find direction. The seesaw action came amid the annual reconstitution of the Russell indices and some typical end-of-quarter window dressing. Those themes likely added to the session's volatility, but they didn't stimulate trading volume until the final few minutes of the session, when volume on the NYSE more than doubled to finish with 2.35 billion shares trading hands. That's the largest amount in three months.

There weren't any leaders to speak of this session. Retailers traded with strength for virtually the entire session before succumbing to selling pressure as the closing bell approached. Retailers finished fractionally lower.

Financial stocks made a modest rally into the close after spending nearly the entire session showing weakness. Thanks to strength in investment banking and brokerage stocks (+1.7%) and diversified financial services stocks (+1.8%), the financial sector finished 0.6% higher.

Health care (+0.1%) and telecom (+0.1%) were the only other two sectors to finish with a gain.

Though the tech sector, as a whole, finished 0.1% lower, large-cap tech showed strength. Strength in such names as Google (GOOG 425.25, +9.48) and Apple (AAPL 142.44, +2.58) helped the Nasdaq Composite outperform its counterparts.

Overall news flow was slow this session, but participants did get some additional insight into how second quarter GDP is shaping up with the release of personal income and spending data for May. Income made a surprisingly strong 1.4% increase, but spending for increased 0.3%, as expected. Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.1% month-over-month, as expected.DJ30 -34.01 NASDAQ +8.68 NQ100 +0.3% R2K +0.8% SP400 +0.2% SP500 -1.36 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1714/3.65 bln/937 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1833/2.35 bln/1170