3:30 pm : Commodities benefited from renewed buying interest this morning, but sentiment deteriorated as the session progressed.

Gold prices climbed to a new record of $1519.20 per ounce this morning, but retreated later in pit trade so that it closed with a fractional gain at $1510.60 per ounce. Silver settled with a 3.3% gain at $47.56 per ounce after it had been as high as $49.82 per ounce, which is its best level in more than 30 years.

Oil prices finished with a fractional loss at $112.17 per barrel after they had been comfortably above $113 per barrel in early pit trade. Although oil prices finished off of their highs, they also finished well above their session lows, which were set just above $111 per barrel.

Natural gas prices were unable to make a similar rebound. Instead, they turned lower just before the start of pit trade and never recovered. Contract prices closed the session with a 0.2% loss at $4.38 per MMBtu. DJ30 -26.83 NASDAQ +4.35 SP500 -1.91 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1106/1.23 bln/1478 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1313/490 mln/1662

3:00 pm : Stocks head into the final hour with mixed results. News flow has been slow since the start of the day, so participants are preparing for clearer trading cues, namely the latest round of earnings. Although there aren't many market movers slated for tonight, tomorrow morning features blue chips like 3M (MMM 93.74, -0.18) and Coca Cola (KO 67.65, -0.23). Ford Motor (F 15.53, +0.10), Hershey (HSY 56.60, -0.15), and U.S. Steel (X 51.89, +0.16) are also scheduled for tomorrow morning.DJ30 -26.68 NASDAQ +4.91 SP500 -1.84 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1103/1.13 bln/1479 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1324/445 mln/1637

2:04PM General Dynamics unit selected for U.S. Army's Operations, Planning, Training and Resource Support Services II contract (GD) 72.32 +0.07 : General Dynamics Information Technology selected by the U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) as an awardee for the Operations, Planning, Training and Resource Support Services (OPTARSS) II contract. The five-year, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, multiple-award contract has a total potential value of $2.5 billion if all options are exercised. General Dynamics

2:02PM Vitacost.com reports it has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers as the Company's registered independent certified public accounting firm, effective April 21, 2011 (VITC) 5.70 : (stock halted)

1:38PM Lizhan Environmental obtains $3.4 mln lines of credit to fuel expansion (LZEN) 2.34 +0.26 : Co announces that the Company has obtained lines of credit to fuel expansion. Lines of Credit On March 24, 2011, the Tongxiang Branch of China Citic Bank agreed to provide Hongzhan New Material Co, a subsidiary of co, with a line of credit in the principal amount of up to $3.4 million (~RMB 22,000,000). At the end of March 2011, the Company drew down ~$1.7 million (~RMB 10,000,000) from this line of credit at an interest rate of 7.272% per annum. The loan matures on March 23, 2012. The proceeds of the loan were only used for working capital of the Company, such as payment of salaries, utilities and other customary operational expenses. The loan is secured by Hongzhan's construction in progress and land use rights for ~17,200 square meters of real property. If Hongzhan defaults on the loan, the bank may exercise its remedies against the Company's land use rights for its real property.