YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A spike by bank stocks and semiconductor issues helped the major equity averages overcome a sluggish start to set new two-year highs issues.

Early trade lacked direction as market participants processed varied losses among overseas markets. That weakness was widely attributed to news that the People's Bank of China will further tighten lending conditions with a 50-basis point increase to its reserve requirement ratio. A rapid rise in producer price inputs in the United Kingdom also caused some concern about the potential need to raise rates while the global economy continues to find its footing.

Domestic data did nothing to inspire participants. The December Consumer Price Index increased 0.5%, which is a bit more than the 0.4% increase that had been expected. Excluding food and energy, consumer prices made a 0.1% monthly increase, as had been expected.

Retail sales for December increased 0.6% after a 0.8% increase in the prior month. Excluding autos, retail sales increased 0.5%, but that is a bit shy of the 0.6% increase that had been expected among economists polled by Briefing.com.

Industrial production increased 0.8% during December. An increase of only 0.4% had been broadly expected.

The preliminary Consumer Sentiment Survey for January from the University of Michigan came in at 72.7, which is below the 75.5 that had been expected after a December reading of 74.5.

Business inventories increased just 0.2% in November. A 0.8% increase had been generally expected.

While many participants were unmotivated by data, a big bounce by bank stocks helped stir broader interest. The KBW Bank Index climbed 2.3% to a six-month high after JPMorgan Chase (JPM 45.60, +1.15) posted an impressive quarterly report for its latest quarter.

Intel (INTC 21.10, -0.19) also issued strong numbers, but the report did more for the rest of the semiconductor space than it did for the company's own shares. Shares of INTC fell to a 1.0% loss, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged 2.7% to a new three-year high.

With more than 1 billion shares traded on the NYSE, share volume was solid this session, especially ahead of the long weekend -- U.S. markets will be closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Precious metals prices were under pressure all session. The selling effort sent gold prices down 2.0% to $1359 per ounce and silver prices down 3.4% to $28.27 per ounce. Gold prices set a session low of $1377.80 per ounce, which is just above its monthly low. Silver traded as low as $28.10 per ounce, which is its worst level in a month.

Oil prices staged a steady recovery that saw the commodity settle the session at $91.53 per barrel with a 0.1% gain. Natural gas was more impressive as it finished with a 1.6% gain at $4.48 per MMBtu.

The bounce by energy commodities gave the CRB Commodity a flat finish after it had been in the red this morning. It gained 2.8% for the week.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.7%), Energy (+1.2%), Tech (+0.9%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.6%), Industrials (+0.5%), Utilities (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.1%), Health Care (+0.1%), Materials (+0.1%)
Unchanged: Consumer Staples
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +55.48 NASDAQ +20.01 NQ100 +0.8% R2K +0.9% SP400 +0.7% SP500 +9.48 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1697/2.03 bln/949 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1712/1.06 bln/1255