YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks surrendered some of their gains, but the broad market still settled in higher ground for the sixth time in seven sessions.

Another round of broad-based buying took stocks to their highest level in a dozen days. The ascent has come in the face of political and social instability in the Middle East and North Africa, not to mention Japan's radiation risk two weeks after massive earthquakes damaged nuclear facilities.

As a group, energy stocks staged some of the strongest gains today. The sector's 0.9% gain was led by the likes of Newfield Exploration (NFX 75.68, +2.91) and Valero Energy (VLO 29.93, +1.14). Schlumberger (SLB 86.89, -1.21) was one of only a few names in the sector that failed to put together a gain.

Tech had initially displayed leadership following an upside earnings surprise and strong forecast from Oracle (ORCL 32.64, +0.50), but a loss of support in afternoon trade left the sector to finish with a gain of less than 0.2%. That caused the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite to drift to a rather lackluster finish after it been up about 1% at its session high. Research In Motion (RIMM 56.89, -7.20) was a primary source of weakness; its dramatic drop stemmed from disappointment over the firm's forecast and a subsequent downgrade by analysts at Deutsche Bank.

The only data of consequence today was the third estimate for fourth quarter GDP, which was revised upward to reflect growth of 3.1%. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com had called for a 2.9% increase.

That news came before Philadelphia Fed President Plosser acknowledged that an improving economy needs for a strategy to normalize monetary policy. Plosser expressed favor for a strategy that involves raising rates and shrinking the balance sheet concurrently and tying the pace of asset sales to the pace and size of interest rate increases. Although economists continue to believe that any such move is unlikely in the near term, the statement was a more direct indication that the Fed is thinking about the day when it will need to act.

A late run up made natural gas one of today's top performing commodities. The energy component settled pit trade with a 3.6% gain at almost $4.40 per MMBtu.

Oil had a relatively quiet session. Prices settled just 0.2% lower at $105.39 per barrel.

As for precious metals, gold prices closed with a 0.6% loss at $1426.30 per ounce and silver settled at $37.18 per ounce with a 0.5% loss. Both encountered selling pressure after Philadelphia Fed President Plosser stated his proposal for normalizing monetary policy.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.9%), Telecom (+0.8%), Materials (+0.5%), Industrials (+0.3%), Health Care (+0.3), Consumer Discretionary (+0.2%), Tech (+0.2%), Financial (+0.2%)
Unchanged: Utilities, Consumer Staples
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +50.03 NASDAQ +6.64 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +0.8% SP400 +0.8% SP500 +4.14 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1512/1.86 bln/1092 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1969/823 mln/1015