YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM] The major equity averages hugged the flat line in early trade as participants prepared for commentary from the Fed and its Chairman, Ben Bernanke. Stocks eventually broke free from their narrow range to extend their recent highs.

Although the stock market has been on an upward trend in recent sessions, traders were apprehensive to chase stocks higher this morning. Their pause preceded the latest FOMC policy statement, which indicated that the Fed expects to keep the Fed Funds Rate -- still at 0.00% to 0.25% -- at exceptionally low rate levels for an extended period. The Fed also noted that the economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace, instead of the firmer pace that it had noted in its previous statement.

Fed Chairman Bernanke later indicated in a press conference that the Fed has lowered its GDP forecast for 2011 to the range 3.1% to 3.3%, from 3.4% to 3.9%. The Fed also trimmed the top end of GDP estimates for 2012 and 2013, but narrowed their long-run growth estimate so that it ranges from 2.5% to 2.8%, instead of 2.4% to 3.0%.

Although GDP growth is expected to moderate, Bernanke announced that the Fed expects unemployment in 2011 to be between 8.4% and 8.7%, which is down from the range of 8.8% to 9.0% that had been previously estimated.

The revisions to economic growth and unemployment come ahead of tomorrow's report on first quarter GDP, which is widely expected to show growth of 1.7%. It was learned early this morning that the United Kingdom economy expanded at a 0.5% rate in the first quarter.

Following today's Fedspeak, gold and silver prices made sharp gains into electronic trade. Gold actually set a new record high of roughly $1530 per ounce while silver extended its 30-year high to more than $48 per ounce.

Earnings were generally of secondary interest to the overall market today, but there were some dramatic swings at the individual level.

Amazon.com (AMZN 196.63, +14.33) ascended almost 8% to a record high following its latest quarterly report. Boeing (BA 76.12, +0.57) and WellPoint (WLP 75.54, +2.57) also benefited from a positive response to their quarterly reports; both set fresh 52-week highs.

ConocoPhillips (COP 79.83, -1.38) came short of the consensus earnings estimate. That initially imbued Exxon Mobil (XOM 87.78, +0.36) ahead of its quarterly report tomorrow morning. Although COP couldn't fully recover, shares of XOM rebounded to close within one dollar of their 52-week high. International integrated plays BP Plc (BP 46.53, +0.21) and CNOOC (CEO 250.71, -2.55) finished in mixed fashion, though.

The overall energy sector managed to fully erase a loss of more than 1%. Hess (HES 82.74, +2.07) and Baker Hughes (BHI 77.28, +3.22 were leaders, thanks to stronger-than-expected earnings. Shares of BHI actually hit a 52-week high.

Broadcom (BRCM 35.45, -4.96) also had an upside earnings surprise for the latest quarter, but that mattered little in light of the company's disappointing forecast. In turn, the stock dropped to a six-month low.

Several commodities encountered selling pressure in early pit trade, but they were able to recover for a strong close.

Precious metals prices were backed down toward the neutral line this morning, but both rallied in afternoon trade. As a result, gold settled with a 0.6% gain at $1526.30 per ounce. Silver settled with a 3.5% gain at $47.56 per ounce.

Oil prices set session lows of about $111 per barrel this morning, shortly after it was learned that weekly oil inventories had a greater-than-expected increase. Oil settled rebounded to positive territory not long after that, then chopped to a 0.2% gain at $112.95 per barrel.

Natural gas had a relatively quiet session that kept the energy component near $4.38 per MMBtu just about all day.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom (+1.3%), Health Care (+1.2%), Consumer Discretionary (+1.1%), Utilities (+0.8%), Financials (+0.6%), Industrials (+0.6%), Tech (+0.5%), Consumer Staples (+0.5%), Materials (+0.2%)
Unchanged: Energy
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +95.59 NASDAQ +22.34 NQ100 +0.7% R2K +0.6% SP400 +0.6% SP500 +8.42 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1618/2.08 bln/956 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1932/959 mln/1041