Action at the end of April may have been subdued, but it allowed stocks to quietly put together an impressive series of advances.

Each of the three major equity averages gained about 2% this week. The march higher was part of a longer climb that saw the Dow and S&P 500 advance in seven of the past eight sessions. Even though the Nasdaq advanced only a single point today, that was enough to extend its string of gains to an eighth straight session.

Participation hasn't been very impressive in that time, though. In fact, share volume on the NYSE hasn't been above 1 billion shares since the first quarter's end, when asset managers moved to rebalance portfolios.

Even amid a deluge of earnings reports investors have stayed on the sidelines. During the past three weeks, more than 300 members of the S&P 500 reported earnings. More than 80% of them have either met or exceeded what had been expected by Wall Street.

The latest round of results featured a stronger-than-expected report from Dow component Caterpillar (CAT 115.41, +2.77), which spiked to a record high today. Merck (MRK 35.95, +0.18) also moved higher following its own upside earnings surprise. Their gains helped lift the Dow to its highest level in nearly three years.

Fellow blue chip Microsoft (MSFT 25.92, -0.79) offset some of their strength, though. The company's bottom line was better than expected, but narrower margins and and reduced target prices among analysts caused some concern. Shares of MSFT also weighed on the tech-rich Nasdaq, but Research In Motion (RIMM 48.65, -7.94) was an even bigger burden. The company's downside forecast caused the stock to drop precipitously to a six-month low.

The broad market's gains were modest today, but energy put together an impressive performance. The sector advanced 1.5% amid broad strength, which left only a few sector members behind. Occidental Petroleum (OXY 114.29, +9.16) was a top performer; it surged nearly 9% to an all-time high by building on prior session momentum that came in response to a stronger-than-expected quarterly report. Strength in Chevron (CVX 109.44, +0.63) was more modest after the firm posted a a better-than-expected bottom line on light revenue.

Another upward push by oil prices provided a positive backdrop to the energy sector. The energy component hit a new multi-year high above $114 per barrel before it settled at $113.84 per barrel with a 0.8% gain. For the week, oil prices finished 1.5% higher. For the month, they advanced almost 7%.

Precious metals have been even stronger performers. Gold set a new record high near $1570 per ounce before settling today at $1556.30 per ounce for a weekly gain of 3.0% and a monthly gain of 8%. Silver prices settled today's trade at $48.54 per ounce, giving it a 2% gain for the week and a 22% gain for the month.

Oil prices pushed to a new multi-year high above $114 per barrel before it settled at $113.84 per barrel with a $0.93 gain. Natural gas climbed $0.13 to $4.76 per MMBtu.

As for precious metals, gold advanced $25.10 to $1556.30 per ounce and extended its move into electronic trade so that it registered a new record high near $1570 per ounce. Silver prices settled $1.02 higher at $48.54 per ounce. During pit trade the precious metal pushed past $49 per ounce to reach its highest level in more than 30 years.

Strength among commodities came amid renewed selling in the dollar, which was recently down 0.2% against a basket of competing currencies. That keeps the Dollar Index near two-year lows.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+1.5%), Industrials (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.2%), Materials (+0.2%), Utilities (+0.2%), Tech (+0.1%)
Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary
Declining Sectors: Health Care (-0.1%), Financials (-0.2%), Telecom (-0.6%)DJ30 +47.23 NASDAQ +1.01 NQ100 -0.2% R2K +0.4% SP400 +0.3% SP500 +3.13 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1417/2.49 bln/1146 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1953/972 mln/1028