YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks drifted throughout the session as an absence of news, and light volume provided little direction for stocks. After spending most of the session in a tight range, the major averages were able to break out to the upside in the final hour of trading, and close higher by between 0.6% and 1.0%. The major market indices closed the holiday-shortened week with their best weekly gains of 2010.

The materials sector was the market leader throughout the session after the Bank of Korea surprised investors by hiking its benchmark rate 25 basis points to 2.25%, signifying the global recovery may be gaining momentum. Some of the best performing materials stocks included Monsanto (MON 51.17, +3.45), US Steel (X 42.88, +1.79) and AK Steel (AKS 13.38, +0.69).

Also seeing investor interest was the financial sector which closed higher by 1.6%. Regional banks showed leadership with Regions Financial (RF 7.14, +0.31), Huntington Banc (HBAN 5.92, +0.25), and Zions Bancorp (ZION 23.24, +0.86) posting solid gains. The bigger investment banks fared quite well with JP Morgan (JPM 38.89, +0.73), Bank of America (BAC 15.10, +0.24), and Citigroup (C 4.04, +0.07) all posting solid gains ahead of next week's earnings announcements.

The VIX shed another 3.1% today, closing below 25 for the first time since June 21st.

Trading volume was light for the entire session as many traders preferred to add little exposure before earnings season begins with Alcoa (AA 10.95, +0.23) announcing its second quarter results after the bell on Monday.

Precious metals led the way higher for the CRB Commodity Index today, after it gained 1.2%. Sept silver gained 1.3% to close at $18.01 per ounce, while Aug gold futures finished up 1.1% to $1209.80 per ounce. Both gold and silver traded higher in morning trade before leveling off and trading sideways into the close.

It was a quiet day for the energy sector, which posted a modest 0.7% gain. August crude oil finished up 0.9% to $76.09 per barrel. August natural gas gained 0.2% to end at $4.41 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (+1.0%), Energy (+0.4%), Financials (+1.6%), Materials (+2.4%), Industrials (+0.8%), Utilities (+0.6%), Technology (+0.6%), Health Care (+0.2%), Telecom (+0.2%), Consumer Staples (unch)   

Declining Sectors: None DJ30 +58.73 NASDAQ +21.05 SP500 +7.68 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1979/1.58 bln/642 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2378/879.5 mln/630