YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market's upward momentum continued today as each of the major averages finished with solid gains of more than 1%. The higher close put the Dow Jones in positive territory for the year (+0.82%), as the S&P 500 closed at its best levels of the year, and the Nasdaq has now put together nine straight winning sessions and is up a remarkable 21% for the year.

A favorable bias was set before the open when the Wall Street Journal reported that CIT Group (CIT 1.25 +0.55) has reached an agreement with its bondholders to secure $3 billion in last minute, rescue financing. While there hasn't been a formal announcement from the company regarding the details of this deal, it is believed that the financing will charge a high interest rate and is not a long term fix to the company's financial needs. However, the deal should keep the lender out of bankruptcy court and buy the company time to restructure.

The CIT news may have been the most widely reported and covered story today, but there were other catalysts that supported today's strength. Corporate earnings continue to surprise to the upside, with Halliburton (HAL 22.33 +0.95) Hasbro (HAS 26.45 +1.07), Johnson Controls (JCI 23.08 +1.56), and Eaton (ETN 48.94 +3.99) all reporting better-than-expected second quarter results before the open. Additionally, a majority of the overseas markets posted strong gains, and Goldman Sachs raised their 2009 target for the S&P 500 to 1060.

The economic calendar was light today, but did include the June leading indicator data, which was better than expected at +0.7% vs. the +0.5% consensus. This marked the third straight monthly increase, although it was a slower pace of increase than the 1.3% and 1.0% increases posted for May and April, respectively. The main drivers of the June increase were the interest rate spread (0.35%), building permits (0.22%), stock prices (0.10%), jobless claims (0.08%), the average workweek (0.06%), the pace of deliveries (0.05%), and consumer goods orders (0.02%). This economic data was viewed positively by the market as the major averages steadily moved higher following the release.

In commodities, August crude oil closed higher by $0.56 to $64.12 and August natural gas ended up 1.3 cents to $3.683. Gold was strong for the entire session and finished higher by $11.70 to close at $949.20 on weakness in the U.S. dollar (-0.79%). After moving in a fairly wide range today, the 10-Year Treasury Note finished the session higher by 9/32 with a yield of 3.608%.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, the pace of earnings releases will pick up considerably and includes closely followed names such as Caterpillar (CAT 36.65 +2.66), Coca-Cola (KO 51.03 +0.71), Apple (AAPL 152.91 +1.16), Yahoo (YHOO 17.01 +1.01), and UnitedHealth (UNH 24.84 -0.25). There are no major economic releases scheduled for tomorrow. DJ30 +104.21 NASDAQ +22.7 SP500 +10.8 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1808/2071/858 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2314/1126/706