YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Despite a lack of leadership amid choppy action, stocks still scored varied gains on Friday. That gave the stock market its first back-to-back advance in three weeks.

After the prior session's surge, which was the stock market's second best single-session surge since March 2009, broad market stock futures traded with moderate gains. Big gains by Europe's bourses provided a positive backdrop. Strength there came amid news that France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium all announced short-selling bans intended to calm volatility there. Word also circulated that leaders of France and Germany will meet next week, presumably to discuss the eurozone's tenuous fiscal and financial conditions.

Early buyers were emboldened by news that both total retail sales and sales less autos increased by 0.5% during July. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com had called for increases of 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively. June numbers were revised upward to reflect respective increases of 0.3% and 0.2%.

The stock market's early advance had cold water thrown on it by the preliminary Consumer Sentiment Survey for August from the University of Michigan. On average, economists polled by Briefing.com had expected the Survey to come in at 62.5, but instead it dropped to 54.9, which is its worst level since 1980.

Disappointment over the Survey dashed all of the stock market's early gain, which stood at more than 1%, but the broad market gradually worked its way higher. The effort came without help from the financial sector, which had been a steady broad market driver during each of the past four sessions. Instead, lingering uncertainty about the fundamental health of financials and their exposure to potentially problematic markets left the sector to log a 1.2% loss, which made them the worst performing group of the day. Utilities and telecom, both defensive in nature, were the only other two sectors that suffered losses; both fell 0.6%.

The other sectors settled with varied gains. Industrials were the best performers. As a group, industrials advanced 1.8%. Their relative strength helped the Dow outperform its counterparts. Although they outperformed, industrials weren't really leaders, given their lack of broad market weight. So, even though the tone of trade was mostly positive today, listlessness made for choppy movement.

Sharp losses during the last few weeks dragged down the S&P 500's 50-day moving average, causing it to close below the stock market's 200-day moving average to effectively form what is known among traders as a Death Cross. Despite its ominous sound, since 1970 the stock market has typically stabilized and trended higher following the formation of the Death Cross.

Many investors are certainly wondering if such a point of stabilization has been formed now that stocks have finally booked back-to-back gains for the first time in three weeks -- three weeks that resulted in sequential weekly losses of 3.9%, 7.2%, and 1.7%.

That said, there was still a strong appetite for Treasuries. In turn, the benchmark 10-year Note climbed nearly one full point, which took its yield a hair below 2.25%.

Commodities had a rather unexciting session. As such, the CRB Commodity Index settled with a fractional gain.

Among the more widely watched commodities, silver was one of the biggest movers. It swung to $39.08 per ounce for a 1.0% gain. Gold prices fell 0.5% to $1743.20 per ounce. The decline marked gold's second straight loss after it had advanced for four straight sessions.

Oil prices eased down 0.2% to close the week at $85.24 per barrel. Natural gas finished flat at $4.06 per MMbtu.

Advancing Sectors: Industrials +1.8%, Consumer Discretionary +1.2%, Consumer Staples +1.0%, Health Care +0.8%, Energy +0.7%, Tech +0.6%, Materials +0.6% Declining Sectors: Utilities -0.6%, Telecom -0.6%, Financials -1.2%DJ30 +125.71 NASDAQ +15.30 NQ100 +0.7% R2K +0.2% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +6.17 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1344/2.23 bln/1247 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1954/1.26 bln/1103