YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks began today's session sharply higher, and added to their gains throughout the opening hour of trade. The remainder of the day was spent hovering near session highs. The bullish sentiment was sparked after Mario Draghi confirmed yesterday's reports of a European Central Bank plan to buy bonds of troubled sovereigns who ask for aid. The program will be limited to bonds maturing within three years. Better-than-expected U.S. economic data also added to the upbeat tone which resulted in a broad market rally. The Nasdaq closed at a 12-year high while the S&P 500 settled at levels not seen since January 2008. The two indices finished higher by 2.2% and 2.0%, respectively.

With monetary policy as this morning's theme, financials rallied broadly. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 15.52, +0.36) added 2.4%. Bank of America (BAC 8.35, +0.40) was the top performer with a 5.0% gain. Citigroup (C 31.12, +1.35), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 38.69, +1.58) followed closely and posting gains near 4.5%. Shares of JPMorgan Chase shrugged off a Bloomberg TV report which indicated that the company is facing an escalating senate probe related to its CIO losses. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley (MS 16.25, +0.57) and Goldman Sachs (GS 113.54, +3.60) finished higher by 3.6% and 3.3%, respectively.

U.S. listings of European financials showed even bigger gains as Deutsche Bank (DB 37.61, +2.48) and Barclays (BCS 12.31, +0.79) jumped 7.1% and 6.9%, respectively.

The materials sector gained 2.6% as it outperformed the broader market. Within the group, AK Steel (AKS 5.37, +0.48) surged 9.8% after being upgraded from ‘neutral' to ‘buy' by Longbow Research. Elsewhere in the sector, Randgold Resources (GOLD 108.70, +6.31) advanced 6.2% after JPMorgan upgraded the stock from ‘neutral' to ‘overweight.'

Amazon (AMZN 251.38, +5.16) gained 2.1% after unveiling the newest version of its Kindle Fire tablet at an event in Los Angeles. Today's buying lifted the shares of the online retailer to a fresh all-time high. Amazon's peer eBay (48.91, +1.75) added 3.7% as it traded at levels not seen since January of 2005.

Solid state drive maker, OCZ Technology (OCZ 4.35, -1.01) slumped 18.8% after lowering its second quarter revenue expectations. The lowered guidance was followed by downgrades at Needham and FBN Securities. After lowering OCZ from ‘buy' to ‘hold,' Needham also downgraded Seagate (STX 31.70, -0.83) from ‘strong buy' to ‘hold' and maintained its ‘strong buy' rating on Western Digital (WDC 43.11, +1.27). Seagate slipped 2.6%, while Western Digital finished higher by 3.0% in reaction to the comments.

For-profit education stocks showed considerable strength as they outperformed the broader market. The group rally was led by Career Education (CECO 3.61, +0.27), which surged 8.1%. Corinthian Colleges (COCO 2.35, +0.19) jumped 8.6% while Apollo Group (APOL 30.39, +2.20) and ITT Educational Services (ESI 35.84, +1.99) finished higher by 7.8% and 5.9%, respectively.

The August ISM Services index was reported at 53.7, which was above the 52.4 Briefing.com consensus, and up from July's 52.6 reading.

According to the ADP National Employment Report, employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose 201K in August. This was above the 143K expected by Briefing.com consensus. In addition, the previous month's reading was revised up to 173K from 163K.

Separately, the latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 365,000, which was lower than the 373,000 that had been expected. The tally was below the revised prior week count of 377,000. As for continuing claims, they fell to about 3.322 million from 3.328 million.

Crude oil and precious metals rose in morning pit trade following the ECB's decision to leave rates unchanged and Mario Draghi's confirmation of yesterday's reports of an ECB plan to buy bonds with maturities shorter than three years.

Action also came on a number of U.S. economic data. Crude popped to its session high of $97.71 per barrel on better-than-anticipated inventory data that showed a draw of 7.426 mln barrels when a draw of 5.0 mln barrels was widely expected. However, prices pulled-back and crude oil inched lower for the remainder of the session. It brushed a session low of $95.19 per barrel moments before closing 0.2% higher at $95.59 per barrel.

Gold came off its pit session low of $1698.80 per ounce and traded up to a session high of $1711.90 per ounce. It pulled-back slightly in afternoon action but still settled 0.6% higher at $1705.00 per ounce. The yellow metal rose to its highest level since March, brushing a high of $1716.90 per ounce in overnight trade. Silver dipped to a session low of $32.38 per ounce but quickly advanced to a session high of $32.99 per ounce. Like gold, it pulled-back in afternoon action and settled with a 1.1% gain at $32.69 per ounce.

Natural gas rallied to its session high of $2.87 per MMBtu in reaction to stronger-than-expected inventory data that showed a build of 28 bcf when a build of 30 bcf was anticipated. The move was short-lived, however, as prices quickly fell into the red. Although it recovered some gains in late morning and afternoon action, a sell-off heading into the close had natural gas settle 0.7% lower at $2.78 per MMBtu.

Tomorrow's economic data will be headlined by the much anticipated August nonfarm payrolls report and the unemployment rate. In addition nonfarm private payrolls, hourly earnings, and average workweek will be reported. All of the data points will be released at 8:30 ET.DJ30 +244.52 NASDAQ +66.54 SP500 +28.68 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1938/1.85 bln/541 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2413/736.5 mln/623