YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Momentum was lost in the final minutes of the session, but the major equity averages still scored gains in excess of 1%. The effort gave stocks their third straight gain.

The S&P 500 is now up 3% week to date. Should the market maintain its positive posture for the next couple of sessions, it will score only its second weekly gain in eight weeks.

Recent buying interest comes in response to improved sentiment related to the precarious fiscal and financial conditions of Europe. In response to such concerns, France and Germany led a call that reportedly concluded Greece will carry out all acts to meet budget plans. That was hardly surprising. Participants also took in stride today news that Credit Agricole and Societe Generale, two of France's leading financial institutions, had their ratings downgraded by analysts at Moody's after the threat of such a decision had already circulated at the start of this week.

Tech proved integral in today's climb. The sector, which is the largest sector by market weight, initially led stocks back from an early slip through near-term resistance. That eventually convinced some traders to set chase. Although the S&P 500 managed to cross 1200, it failed to hold its position there and closed off of its high.

The positive tone to today's trade helped pull down the Volatility Index, which set a two-week high above 43 earlier this week. The VIX is down almost 20% from that mark.

Treasuries had a relatively quiet session, despite strength among stocks and a reduction in expectations for volatility. As such, little reaction was had to the latest 30-year Bond sale, which saw relatively strong demand after auctions earlier this week produced some unimpressive results. The auction drew a bid-to-cover of 2.85, dollar demand of $37.1 billion, and an indirect bidder participation rate of 39.4%.

The dollar had a down day. It shed 0.3% against a collection of competing currencies. Its downturn was largely driven by buying in the euro, which ended the trading day 0.5% higher at $1.375 as sentiment surrounding Europe's situation improved.

Economic data was rather dull. Retail sales for August were flat, which is less than the 0.2% increase that had been broadly expected to follow a downwardly revised 0.3% increase in the prior month. Excluding autos, retail sales increased by 0.1%, but that still failed to meet the 0.3% increase that had been widely anticipated.

The Producer Price Index for August was flat, as had been generally forecasted. Core producer prices increased by a mere 0.1%, which is essentially on par with the 0.2% increase had been anticipated.

Crude oil futures, which closed lower by 1.4% at $88.91 per barrel, saw a quick uptick following this morning's inventory data, which showed a larger-than-expected draw down. That uptick was quickly erased, however, after futures proceeded to sell-off to fresh lows at $88.21, a 70 cent drop. After a modest bounce of those lows, futures spent the remainder of the session chopping around the $89 level. Natural gas futures gained 1.6% to finish at $4.04 per MMBtu. Prices spiked to highs of the session at $4.10 heading into afternoon trade, but there did not appear to be any headline that coincided with that move. Futures pulled back throughout the remainder of the session to close below session highs.

It was an uneventful day for the precious metals. Gold futures, which ended lower by 0.2% at $1826.50 per ounce, chopped around just shy of the flat line for most of the session. Silver futures, which shed 1.8% to close at $40.54 per ounce, sold off to its lowest levels, at $40.31, heading into afternoon trade and closed just above those lows.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom +0.5%, Utilities +0.8%, Health Care +1.0%, Consumer Staples +1.2%, Financials +1.2%, Energy +1.3%, Materials +1.6%, Tech +1.6%, Consumer Discretionary +1.7%, Industrials +1.8%
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +140.88 NASDAQ +40.40 NQ100 +1.5% R2K +1.8% SP400 +1.8% SP500 +15.81 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1900/2.32 bln/649 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2219/1.09 bln/776