YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Today's session started on a positive note as stocks appeared poised for a second day of broad post-FOMC gains. However, the major averages marked their respective session highs during the first hour of trade and headed lower since. The Nasdaq was able to outperform as it held the bulk of its gains throughout the day. Afternoon selling pressure increased slightly after Egan Jones lowered the credit rating of the U.S. from ‘AA' to ‘AA-.‘ Looking at the major indices, the Nasdaq led the way with a 0.9% gain while the Dow and S&P 500 added 0.4% each.

Financial stocks continued to rally after yesterday's news. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 16.28, +0.13) closed higher by 0.8% as most major names advanced. The ETF has seen a 4.0% rally since the Fed's announcement. Bank of America (BAC 9.55, +0.15), Morgan Stanley (MS 18.24, +0.34), and Wells Fargo (WFC 36.13, +0.58) all posted gains near 1.5%. European financials were also in focus as monetary easing in the U.S. carries global implications. Barclays (BCS 14.81, +0.46), Deutsche Bank (DB 44.28, +1.41), and UBS (UBS 13.48, +0.46) all gained near 3.5%.

Stocks within the defensive telecom space were lower as the sector underperformed the broader market. Verizon (VZ 44.53, -1.05) and AT&T (T 37.26, -0.89) both slid near 2.3%. The two telecom giants saw relative weakness after Stifel Nicolaus downgraded both stocks from ‘buy' to ‘hold.' With the majority of the sector sliding, Sprint (S 5.26, +0.06) and MetroPCS (PCS 10.63, +0.15) were able to buck the trend and post respective gains of 1.2% and 1.4%.

AK Steel (AKS 5.87, -0.57) slumped 8.9% after lowering its third quarter guidance on expectations of a 7% quarterly decrease in the price of steel. Following the announcement, AK Steel was downgraded by Credit Agricole. Other steelmakers continued to rally along with producers of basic materials. Steel Dynamics (STLD 13.01, +0.61) added 4.9%, while Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF 45.55, +2.37) advanced 5.5%.

Office supply retailer OfficeMax (OMX 8.15, +1.04) surged 14.6%. Earlier, the company confirmed it would extinguish a non-recourse liability which is related to Lehman-backed timber notes. Because of this, OMX will recognize a non-cash, pre-tax gain of $671.1 million in the third quarter. Today's buying lifted the stock to a 21.2% gain on the week. Meanwhile, peer Staples (SPLS 12.21, +0.25) advanced 2.1% following recent rumors of a possible private equity buyout.

Western Digital (WDC 41.06, -1.51) fell 3.6% after lowering its revenue guidance for the first quarter. Shares of the hard drive producer have been in a downtrend since the stock reached a 2-year high at $45.48 on August 17.

Social media stocks were on the rise. Facebook (FB 22.00, +1.28) jumped 6.2% following reports which suggested the company is set to introduce a real-time ad program. FB's peer Zynga (ZNGA 3.18, +0.22) surged 7.4% after the company hired an online-gambling executive, Maytal Olsha as its new Chief Operating Officer. Elsewhere, Groupon (GRPN 5.27, +0.51) soared 10.7% as the stock of the online deals site continues rebounding after reaching an all-time low of $4.00 on September 4.

A slew of economic data points hit the wires today.

Consumer prices increased by 0.6% during August, which was in-line with the 0.6% gain that had been generally expected. Core prices increased by 0.1%, which was slightly short of the 0.2% increase expected by economists polled by Briefing.com.

Separately, retail sales rose during August by 0.9%, which was better than the 0.7% increase that had been broadly expected. The prior month's reading was revised down to show an increase of 0.6%. Excluding autos, retail sales rose by 0.8%, which was in-line with the Briefing.com consensus call.

Industrial production decreased during August by 1.2%, which was worse than the 0.2% decrease that had been widely expected. The reading followed the revised 0.5% increase experienced in the prior month. Capacity utilization hit 78.2%, which was worse than the 79.2% that had been expected and down from the revised prior month reading of 79.2%.

The preliminary University of Michigan Survey for September came in at 79.2, which was ahead of the prior month's 74.3, and better than the reading of 73.5 that had been widely expected.

Lastly, monthly business inventory data for July showed an inventory build of 0.8% for the month which was slightly above the 0.4% that had been expected.

On Monday, the Empire Manufacturing Index will be released at 8:30 ET.

Week in Review: Focus Turns to Federal Reserve as QE3 is Launched

Monday's session was mostly uneventful, as the range-bound trading day concluded with a late-afternoon push to session lows. The major averages saw a notable divergence as the Dow slipped 0.4% while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slid 0.6% and 1.0%, respectively. Airlines were stronger as United Continental (UAL 20.06, -0.03) advanced 1.8%.

On Tuesday, equities were broadly higher throughout the day before late afternoon selling sent the Nasdaq into negative territory. The dip also pushed the other indices lower, but they were able to hold most of their gains. The Dow finished higher by 0.5% while the Nasdaq ended flat. Groupon (GRPN 5.27, +0.51) finished higher by 8.0% after a reported increase in site traffic during the month of August.

On Wednesday, stocks started the day higher but were only able to hold a portion of their gains in a session which saw two pullbacks to the unchanged line. After spending most of the day in the black, the S&P 500 ended higher by 0.2%. The Dow Jones Transportation Average, which has been on a steady rise over the past week, added 0.8%.

A weaker dollar index and tension in the Middle East provided support to crude oil in today's pit trade. The energy component pulled-back off its pit session high of $100.00 per barrel set in morning action but stayed above the unchanged line. It settled the week 2.6% higher at $98.94 per barrel as action in previous sessions came mostly on weaker-than-anticipated inventory data and the launch of QE Infinity.

Natural gas continued yesterday's decline, dipping as low as $2.92 per MMBtu in morning action. Despite the fall and yesterday's bearish inventory data, it closed the week 9.7% higher at $2.94 per MMBtu.

Gold chopped around in positive territory for most of its pit session, extending gains following yesterday's announcement of the launch of a third round of quantitative easing. It touched a session high of $1778.40 per ounce and settled just below that level at $1772.80 per ounce for a 1.9% weekly gain. The yellow metal traded at six month highs this week, touching $1780.00 per ounce in overnight action.

Silver pulled-back slightly after yesterday's rally and spent most of its floor session in the red. Despite sliding to a session low of $34.32 per ounce in morning action, silver managed to book a 2.7% gain for the week as it closed at $34.64 per ounce.

Thursday's session was highlighted by a risk rally sparked by the Federal Reserve's decision to increase policy accommodations by purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month. The program is open-ended by design, which allows the Federal Reserve to terminate it once the employment picture shows substantial improvement. The S&P 500 was the best performing index and it settled higher by 1.6%. Financials rallied on the news and Bank of America (BAC 9.55, +0.15) led all majors with an advance of 4.8%.DJ30 +53.51 NASDAQ +28.12 SP500 +5.78 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1616/1.94 bln/848 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2104/899.8 mln/948