YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Another round of broad-based buying gave stocks their fourth straight gain today. They now enter Friday with a weekly gain of almost 5%.

Positive momentum from the past few sessions helped prop up stocks ahead of the open. Buying interest was further bolstered by news that the European Central Bank has coordinated efforts with the Fed and other central banks to extend dollar loans to European banks, so as to help improve their liquidity. The announcement also acted as a tacit pledge of support for the continent's banks, which have been a source of concern amid the precarious fiscal and financial conditions in the eurozone periphery. The news also drove up the euro, but cut down the dollar.

Despite their strong start, stocks encountered some selling pressure when the S&P 500 attempted to push through the prior session's highs, just above 1200. The stock market quickly fell about 1%, but was able to stabilize then stage a steady climb. It paused in the 1202-1204 zone before claiming another leg of gains and settling at its session high.

This session's advance has the stock market up about 4.8% week to date. While that may sound like a heady move, it marks only the second weekly gain for the S&P 500 in eight weeks.

Even though many participants bought stocks for no other reason than to chase gains, Netflix (NFLX 169.42, -39.29) failed to find any support at all. The stock surrendered almost one-fifth of its market cap as it fell to a new 2011 low in response to a downwardly revised customer count.

There wasn't much other corporate news, but traders were dealt a large dose of data. It was generally underwhelming, but it was essentially shrugged off in light of today's positive tone.

The latest weekly initial jobless claims tally totaled 428,000, which exceeded the 410,000 initial claims that had been broadly expected. Moreover, the latest initial claims total is up 11,000 from the prior week.

Overall consumer prices for August increased by 0.4%, which is greater than the 0.2% increase that had been broadly expected. Core consumer prices increased by 0.2%, as had been anticipated, however.

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey for September fell to -8.8 from -7.7 in the prior month. It had been expected to come in at -4.0, based on the Briefing.com consensus. In a similar vein, the Philadelphia Fed Survey for September came in at -17.5, which is an improvement from the -30.7 that was posted in the prior month, but still below the -10.0 that had been expected among economists surveyed by Brieifng.com.

The second quarter current account deficit totaled $118.0 billion. It was generally expected to total $121.5 billion.

Last on the list, industrial production for August increased by 0.2%, which exceeded expectations for no change.

Metals remained pressured throughout the session following this morning's announcement that numerous central banks including the Fed, the ECB, the SNB, the BoJ and the BoE, were coducting three US dollar liquidity-providing operations with a maturity of approximately three months covering the end of the year, to European banks.. Gold, which ended lower by 2.4% at $1781.10 per ounce, sold off to its lowest levels at $1775, its worst levels since late August, and finished just above those lows. Silver futures, which also closed down 2.4% on the day to $39.50 per ounce, put in lows at $39.40 and like gold closed just above those lows.

Natural gas, which shed 3.9% to close at $3.89 per MMBtu, sold off sharply following this morning's inventory data, which showed a larger-than-expected build. Futures extended their pullback heading into the afternoon session and notched lows at $3.88 just ahead of the close. It was a quiet afternoon for crude oil, which gained 0.6% to close at $89.40 per MMBtu.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom +0.9%, Health Care +1.0%, Consumer Staples +1.3%, Utilities +1.3%, Materials +1.7%, Tech +1.8%, Consumer Discretionary +1.8%, Industrials +1.9%, Energy +2.0%, Financials +2.6%
Declining Sectors: (None) DJ30 +186.45 NASDAQ +34.52 NQ100 +1.5% R2K +1.3% SP400 +1.3% SP500 +20.43