YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The S&P 500 pushed through technical resistance to set a fresh four-month high on Monday. There were no catalysts or headlines to account for the climb. Only a bullish bias among market participants underpinned the move.

Stocks made only modest gains in the early going. Most traders took their cues from Europe, where the major bourses staged strong gains as concerns about sovereign debt subsided. Early action was generally consistent with the relatively cautious trade that typically precedes an FOMC announcement, the latest of which will be released tomorrow afternoon.

Though no rate actions are expected tomorrow, many will look for changes in the verbiage of the actual the FOMC statement to give clues about where policy might be headed. The looming announcement comes after the National Bureau of Economic Research announced this morning that the recession that began in December 2007 ended in June 2009. Such a stretch made it the longest recession of any since World War II.

Amid an absence of market-moving headlines and uncertainty about the pace of the economic recovery and plans to support it, stocks still attracted enough support to push the S&P 500 through key resistance levels. The broad market index barely paused as it crossed through the top end of its summer trading range to reach its highest level since May. Momentum was helped by some short covering among those that thought resistance would hold.

Support was broad based with all 10 major sectors staging gains, but a 2.0% gain made financials the best performers of the day. Discover Financial (DFS 16.16, +0.59) was a leader in the sector after it posted better-than-expected earnings.

Lennar (LEN 15.14, +1.15) reported better-than-expected earnings of its own to help homebuilders rally ahead of September housing starts data, which is scheduled for release tomorrow morning. A 5.6% gain among homebuilders helped lift the consumer discretionary sector 1.9%.

The tech sector advanced 1.4% amid continued merger and acquisition activity, which includes news that IBM (IBM 131.79, +1.60) will acquire Netezza (NZ 28.27, +3.67) for $27.00 per share and L-1 Identity Solutions (ID 11.64, +1.94) will be acquired by Safran for $12.00 per share.

The tone of trade was decidedly positive this session, but the persistent lack of trading volume suggests that retail investors still are not completely on board.

Oct natural gas futures ended lower by 4.4% to $3.82 per MMBtu today, the largest decliner in the commodities sector. While natural gas's recent run up can largely be attributed to the threat of hurricanes, the pull back below the $4 level can be attributed to the dissipation of those storms. Natural gas closed the session just above its lows at $3.81. Oct crude oil finished higher by 1.6% to $74.86 per barrel. A rally in equities helped crude move higher for the first time in 5 days.

It was a relatively uneventful session for Dec gold, which ended higher by 0.2% to $1280.80 per ounce, and Dec silver, which shed 0.2% to close at $20.80 per ounce.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+2.0%), Consumer Discretionary (+1.9%), Energy (+1.7%), Telecom (+1.6%), Industrials (+1.5%), Tech (+1.4%), Health Care (+1.4%), Utilities (+1.3%), Consumer Staples (+1.0%), Industrials (+0.6%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +145.77 NASDAQ +40.22 NQ100 +1.7% R2K +2.9% SP400 +1.7% SP500 +17.12 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2151/2.00 bln/564 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2490/956 mln/560