YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The week ended on a high note as broad-based buying gave stocks their biggest single-session bounce in two weeks. Despite the heady hike higher, the S&P 500 only added fractionally to its four-month high.

A positive had already permeated trade ahead of the open, but the morning mood improved further with the release of August durable goods orders. Overall orders fell 1.3% for the worst monthly drop in one year, but that is actually less severe than the 1.4% decline that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. Excluding transportation, orders spiked 2.0%, which is much better than the 0.6% increase that had been widely anticipated.

New home sales numbers for August came in at an annualized rate of 288,000 units, or unchanged month-over-month, as had been widely expected.

The broader market was generally unmoved by the in-line home sales numbers, but homebuilders were able to add to gains that had already by supported by better-than-expected earnings from KB Home (KBH 12.11, +0.40).

Nike (KNE 79.57, +1.90) was also out with an upside earnings surprise. The company complemented that with news of strong futures orders.

Shares of NKE and KBH helped drive the consumer discretionary sector to a 2.6% gain, which made it one of the session's strongest sectors. Of course, every sector benefited from a broad-based bid helped collectively lift the overall market, such that 97% of the names in the S&P 500 staged gains.

Even amid such broad strength the stock market couldn't do anything more than fractionally extend its four-month high past the levels that were set when the FOMC issued its latest policy statement earlier this week.

The FOMC statement pledged to provide additional accommodation if it is needed to keep the economy from relapsing into another recession, but continued concern about macro threats and the idea that the Fed has run out of tools has kept many on the sidelines. In turn, trading volume remains unimpressive as it barely broke 1 billion shares on the NYSE for the fourth time this month.

Commodities generally had a strong session, which saw the CRB Commodity Index climb 1.3% to a new eight-month high.

Silver was among the best performers. The precious metal ascended to a new 30-year high of $21.48 per ounce before easing back to $21.42 per ounce to settle with a 1.0% gain.

Gold prices pushed to a new record higher of $1299.70 per ounce, but eased back to close pit trade at $1297.70 per ounce with a 0.1% gain.

Crude oil prices spiked 1.7% to settle pit trade at $76.44 per barrel, which marks its weekly closing high.

In contrast to many other commodities, natural gas was weak. The energy component dropped 3.4% to close the day at $3.88 per MMBtu.

While stocks were strong the dollar dropped 1.1% to set a new seven-month low against competing currencies. Most of its weakness is owed to renewed support for the euro, which rallied on the back of Germany's latest IFO Business Climate Survey. The Survey was essentially unchanged month-over-month at two-year highs.

Advancing Sectors: Industrials (+2.8%), Financials (+2.8%), Consumer Discretionary (+2.6%), Materials (+2.4%), Energy (+2.2%), Tech (+2.1%), Utilities (+1.6%), Health Care (+1.4%), Consumer Staples (+1.3%), Telecom (+0.9%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +197.84 NASDAQ +54.14 NQ100 +2.1% R2K +3.4% SP400 +2.5% SP500 +23.84 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2147/2.01 bln/509 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2510/1.07 bln/540