YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Though stocks slipped for their first time in six sessions to finish the week in unimpressive fashion, stocks were still able to log their best weekly gain since July by advancing 2.6% in this holiday-shortened week of trade.

Stocks initially looked as if they would extend recent gains as they made their way to new intraday highs for 2009, but the largely listless trade in the early going made for choppy trade, which then invoked moderate selling pressure.

An upbeat forecast from global shipment company FedEx (FDX 77.32, +4.66) did provide support for the industrial sector, which finished 0.4% higher as the best performing major sector, but its impact on the broader market was rather limited. Upbeat forecasts from Campbell Soup (CPB 33.13, +0.01) and National Semiconductor (NSM 15.03, -0.94) also did little to lift the mood of participants in the broader market.

Several pieces of data were out this session, starting with the Import Price Index for August. According to the report, last month's import prices were down a steeper-than-expected 2.0% month-over-month. Meanwhile, wholesale inventories for July fell 1.4%, which was a bit worse than had been expected. The University of Michigan released a stronger-than-expected preliminary consumer sentiment survey for September that came in at 70.2. However, the report is not well correlated with consumer spending, so it did little to support shares of retailers, which underperformed for the entire session and finished 0.8% lower.

Last on the day's economic calendar was the Treasury's August budget, which showed a smaller-than-expected $111.4 billion deficit. Stocks didn't show much of a reaction to the data, but Treasuries eventually came under pressure after the report's release. The benchmark 10-year Note had been performing well for the entire session and even made its way to its best levels since mid-July, but it finished the session flat.

Gold was one of the strongest standouts this session. The yellow metal climbed all the way to $1013.70 per ounce before settling at an all-time closing high of $1006.20 per ounce, up 0.9% on the session.

Oil was less fortunate. It showed promise in early pit trade, but encountered resistance as it approached the $73 per barrel level and closed the session with a 3.8% loss at $69.22 per barrel.

Despite oil's reversal, the energy sector was able to eke out a fractional gain. Schlumberger (SLB 60.39, +1.96) was a leader in the sector amid reports from Dow Jones that analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded the oil equipment outfit.

Financials finished as the worst performing sector. They dropped 0.8% amid weakness in diversified banks (-1.0%) and diversified financial services companies (-1.6%).DJ30 -22.07 NASDAQ -3.12 NQ100 +0.0% R2K -0.2% SP400 +0.1% SP500 -1.41 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1088/2.33 bln/1578 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1674/1.29 bln/136