YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]:Despite choppy, listless action and some late pressure, stocks were able to log another solid gain, which helped give the S&P 500 a 2.5% weekly gain.

There weren't any major news items or economic items to act as positive trading catalysts this session, but the market's bullish bias still came through. In turn, the S&P 500 finished in higher ground for the ninth time in 11 sessions.

Telecom stocks made the best gains after lagging in each of the previous two sessions. The sector mounted a steady advance in the second half of the session to finish with a 2.1% gain.

Health care (-0.1%), materials (-0.1%), financials (-0.1%), and energy (-0.1%) were the declining sectors, but each managed to limit losses.

Trading volume was especially high with more than 2 billion shares exchanging hands on the NYSE. That marked the highest level of volume since June. It was largely induced by the S&P quarterly rebalancing and the quadruple witching options expiration.

The U.S. dollar showed particular strength, which helped the Dollar Index climb nearly 0.4% after hitting fresh 2009 lows just one session before. The greenback's gains helped pressure commodities and send the CRB Commodity Index down 0.7%.

Weakness among commodities was particularly pronounced in crude oil futures, which saw prices slip 0.7% to $72.95 per barrel.

Gold prices eased back, but remain above $1000 per ounce; they settled fractionally lower at $1010.30 per ounce after reaching their best levels of the year earlier this week.DJ30 +36.28 NASDAQ +6.11 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +0.4% SP400 -0.1% SP500 +2.81 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1417/3.02 bln/1296 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1752/2.28 bln/1253

3:30 pm : The broader market is trading near its best levels of the session. Energy is currently the only sector not in positive territory.

Natural gas futures continued their trend of recent volatile sessions. The October futures soared 9.2% during the pit trade. Much of the move has been attributed to short-covering. The October futures closed at $3.78 per contract and are now up 57% off the September lows.

Crude oil spent much of the session chopping below the unchanged level. The October crude oil futures closed at $72.95 per barrel, down 0.7%.

A stronger dollar muted precious metals prices this session. After reaching their best levels in a year and a half at $1024.70 per ounce on Wednesday, the December gold futures closed the week at $1010.30 per ounce, down fractionally on the session. Although the move in the gold futures was not significant, gold miners felt considerable selling pressure. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 46.05 -1.72) is currently down 3.6%. December silver futures fell 1.2% to close at $17.06 per ounce. DJ30 +54.94 NASDAQ +11.10 SP500 +5.23 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1503/2.37 bln/1172 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1805/1.31 bln/1180