3:30 pm :

• Commodities ended the day on a mixed note as crude oil and natural gas posted losses and precious metals registered solid gains. Both Aug gold and Sep silver rose for a fourth consecutive session as the dollar index traded in the red following Ben Bernanke's statement that a highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is needed for the U.S. economy.
• Gold spent its entire floor session trading in a consolidative pattern near the $1280 per ounce level and settled with a 2.6% gain at $1280.20 per ounce
• Silver booked an even bigger gain of 4.1% as it closed at $19.95 per ounce, slightly below its session high of $20.14 per ounce
• Aug crude oil fell for the first time in three sessions on pressure from this morning's initial claims data that showed a higher than anticipated rise in Americans filing for unemployment benefits. The energy component stayed in negative territory for all of today's pit trade and settled 1.5% lower at $104.88 per barrel
• Aug natural gas slipped from its session high of $3.70 into negative territory following inventory data that showed a build of 82 bcf when a build of 81 bcf was expected. Unable to gain much momentum, it settled 1.9% lower at $3.61 per MMBtu

DJ30 +157.98 NASDAQ +53.25 SP500 +20.85 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1730/1376.4 mln/766 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2603/488 mln/449

3:00 pm : The S&P 500 is higher by 1.2% as today's session enters its final hour. The benchmark average had traded in a five point range before rising to fresh highs over the past hour. Materials and technology continue to outperform the remaining sectors and the industrial space is not far behind.

Meanwhile, energy (+0.7%) and financials (+0.9%) continue