YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks were confined to a narrow trading range just below the neutral line for most of the session, but a late bounce by financials gave the broader market its ninth gain in ten sessions and helped it close in-line with its 52-week high.

Stocks climbed to session highs as the dollar index is reaching session lows.

A subdued mood governed trade in the early going and for most of the afternoon. Participants appeared inclined to sit on recent gains amid a lack of market-moving headlines, including an initial jobless claims count of 462,000 for the week ended Mar. 6. The consensus had called for 460,000 initial claims that had been expected.

Meanwhile, continuing claims totaled 4.56 million, which was greater than the 4.50 million continuing claims that had been expected.

The trade balance for January came in with a $37.3 billion deficit, which was not quite as dramatic as the $41.0 billion deficit that had been forecast.

Data out of China did little to lift the spirits of global participants. News that the country's consumer prices for February spiked a stronger-than-expected 2.7% year-over-year rekindled concerns that the country may have to apply tighter monetary policy to keep from overheating. Arguably, such a move could slow the global economic recovery.

Meanwhile, Japan revised lower its fourth quarter GDP to a 0.9% increase from the preliminary 1.1% growth rate. However, reports suggested that the Japanese government may upgrade its economic assessment in its monthly report.

The broader market's reaction to the announcements was generally muted, but it followed financial stocks to higher ground as the sector shook free from its confines to climb to a 0.9% gain. Strength in the sector continues to be underpinned by banks, which advanced 1.7%, as measured by the KBW Bank Index. The KBW is up nearly 5% this week.

Leadership from the financial sector helped the stock market close at its session high, which is actually in-line with the S&P 500's 52-week closing high. The high has acted as a point of resistance in recent sessions.

In the commodity space, May copper closed 0.7% higher at $3.38 pound. Copper futures spiked following news that another aftershock struck copper rich Chile. However, a report from Codelco stating there was no damage to any of its mines tempered the move to the upside.

Precious metals had a relatively quiet day after the move to the downside in the prior session. A decline in the dollar index allowed both gold and silver futures to move higher following early losses. April gold traded in narrow range. After hitting a session low at $1110.50 per ounce in the morning, it closed flat at $1108.20 per ounce. May silver closed 0.8% higher at $17.16 per ounce.

Crude oil futures also opened the pit trade lower but worked their way back to the flat line as the dollar weakened. April crude oil closed essentially flat at $82.11 per barrel.

While the close looked strong, volume was unimpressive as fewer than 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE. Such a scenario is often considered a sign of little conviction.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+0.9%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.6%), Materials (+0.5%), Health Care (+0.4%), Tech (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.4%), Industrials (+0.3%), Utilities (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%)
Declining Sectors: (None)
Unchanged: EnergyDJ30 +44.51 NASDAQ +9.51 NQ100 +0.3% R2K +0.3% SP400 +0.5% SP500 +4.63 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1487/2.18 bln/1126 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1794/981 mln/1215