YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Strong earnings from a couple of industry bellwethers and a weaker U.S. dollar brought about a concerted buying effort that sent all three major indices to new 2009 highs. Stocks lost a bit of their upward momentum as they headed into the close, but the Dow was still able to settle above 10,000 for the first time in one year.

Stocks traded solidly higher in broad-based fashion for the entire session. Their advance came on the heels of better-than-expected third quarter earnings from chipmaker Intel (INTC 20.83, +0.34) and diversified financial services outfit JPMorgan Chase (JPM 47.16, +1.50). For its part, Intel brought in $0.33 per share and also issued upside revenue guidance. JPMorgan brought in $0.82 per share for its latest quarter, even though it added $2.0 billion to consumer credit reserves, and said during its conference call that it hopes to raise its dividend back to $0.75 per share in the first half of 2010.

JPMorgan's report sent the broader financial sector to a 3.4% gain, which was better than any other sector this session. However, the bank's report set a high bar for peers like Bank of America (BAC 18.59, +0.78), which reports Friday.

Pharmaceuticals company Abbott Labs (ABT 51.20, +1.55) announced better-than-expected third quarter adjusted earnings of its own by bringing in $0.92 per share and went on to raise its fiscal 2009 guidance. That helped pharmaceutical stocks overcome continued weakness in shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 60.55, -0.46) and drive the health care sector 1.5% higher.

Rail company CSX (CSX 47.06, +2.78) was one of this session's best performers following its upside earnings surprise of $0.74 per share. Fellow rail stocks shared in its strength and sent the industrial sector to a 2.6% gain, second only to financials.

Telecom was the only sector that failed to post a gain. Though its loss was fractional, this session marked the fifth time in the past six sessions that telecom underperformed.

Still, broad-based buying sent stocks to fresh highs for 2009. Since registering March lows, the Dow has climbed roughly 55%, the S&P 500 has jumped approximately 64%, and the Nasdaq has surged almost 72%.

Continued weakness in the U.S. dollar sent the Dollar Index down 0.7%. It registered new 52-week lows in afternoon trade. Though the dollar wasn't in focus this session, its doldrums continue to provide a boon for the stock market.

The positive mood among participants this session was reinforced by pleasing September retail sales data, which showed a softer-than-expected decline of 1.5%. Excluding autos, retail sales increased a better-than-expected 0.5%.

Import prices for September were up 0.1% month-over-month, which is largely in-line with what had been expected, while business inventories for August fell a sharper-than-expected 1.5%. Those reports were overshadowed, though.

In other economic news, minutes from the September 23 FOMC meeting indicated that policymakers feel that the economic outlook has improved and that job losses are slowing. In turn, most members have upwardly revised economic projections, though overall activity is still quite weak.

The minutes supported the stock market's bullish trend, but Treasuries didn't respond so well to them. Comments that increasing the scale of asset purchases could aid in the economy's recovery caused the benchmark 10-year Note to drop roughly 20 ticks and the 30-year Bond to surrender more than one full point.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+3.4%), Industrials (+2.6%), Materials (+2.0%), Energy (+1.2%), Consumer Discretionary (+1.5%), Tech (+1.5%), Health Care (+1.5%), Consumer Staples (+0.5%), Utilities (+0.4%)
Declining Sectors: (None)
Neutral: Telecom DJ30 +144.80 NASDAQ +32.34 NQ100 +1.4% R2K +2.0% SP400 +1.8% SP500 +18.83 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2048/2.39 bln/698 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2278/1.35 bln/769