The bulls ended the week with a very encouraging day as stocks closed much higher across the board today. The Dow closed up 142, the Nasdaq up 35, and the S&P up 17. The last hour of trading saw a very nice spike with indices almost doubling their gains in the last hour. 
All the major sectors closed up on the day, but it was Basic material stocks and retail stocks leading the way. Copper stocks were strong off the new home sales number, with Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:PCU) leading the way up over 5%.
Retail stocks were higher after several stores had positive news today. Ann Taylor Stores Corporation (NYSE:ANN) jumped by almost 9% after reaffirming its guidance. Dillard's Inc. (NYSE:DDS) gained over 8% today, climbing along with its peers.
Factory orders, or durable goods, rose 5.9% from June to July. Durable goods are costly manufactured items expected to last three years or more. Durable goods rose only 1.9% from May until June. The strength of these two numbers actually caught traders off guard and led to a positive Friday, which finished off a positive week on all the major indices.
Volume was the lightest today it has been since May, so there was a bit of a caveat, but the bulls will certainly take it. Expect more quiet trading next week, before things get going again in September.
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