The markets closed out the day higher and seem to be continuing their slow upwards push. For now the trading range remains intact and traders expect that to continue. The Dow 30 was higher by 349, the S&P 500 added 43, and the Nasdaq 100 gained 127 on the day. Monday starts with new home sales, which can be a market mover.

The leaders today were in the tech and energy space. The Nasdaq 100 was the strongest sector thanks to tech names like Micron (MU  ) and Western Digital (WDC  ), which gained 5%, and 4% respectively. Other names in the semiconductor and data storage space were strong as well.

Financials (XLF  ) were also strong on the day, adding about 1% ,which helped support the overall markets. Of the big financial stocks, JP Morgan (JPM  ) seems poised to be the first to completely erase the recent losses and break to new highs. Today JPM was higher by 2%, just shy of all-time highs.

Energy had another good day thanks to the price of oil. Oil continued to move higher following the low production numbers in yesterday's oil inventory report. Out of all the sectors today the energy sector was the leader.

In other news, General Mills (GIS  ) took another step into the pet food sector with the announcement of their purchase of Blue Buffalo (BUFF  ) for $40 a share, or $8 billion. Blue Buffalo has been a crowd favorite for growth investors thanks to strong sales and earnings growth in its relatively short history.

In earnings news, Hewlett Packard (HPE  ) was higher by 10% as they beat earnings easily. Servers and networking units were cited as the reason for the growth. Wingstop (WING  ) fell 5% as the company guided weak for the future.

Next week earnings is heavily focused in the retail sector: TJX Companies (TJX  ) and Macy's (M  ) are just a few. Nordstroms (JWN  ) may get some attention as they are still working on going private.