Stocks lifted generously over the past week as investors celebrated the start of February with a bang amid cooling tempers in Egypt , guarded optimism in the halls of the U.S. Federal Reserve, stronger results among U.S. retailers and semiconductor makers, a merger in the gold mining industry and a devil-may-care attitude about the worsening of unemployment. Raw materials, energy, technology and retail rose the most, which was nice since those were my strongest recommendations this year. It's nice to see a plan come together. As far as financial news anchors were concerned, gold miners' shares took off because a big merger announcement: Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM ) snatching Fronteer Gold Inc. (AMEX: FRG ). But as you can see in the weekly chart of physical gold below, something was bound to happen to cause a bounce of that well-established trendline. To read on about what's in store for gold and other sectors, click here