General Market News

U.S. stock indices soared to the upside and finished sharply higher driven by greater demand for higher yielding assets. Tuesday’s decision by the FOMC to keep interest rates low for an extended period was the catalyst behind Wednesday’s rally. Because of the low interest rates the world is using the Dollar and the Yen as funding currencies.

The U.S. Dollar finished down against most major currencies. From the start it was under pressure as trader demand for risk pressured lower yielding currencies. The early morning weakness in the Dollar helped to drive up demand for high risk equities and commodities. Tuesday’s move by the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged for a prolonged period of time set the tone for today’s weakness.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) reported a net loss -$0.22 per share compared with earnings from the same period last year of $0.25. analysts average $0.12. DFS misses by $0.34.

The company reported a net loss for the first quarter of 2010 of $104 million, as compared to net income of $120 million for the first quarter of 2009.

March VIX options expired today with a settlement price of 16.68. Though the fear index gave a valiant effort in trying to remain elevated long enough for the naked put play mentioned in last week's Fading Complacency post to come out profitable, the incredibly low realized vol of the market won out in the end.

The markets are all hovering higher today. Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 up over half a percent on the day. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) is higher by .60%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE:DIA) is up the same. Since the February 5th bottom, the markets have

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged and reiterated that interest rates would remain low for “an extended period”. In its statement, it also mentioned that inflation remains subdued, and that the weak employment situation seems to have stabilized.

Earlier this afternoon, the Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged and reiterated that interest rates would remain low for “an extended period”. In its statement, it also mentioned that inflation remains subdued, and that the weak employment situation seems to have stabilized.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged and reiterated that interest rates would remain low for “an extended period”. In its statement, it also mentioned that inflation remains subdued, and that the weak employment situation seems to have stabilized.

Today we got an answer on how much longer the Fed intends to keep its key interest rate super low. In it's statement the Fed put forth that the interest rate would remain low "for an extended period." In Fedspeak, which is derived from legalees, that means that interest rates will remain low for quite some time.

Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ: MCHP) announced that based on strong bookings and sales activities quarter to date, it expects net sales for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 ending March 31, 2010 to be up about 8% sequentially (up from a previous guidance 3% to 7%). Microchip expects GAAP earnings at 37 cents per share and non-GAAP earnings at 42 cents.

The U.S. Dollar is trading lower ahead of this afternoon’s FOMC policy meeting. This weakness is helping to boost April Gold prices overnight. The recent break in gold stopped short of the late February bottom at $1088.50 to maintain the uptrend.

The U.S. Dollar is trading lower against most majors except the Japanese Yen, as investors await this afternoon’s FOMC policy statement and tomorrow’s Bank of Japan monetary policy decision.

Here are the top 5 NASDAQ stocks that were up on unusual volume. AMLN,,ALKS,,,PEGA,,,FNSR,,,UFPT

Here are the top 5 percentage gainers on the OTC/BB during today's trading : FTLZF,,,AVOI,,,BGAT,,JFGI and ADTI. For free stock and news email alerts go to http://theupturnstock.com/.

Today the NASDAQ had 89 news highs versus 2 new lows.