Nasdaq leads the way.

The S&P was up about 14 points right before the Fed minutes. It us up about 18 points now

The Nasdaq was up about 51 points. It is now up 66 points.

Looking at the Nasdaq composite index from a technical perspective, the index is back above a topside trend line at 4894.50. The current price is trading as I type at 4913.07. There is a gap in the index chart between the end of year value of 5007 and the 2016 high from Jan 5th at 4972..73. Filling that gap would add another 2% to the Nasdaq. The S&P index is up 1% on the year, while the Dow is up 1.55%. The Nasdaq has been the laggard in 2016. Having said that the NASDAQ is a about 16.82% from the February 2016 lows.

In other markets today:

  • Crude oil futures are trading at $37.74, +5.15%. A decline in crude oil inventories have been supportive to the price of oil today.
  • The Thomson Reuter/CRB index is up 1.39%. Energy leads the way up 2.38%, Industrials are +0.22%, Livestock is up 1.07% and soft commodities are up 0.37%. Precious Metals are down -0.42% and grains are down -0.54%

In the US debt markets today:

  • two-year note yield 0.735%, +2 basis points
  • five-year note 1.199%, +2 basis points.
  • 10 year note 1.756%, +4 basis points.
  • 30 year bond 2.584%, +4 basis points