Stocks rallied, breaking a losing streak that brought us to the dynamic support level of the lower Bollinger Bands. Improved durable goods orders are given much of the credit.
from Reuters:
An unexpected jump in U.S. durable goods orders last month backed hopes that the economy was healing, but news from the hard-hit housing market remained mixed.
New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose by a much stronger-than-expected 1.8 percent in May, Commerce Department data on Wednesday showed.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast durable goods orders would decline 0.6 percent last month.
May's increase, the third gain in 4 months, followed a revised 1.8 percent gain in April.
U.S. stocks opened higher after the much durable goods data, while U.S. government bond prices fell, although trading was also somewhat overshadowed by a Federal Reserve policy statement due later.
"The economy is bottoming here, and we're looking for the Fed to maybe change its statement slightly and maybe start to suggest a more neutral balance of risk. A nod, basically, to an exit strategy," said Kim Rupert at Action Economics LLC in San Francisco.
The Fed is due to deliver its policy decision about 2:15 p.m. EDT. It is expected to leave interest rates unchanged in a range between zero and 0.25 percent, and many economists think it will lean against rate hike speculation by emphasizing they will stay low for an extended period.
