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Stocks Rally After Fed Statement

Published: Wednesday, 4 Nov 2009 | 2:50 PM ET

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By: Cindy Perman
CNBC.com

Stocks rallied Wednesday after the Fed's statement. The market had been higher before the statement as investors cheered some encouraging readings on the economy, then swung a little right after the statement before barreling higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 130 points after the statement as investors digested the Fed statement. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also higher.

The Fed left interest rates unchanged, as expected, and, they left the "extended period" language in their statement — as in economic conditions "warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period."

Stocks had opened higher after a pair of reports showed an improvement on the jobs front. Then, after a weaker-than-expected report on the services sector, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, stocks initially pared gains, before bounding higher.

Major U.S. Indexes

.DJIA

.NCOMP

.SPX

Most of the 30 Dow components were higher today: Merck [MRK Loading... () ], Disney [DIS Loading... () ] and Microsoft [MSFT Loading... () ] led the pack. Kraft [KFT Loading... () ] and DuPont [DD Loading... () ] were the only decliners.

Gold hit yet another record this morning — this time it topped $1,093 a troy ounce. Oil topped $80 a barrel and the dollar fell.

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Intel [INTC Loading... () ] was under the microscope after the Wall Street Journal reported that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed antitrust charges, alleging that the chip giant threatened computer makers and paid them huge sums of money to get them to stop using rival chips.

The ISM reported its gauge of the services sector dropped to 50.6 in October from 50.9 in September. The fact that it came in above 50 means the sector remains in expansion mode but it fell short of the 51.5 reading economists surveyed by Reuters had expected.

Payroll-services firm ADP reported that fewer jobs were lost in October than in previous months and outsourcing-consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported planned layoffs hit a 19-month low.

The reports are widely seen as a precursor to the government's October jobs report, due out on Friday. Economists expect to see 175,000 jobs were shed from nonfarm payrolls, fewer than in previous months.

Earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said applications for home loans increased after interest rates slipped below 5 percent.

Still to come: At 10:30am ET, we'll get the usual Wednesday reading on oil and gasoline inventories from the Energy Department's Energy Information Agency.

Among the notable commentary this morning: Banking analyst Meredith Whitney said "normalized" earnings for banks is a fallacy — with consumers struggling and dramatic regulatory change, earnings will be negatively impacted for a protracted period.

And Nouriel Roubini, the economist often referred to as "Dr. Doom," elaborated on his "mother of all carry trades" theory, saying if the Fed keeps interest rates low, therefore weakening the dollar, it will prolong the carry trade and make the unwind all the more painful.

The Fed will wrap up a two-day meeting today, issuing its statement at 2:15pm ET. Investors will be looking to see if policy makers remove their vow to keep rates low for an "extended period." Some say it could happen today — others say it's too soon.

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"Once they start removing that, that's a real sign that they intend, within six months, to start raising rates," Deutsche Bank economist Torsten Slok told Reuters. "But it's just premature, looking at the economic numbers, to arrive at that conclusion."

In the morning's earnings news, Kraft [KFT Loading... () ] and Comcast [CMCSA Loading... () ] beat estimates, and Time Warner [TWX Loading... () ] raised its outlook.

After the bell, we'll get reports from Dow component Cisco Systems, [CSCO Loading... () ] News Corp., [NWS Loading... () ] and Qualcomm.

Get the Latest Earnings News at CNBC's Earnings Central

Oracle [ORCL Loading... () ] and Sun Microsystems [JAVA Loading... () ] skidded as the Financial Times reports that the European Union is close to formally objecting to Oracle's $7.4 billion takeover of Sun on antitrust grounds — which could be a step on the way to blocking the deal.