Stocks on Wall Street were up for a third consecutive session by Wednesday’s close after choppy early trading, as the Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen reaffirmed the central bank’s intent to support the US economy before an audience at the Economic Club of New York.
Support came earlier in the day from the release of the Fed’s monthly survey of US businesses, otherwise known as the Beige Book, that indicated economic expansion across most federal districts, largely as a result of a rally from a particularly harsh winter. Along with stronger manufacturing data, tech shares rallied, taking heart from Yahoo! Inc.’s (YHOO) modest earnings beat announced before the bell, as well from the anticipation awaiting the release of earnings statements from Google (GOOG) and IBM (IBM) .
Results for Wednesday, April 16
? Standard & Poor’s 500 Index: +1.05 percent to 1,862.31
? NASDAQ Exchange: +1.29 percent to 4,086.23
? Dow Jones Industrial Average: +1 percent to 16,424.85
Our Top Stories
? Crowdfunding-minded readers will not want to miss Senior Editor Joel Anderson’s exclusive interview with Poliwogg CEO Greg Simon on the potential of the JOBS Act to fundamentally change the nature of the healthcare space.
? The Energy Report sat down with Stansberry Research’s Matt Badiali for a discussion about which oil and gas stocks might benefit from Russia’s invasion of Eastern Ukraine.
? Senior Editor Jacob Harper sifts out the potential class issues involving Google’s ($GOOG) controversial and divisive wearable tech product.
? Don’t miss our chat with Harry Dent on demographics and the market crash that he sees looming large over the horizon.
? Energy investors will be fascinated by a pair of videos, one from the archives of the former Standard Oil of California’s 1948 promotional footage explaining its earliest activities in Saudi Arabia, and another aboutthe process of deep sea drilling.
Stocks
? Joel Anderson attempts to untangle the bulls and bears arguments that seem to be converging on battleground pharmaceutical stock Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) .
? Seismic imaging oil & gas services play ION Geophysical Corporation (IO) closed the day nearly 3 percent higher on volume, extending a rally of several days ahead of a much-anticipated earnings report due out at the end of the month.
? Senior Editor Jacob Harper on Yahoo! Inc.’s (YHOO) earnings beat ahead of the debut of Alibaba, the well-known Chinese e-commerce site of which it holds a 24 percent share.
