Rocky BalboaThe 5-day losing streak comes to an end.
First the scoreboard:
Dow: 12,805.3, +89.4, +0.7%

S&P 500: 1,368.7, +10.1, +0.7%

NASDAQ: 3,016.4, +25.2, +0.8%

And now the top stories:

  • The good news is that the bad news receded this morning.  Yesterday, everyone was freaking out about Italy's crashing stock market and surging borrowing costs.  Today, Italy had a pretty successful bond auction which sent shares surging.

  • The other thing that reinvigorated investor confidence was Alcoa's blowout earnings announcement last night.  Q1 net revenue jumped 9 percent year-over-year to $6.0 billion.  EPS came in at $0.10, blowing out estimates calling for a $0.04 loss. 

  • Alcoa's announcement was crucial for two reasons: 1) they set the tone for earnings season as they are the first large company to announce quarterly results, and 2) analysts were expecting S&P 500 earnings to fall modestly year-over-year this quarter.  Obviously, all of the analysts are unlikely to make major upward revisions to guidance.  But the fact that it appears companies can still beat estimates should boost confidence for the market players. 

  • In a recent survey of its large clients, Citigroup found that over 80 percent of fund managers planned to allocate more funds into equities.  This could be extremely bullish if it's true that investors have their cash on the sidelines.  JP Morgan's Tom Lee recently said one thing that puzzled him about this stock market rally was that the public hasn't been participating.  Maybe now they'll jump in.

  • Today's Federal Reserve Beige Book confirmed that all of the Fed's regions were exhibiting a "moderate to modest" pace of growth.

  • Natural gas prices dipped below $2 for the first time in a decade.