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An Italian man named Mario ignited the markets with his words this morning.
First the scoreboard:

Dow: 12,887, +211.8, +1.6%

S&P 500: 1,360, +22.1, +1.6%

NASDAQ: 2,893, +39.0, +1.3%

And now the top stories:
  • While most of you were sleeping, stocks were going absolutely nowhere in Asia and Europe.  And then European Central Bank president Mario Draghi grabbed the mic at an investment conference in London and blew everyone away. "Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough," said Draghi.  This sent European stocks are surging and government borrowing rates in the most debt-laden euro countries fell.

  • However, PIMCO's Bill Gross was quick to pour cold water on this.  "Spanish yields drop 50 basis on Draghi. No matter. They need 400 basis more to remain solvent longer term," he tweeted.  Gross wasn't alone.  Earlier, Morgan Stanley's Greg Peters wrote that conditions in Europe would likely worsen before getting better. Also regarding Europe, Citi's Chief Economist Willem Buiter cranked up his odds of a Greek exit from the euro to 90 percent.

  • Markets weren't phased by any of the bearish talk.  Indeed, some good economic data from the U.S. may have added wind to the markets' sails.

  • Initial jobless claims fell to 353k from 388k a week ago.  The number was well below the 380k economists were looking for.  Durable goods orders jumped 1.6 percent in June, which was much better than the 0.3 percent gain economists were looking for.  

  • Pending home sales fell 1.4 percent in June.  Economists were looking for a 0.3 percent decline.  However, homebuilder PulteGroup announced that new orders surged 32 percent during Q2, a strong indicator of new homes to come.

  • All eyes will be on Facebook this afternoon as the social network has its first earnings announcement ever.