Stocks are rallying to new highs (SPY, SPX, DJI, IXIC, USO, WTI, OIL, VDE, PFE, AGN, DXY, USD, TLT, TLO)
Stocks hit new highs in the final afternoon of trading following the release of the Federal Reserve's March meeting minutes.
Near 3:12 p.m. ET, the Dow was up 81 points, the S&P 500 was up 17 points, and the Nasdaq was up 63 points.
The S&P 500 fell more than 1% on Tuesday. It had not rallied or fallen by that much in the prior 15 days, and that was the longest streak in 13 months. It dipped into negative territory for the year yesterday.
The dollar is rallying. The index that measures it against its major peers was up about 0.4% in early trading. It has been under pressure since last week when Fed chair Janet Yellen stressed the need to raise rates cautiously.
Crude oil is higher. West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York rose 5% to as high as $37.77 per barrel after the Energy Information Administration reported that inventories fell by 4.9 million barrels last week, the second-largest draw of the year.
Investing.com
In company news, the Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the merger between Halliburton and Baker Hughes. They say they will contest it. Their shares jumped 5% in trading.
Allergan confirmed it has scrapped its $160 billion merger with Pfizer because the Treasury Department came out swinging with new tax laws. Allergan shares were down 1% pre-market and Pfizer rose 1%.
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