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From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : The stock market ended the Wednesday session with solid gains that were paced by the Russell 2000. The small-cap index jumped 3.1% while the S&P 500 settled higher by 2.0% with all ten sectors registering gains.

Equities climbed through the first half of action and saw an extension of their rally in the afternoon once the FOMC released its latest policy directive.

As expected by some, the Fed removed the "considerable time" language from its policy statement, but that reference was replaced with a call for "patience," which essentially conveyed the same message. Above all, Chair Yellen reiterated that the central bank will remain data-dependent and reserves the right to accelerate, or defer, a rate hike in accordance with what the data are communicating about the progress being made toward the Fed's dual mandate.

With regard to inflation, Ms. Yellen touched on the drop in oil prices during her press conference, but showed little concern, saying the decline is expected to be transitory.

The policy statement was followed by volatile action in the bond market, but Treasuries slid to lows into the close. The benchmark 10-yr yield spiked eight basis points to 2.14%.

As for equities, the energy sector (+4.2%) paced the advance and ended near its high even as crude oil slumped into the close, ending higher by 1.0% at $56.44/bbl.

The energy sector was followed by the materials space (+2.8%), which benefitted from gains among miners and steelmakers. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 17.98, +0.88) and Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 35.31, +1.27) ended higher by 5.2% and 3.7%, respectively.

Outside of the two commodity-related groups, the financial sector (+2.3%) represented the only other outperformer on the cyclical side. Influential sector components fueled the strength with Bank of America (BAC 17.26, +0.54) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 59.77, +1.34) posting respective gains of 3.2% and 2.3%.

Elsewhere, the industrial sector (+0.9%) climbed out of the red after the FOMC statement, but the sector could not keep pace with the broader market amid relative weakness in transport stocks. FedEx (FDX 167.78, -6.48) tumbled 3.7% after missing estimates while peers Expeditors International (EXPD 43.28, -0.98) and UPS (UPS 108.55, -1.28) lost 2.2% and 1.2%, respectively. However, rail carriers CSX (CSX 35.77, +1.10) and Union-Pacific (UNP 114.89, +2.69) helped the Dow Jones Transportation Average end higher by 0.9%.

Today's participation was ahead of average with more than a billion shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data included CPI, Core CPI, Q3 Current Account, and MBA Mortgage Index:


Consumer prices declined 0.3% in November after being unchanged in October, which was the biggest decline since CPI fell 0.8% in December 2008
The Briefing.com consensus expected a decline of 0.1%
The entire decline in prices can be attributed to the energy sector. Energy prices fell 3.8% in November, marking the fifth consecutive monthly decline and the largest drop since falling 9.5% in December 2008
Gasoline prices fell 6.6% after declining 3.0% in October
Food prices increased 0.2% in November, up from a 0.1% gain in October
Excluding food and energy, core CPI increased 0.1% in November, down from a 0.2% gain in October, while the consensus expected an increase of 0.1%
The current account deficit for the third quarter totaled $100.30 billion while the Briefing.com consensus expected the deficit to hit $95.00 billion
The second quarter deficit was revised down to $98.40 billion from $98.50 billion
The weekly MBA Mortgage Index fell 3.3% to follow last week's 7.3% spike

Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 292K) will be released at 8:30 ET while November Leading Indicators (consensus 0.5%) and the Philadelphia Fed Survey for December (consensus 26.0) will cross the wires at 10:00 ET.

Nasdaq Composite +11.2% YTD
S&P 500 +8.9% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +4.7% YTD
Russell 2000 +0.9% YTD

DJ30 +288.00 NASDAQ +96.48 SP500 +40.14 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2512/2.15 bln/559 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2794/1.02 bln/361 3:35 pm :

Oil prices had a wild day, falling as low as $54.21 to rising as high as $58.987/barrel, most likely on some short covering
Late in the session, WTI crude oil gave up most of its gains and closed $0.57 higher at $56.44/barrel
Natural gas futures gained some steam today, ending today's session 8 cents higher to $3.70/MMBtu
Gold and silver lost steam in afternoon trade.
Feb gold ended $0.20 higher to $1194.90/oz, while Mar silver gained $0.20 to $15.93/oz

4:34 pm GT Advanced Tech. issues response to Apple's statement following release of October 8th declaration: 'The position that Apple has taken...is in line with our expectations' (GTATQ) : Co issued the following statement:


"The position that Apple has taken in response to the release of our October 8th declaration is in line with our expectations, as reflected in paragraph 52 of Dan Squiller's October 28th declaration in support of the Apple Settlement," said Tom Gutierrez, president and chief executive officer. "Although we have different views on the matter, we believe we have settled our disputes with Apple and see no point in further addressing the circumstances that led to our Chapter 11 filing or our relationship with Apple. Our focus now is on moving the company forward through the bankruptcy process. We remain optimistic that the Bankruptcy Court will approve the Apple Settlement Agreement on November 25th because it is in the best interest of all parties."

4:08 pm Jabil Circuit beats by $0.08, beats on revs; guides FebQ core EPS above consensus, revs above consensus; guides FY15 core EPS above consensus, revs above consensus (JBL) : Reports Q1 (Nov) core earnings of $0.55 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.08 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.47; revenues rose 4.8% year/year to $4.55 bln vs the $4.32 bln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q2 (Feb), sees core EPS of $0.39-0.50, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.38 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $4.15-4.35 bln vs. $4.10 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Co issues upside guidance for FY15, sees core EPS of $1.85-2.15, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.81 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY15 revs of $17.5-18.5 bln vs. $17.2 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.


"We had a very strong start to the fiscal year as our team exceeded expectations...Our results reflect strong demand within our Diversified Manufacturing Services segment as well as solid execution and performance across the entire business."4:06 pm IBM announce continued expansion of its global cloud computing network to 40 cloud centers with 12 new locations in Europe, Asia and the Americas (IBM) : Co will reach customers in 12 new locations including IBM Cloud centers in Frankfurt, Mexico City and Tokyo, and nine more centers through a strategic partnership with Equinix (EQIX) in Australia, France, Japan, Singapore, The Netherlands and the US.

4:06 pm SunPower and Sunverge Energy announced an exclusive agreement that offers the co's fully integrated SunPower solar power systems and Sunverge's advanced Solar Integration System energy storage solutions to residential customers and utilities in the U.S (SPWR) : The two companies are providing a similar offering to Australian customers. SunPower and Sunverge expect to make combined solar and storage solutions broadly commercially available in early 2015.

4:04 pm ON Semiconductor announces CMOS operational amplifiers that deliver zero drift operation and quiescent current for front-end amplifier circuits and power mgmt designs (ONNN) :


4:03 pm Oracle beats by $0.01, beats on revs (ORCL) : Reports Q2 (Nov) earnings of $0.69 per share, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.68; revenues rose 3.5% year/year to $9.6 bln vs the $9.5 bln consensus.

ORCL Q2 Software and cloud revenue +5% to $7.3 bln, guidance +5-8%. Cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) revenue was up 45% to $516 million. Hardware Systems revenues were up 1% to $1.3 billion. GAAP operating income was up 4% to $3.5 billion, and the GAAP operating margin was 37%. "Total Q2 new cloud bookings grew at a rate of more than 140%... By Q4 of this year we expect our new cloud bookings to exceed $250 million...Next fiscal year our new cloud bookings will be well over the billion dollars mark."
Co guides on the call.

1:15 pm Notable movers of interest (:SCANX) : The following are some of today's most notable movers of interest, categorized by market capitalization (large cap over $10 billion and mid cap between $2-10 billion) and ranked by % change (all stocks over 100K average daily volume).

Large Cap Gainers

WHR (182.71 +4.75%): In presentation slides for today's analyst day, the co detailed expected ongoing EPS for 2018 of $22-24 on net sales of $26-28 bln.
RCL (80.27 +4.57%): Cruise lines catching a bid on hopes of improvement in US & Cuba relations following reports the two are working to normalize and re-establish those relations.
NFLX (326.25 +3.1%): DISH Network (DISH) announced it will rollout the NFLX app into its set-top boxes today.

Large Cap Losers

FDX (166.68 -4.35%): Reported Q2 (Nov) earnings of $2.14 per share, $0.08 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $2.22; revenues rose 4.4% year/year to $11.9 bln vs the $12 bln consensus; reaffirmed FY 15 EPS guidance.
LVS (51.81 -2.06%): Casino stocks lower following reports that China may crackdown on illegal funds flowing through Macau casinos (WYNN also lower).
AAL (46.16 -3.75%): Airlines lower as oil rebounds 4% on the day (UAL & DAL also lower).

Mid Cap Gainers

NPSP (35.21 +15.56%): Reports out that Shire (SHPG) may be interested in acquiring NPS Pharma.
VC (100.81 +5.38%): The co announced that it entered into an agreement to sell its ~ 70% ownership interest in Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp. to an affiliate of Hahn & Co and Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. for ~ $3.6 bln.
COLM (44.94 +3.72%): Upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman; tgt raised to $52 from $41.

Mid Cap Losers

XL (33.45 -4.47%): The co confirmed it is engaged in preliminary discussions with Catlin regarding a potential transaction to acquire the co and form a combined entity.
CFX (46.5 -2.74%): Co sees FY15 revs of $4.525-4.675 bln vs $4.80 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, adjusted EPS of $2.20-2.40 vs $2.58 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; Price target lowered at Stifel, Wunderlich, Deutsche Bank.
JOY (45.08 -2.11%): Beat Q4 consensus estimates by $0.10, beats on revs; guides FY15 EPS below consensus, revs in-line.

9:32 am Southern subsidiary Southern Power announced plans to develop a 131-megawatt photovoltaic solar project in Georgia (SO) : The electricity and associated renewable energy credits will be sold to three Georgia electric membership corporations. Southern Power has selected First Solar (FSLR) to be the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the facility. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin in September 2015, and the project is expected to achieve commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2016.