From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The stock market ended the Wednesday affair on a higher note as the major averages rallied in lockstep with crude oil throughout today's session. Other factors that contributed to today's advance included persistent leadership from the heavily-weighted health care (+2.7%) sector and the FOMC minutes from the March meeting that fell largely in-line with expectations. The Nasdaq Composite (+1.6%) ended its day ahead of both the S&P 500 (+1.1%) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.6%).
The broader market was able to shake some early risk-off tendencies as investors weighed a rally in crude against the imminent release of the minutes from the FOMC's latest meeting. The energy component extended an early rally following the Department of Energy's weekly inventory report. The report showed that crude oil stockpiles had decreased by 4.93 million barrels, compared to the estimated 3.15 million barrel build. As a result, WTI crude ended its day higher by 5.0% at $37.74/bbl.
On the central bank front, the minutes from the March FOMC meeting indicated that an April rate hike was discussed at the meeting, but ongoing concerns regarding global economic and financial developments warranted a more cautious approach. Meanwhile, the committee produced diverging opinions on whether the recent uptick in inflation was transitory or if it represented a firming trend.
The heavily-weighted health care space (+2.7%) ended its day ahead of commodity-sensitive energy (+2.1%) and the consumer discretionary (+0.9%) sector while countercyclical telecom services (-1.0%) and utilities (-0.1%) were the only two sectors to end beneath their flat lines.
In the heavyweight health care group (+2.7%), biotechnology outperformed as it rebounded from larger year to date losses. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 285.71, +16.07) ended its day higher by 6.0%. The beleaguered sub-group traded higher with Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX 34.17, +5.44). Valeant gained 18.9% after Pershing Square contended that Valeant's assets are not fairly reflected in its stock price. Separately, Allergan (AGN 244.74, +8.19) rebounded 3.5% after yesterday's tumble that followed new policies regarding corporate inversions.
Commodity-sensitive energy (+2.1%) displayed broad based strength, as the sector was the main beneficiary of today's rally in oil. Pipeline companies and independent oil and gas names finished with some of the largest gains in the sector. Conversely, refiners underperformed in the space after gasoline inventories showed a build instead of an expected draw. On that note, Valero Energy (VLO 61.68, -1.46) declined 2.3%.
In the consumer discretionary space (+0.9%), Amazon (AMZN 302.08, +15.94) gained 2.7% after the online retailer announced a new e-reader. On the flipside, the lodging and leisure sub-groups underperformed after Wynn Resorts (WYNN 89.55, -1.37) preannounced revenue results that disappointed investors.
Rail names underperformed in the industrial (+0.2%) group as CSX (CSX 24.85, -0.19), Union Pacific (UNP 78.35, -0.27), and Kansas City Southern (KSU 85.88, -0.70) ended with losses between 0.3% and 0.8%. Elsewhere, machinery companies underperformed following Cummins (CMI 106.43, -1.59) being downgraded to "Neutral" at Buckingham Research.
The U.S. Dollar Index (94.49, -0.25) surrendered its overnight gains as the greenback ended lower against the yen and the euro. The euro gained 0.1% against the dollar and finished at 1.1399. Separately, the dollar/yen pair lost 0.5% (109.77).
The Treasury Complex ended its day off its low as the yield on the 10-yr note rose three basis points to 1.75%.
Today's participation fell in-line with the recent average as more than 844 million shares changed hands on the NYSE floor.
Today's economic data included the weekly MBA Mortgage Index:
The weekly MBA Mortgage Index showed a seasonally adjusted increase of 2.7%.
Tomorrow's economic data will be limited to weekly initial claims (Briefing.com consensus 270k) and Consumer Credit for February (Briefing.com consensus $14.40 billion), which will be released at 8:30 ET and 15:00 ET, respectively. DJ30 +112.73 NASDAQ +76.78 SP500 +21.49 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2029/1.600 bln/789 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2286/844.6 mln/736
3:30 pm :
The dollar index rallies off its low of the day in afternoon trading, although commodities are largely in the green for the day
Commodities, as measured by the Bloomberg Commodity Index, are up +0.9% at 77.65
Crude oil rallies notably higher and closes near its high of the day after the release of petroleum inventory data
Weekly EIA petroleum inventory data showed a surprise draw of -4.937 mln barrels, compared to expectations for a build of +3.1 mln barrels
Yesterday, API inventory data showed a draw of -4.3 mln barrels, compared to a build of +8.8 mln barrels reported last week
May crude oil futures closed up $1.80 (+5.0%) at $37.74/barrel
Natural gas continues yesterday's downtrend, ending near the low of the day in pit trading
May natural gas futures closed down $0.04 (-2.1%) at $1.91/MMBtu
Weekly EIA natural gas inventory data is scheduled to be released tomorrow at 10:30 am ET
In precious metals, gold saw an initial spike up in the morning before dropping and consolidating lower to end pit trading down on the day
May gold futures closed down $5.80 (-0.5%) at $1224.10/oz
Silver spiked briefly above the previous day's closing price before plummeting sharply and consolidating lower to finish pit trading down on the day
May silver futures closed down $0.05 (-0.3%) at $15.06/oz
Base metal copper traded at parity with the previous day's close most of the afternoon
May copper futures closed flat at $2.14/lb
Broader market trading was strong after morning action that was split. Pushing into the close, the three major US indices ticked to session highs led by the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite which was up 76.78 points (+1.59%) to end 4920.71. The S&P 500 also finished strong, adding 21.49 points (+1.05%) today to close 2066.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 112.73 points (+0.64%) today to post the mildest session of the three, albeit finishing 17716.05. Of note, the latest FOMC minutes were released today at 1 p.m. ET, and highlighted that members were mixed on an April rate hike. Also, market data came today in the form of the weekly MBA Mortgage Index which showed a seasonally adjusted increase of 2.7%.
As it were, the Technology (XLK 44.47, +0.40 +0.91%) sector was strong as well. Shares of component Cisco Systems (CSCO 28.00, +0.42 +1.52%) were upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan one day after receiving a downgrade to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill. Other sectors as measured by the S&P closed the day XLV +2.69%, XLE +2.16%, XLB +1.15%, XLY +0.95%, XLP +0.79%, XLF +0.54%, XLI +0.49%, IYZ +0.32%, XLU -0.12% with Healthcare and Energy grabbing healthy gains and Utilities ending as the lone laggard.
On varying ends of the spectrum today, in the Semiconductor (SOX 678.22, +6.89 +1.03%) sector, component SunEdison (SUNE 0.37, +0.04 +13.39%) posted back-to-back sessions of solid gains while component Cree (CREE 24.81, -4.24) shed 14.6% and was a notable performer following the company's updated guidance for Q3 EPS.
In the S&P 500 Information Technology (739.51, +7.73 +1.06%) sector, action capped off Wednesday near session highs. Component eBay (EBAY 25.43, +1.04 +4.26%) showed relative strength following an update about certain investments made by the company and subsequent price adjustments to support the changes. Other names in the space which displayed strength included AKAM +3.09%, HPQ +2.76%, STX +2.62%, WU +2.13%, ADS +2.12%, HRS +1.91%, TDC +1.79%, FIS +1.67%, V +1.61%, AVGO +1.62%, PYPL +1.58%.
Other notable news items among sector components:
IBM (IBM 150.02, +0.02 +0.01%) and SAP AG (SAP 79.19, +1.33 +1.71%) announced plans across both companies to drive the modernization of clients' systems and processes and accelerate them into the digital economy.
Qualcomm (QCOM 50.62, +0.55 +1.10%) entered into a new 3G and 4G Chinese Patent License Agreement with Zhuhai Ewpe Information Technology, a subsidiary of Gree Electric Appliances. Under the terms of the agreement, QCOM has granted EWPE a royalty-bearing patent license to develop, manufacture and sell 3G WCDMA and CDMA2000 and 4G LTE subscriber units for use in China.
eBay (EBAY) gave details of its Spring Seller Update. The company disclosed a significant investment in Anchor Store benefits with price adjustments to support said changes.
Nokia (NOK 5.85, +0.11 +1.92%) will begin actions to reduce company personnel globally as part of its synergy and transformation program. As previously announced, Nokia is targeting EUR 900 million of operating cost synergies to be achieved in full year 2018 related to the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent (ALU 3.47, +0.01 +0.29%).
Total System (TSS 48.49, +0.58 +1.21%) will provide the payment providers it services across Europe with TSYS AlertsSM, a solution that helps cardholders monitor their accounts and prevent fraudulent activity with real-time, on-demand information using cardholder-driven communication preferences that include push notifications, SMS text messaging, voice messages and email.
NVIDIA (NVDA 35.80, +0.05 +0.14%) announced that Pascal architecture-based NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators will power an upgraded version of the Piz Daint system at the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS) in Lugano, Switzerland.
Amphenol (APH 58.40, +0.19 +0.33%) increased the size of its commercial paper program by $500.0 million to permit the issuance of commercial paper notes in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $2.0 billion outstanding at any time.
Elsewhere in the tech space:
Verizon (VZ 53.52, -0.57 -1.05%) to acquire an approximate 24.5% stake in AwesomenessTV.
MTS Systems (MTSC 52.06, -7.17 -12.11%) to acquire Sensor Producer PCB Group for $580 million. The deal is expected to be accretive in fiscal 2017.
KEYW Holding's (KEYW 6.75, +0.41 +6.47%) The KEYW Corporation received a prime contract to provide advanced cyber training content development, delivery, and training infrastructure to a U.S.-based customer. The contract is valued at $152 million for a 5 year period.
Tangoe (TNGO 7.85, +0.28 +3.70%) to acquire ownership of Vodafone's (VOD 31.34, +0.68 +2.22%) existing TEM technology and transfer majority of Vodafone's TEM employees.
Diebold (DBD 27.42, -0.12 -0.44%) announced the pricing of $400 million 8.5% senior notes due 2024 at 100% of principal amount in connection with planned acquisition of Wincor Nixdorf (WNXDY 12.13, flat).
Vivint Solar (VSLR 3.08, +0.63 +25.97%) to provide a business update for investors and analysts through a conference call to be held on Thursday, April 14 at 5:00 p.m. ET.
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
Global Payment (GPN 70.86, +5.71 +8.76%) reported better than expected Q3 EPS of $0.70 on in-line revenues which rose 6.2% versus last year to $497 million. Additionally, GPN raised the lower end of the guidance range for FY16 EPS to $2.93-3.00 from $2.90-3.00. Also, GPN now expects to report constant currency adjusted net revenue growth at the upper end of 10% to 12% compared to fiscal 2015.
Cree (CREE) guided Q3 EPS to $0.13-0.15 from $0.22-0.29 and revenues to $367 million, down from previous guidance of $400-430 million.
Analyst actions:
CSCO and CDK were upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan,
CHU was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley,
TEF was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse;
MRVL was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Standpoint Research,
FEIC, CDNS and AMAT was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at DA Davidson,
NVDA was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel,
TKC was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan,
SIMO was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann,
CCOI was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup;
AAPL was initiated with a Strong Buy at Needham,
KS was initiated with an Underperform at BofA/Merrill
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
