What you need to know

Someone said this morning that as long as Bernanke was speaking, you should sell.

Whoops.

But first, the scoreboard:

Dow: +200
S&P 500: +58
NASDAQ: +23.72

And now, the top stories:

The good times began in Europe early on, when there were positive noises about the stress tests (due out tomorrow), and industrial production/PMI numbers.
The positive news parade continued in the US, when we got strong earnings from 3M, UPS, and Caterpillar, all good, bellwether industrial type companies.
Even housing delivered good news, as the fall in existing home sales was not as bad as expected.
Bernanke spoke in front of the House, following his conversation in with the Senate yesterday, but didn't produce any notable headlines. There was some talk about him having sounded more optimistic than yesterday, perhaps as a result of the market's behavior.
The House passed the unemployment extender. It's now a done deal.
Although the rally was huge -- the biggest since early July -- it was actually a quiet day. After the first hour or so of trading, stocks hardly moved at all.

source:businessinsider