Huge Jump

The DOW gained 256 to close at 8,616 and the S&P gained 26 to close at 932. That's amazing.

The talk of the day still centers around Intel for one thing. However there is an interesting Reuters article on Intel's numbers.

Reuters: Don't read too much into Intel's success: Eric Auchard

Partly, this was merely the "snapback" that occurred after Intel throttled back production to as low as 25 percent of factory capacity in the first quarter, amid a glut of unsold chips and shriveling demand.

Intel is benefiting from healthy demand in China and -- to a lesser extent -- the United States, among consumers rather than businesses. But these are not swing factors for the likes of Nokia, IBM or Google.

In addition to the news from Intel, oil gained simply because US inventories have dropped. The US is still the world's largest user of oil therefor its time to go shopping for oil. Also oil is central to the rise and fall of most stock market activity. So a 3% bump in crude prices gets the market churning.

Reuters: Oil jumps over 3 percent after fall in U.S. crude inventories

Oil rose more than 3 percent to over $61 a barrel on Wednesday, supported by falling U.S. crude oil inventories and economic optimism following positive U.S. data.

Finally there is also mention of manufacturing data that suggests the recession is easing. The following Reuters article does not amplify this data but hopefully more specific information will come forward.

Reuters: Wall St jumps as Intel, data boost sentiment

Optimism was further reinforced by manufacturing data that suggested the recession is abating, as well as minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent policy-setting meeting that showed officials judged that the economic contraction was slowing.