Dow Surges 212, Nasdaq Adds 37

The Dow added 212.19 points today to close at 11,011, the Nasdaq added 37.49 to close at 2,081 and the S&P 500 added 22.95 points to close at 1,260. Wall Street got a shot-in-the-arm after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke commented, "indicators suggest that economic growth has more recently moderated." The comments suggested to the market that the Fed may be ready to stop its lengthy rate hike cycle. Strong earnings from IBM (NYSE: IBM), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), among others, also contributed to investor enthusiasm.

Volume was active with 1.9 billion shares trading on the NYSE and 2.4 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers swamped decliners by a margin of 28:5 on the NYSE and 23:7 on the Nasdaq.

In individual stories, Illumina Inc. (Nasdaq: ILMN) surged 28.5% after the company reported strong Q2 results and raised their Q3 and full year guidance. On the downside, Digitas Inc. (Nasdaq: DTAS) closed 27.7% lower after the company reported so-so Q2 results and warned for the year.

Tomorrow traders will be looking for data on Initial Jobless Claims at 8:30ET AM, Leading Indicators at 10AM ET, Natural Gas Stockpiles at 10:30AM ET and The Philly Fed at 12PM ET. Earnings season continues to ramp-up tomorrow with notable earnings expected from Ford Motor (NYSE: F), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Advanced Micro (NYSE: AMD), Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), among others.

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