Bernanke Comments that Recovery is At Hand

As of press time, 2:00 P.M. Eastern Time, stocks have jumped on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that he believes that the U.S. economy is on the verge of recovery.

Currently in Jackson, Wyoming for the annual Federal Reserve conference, Chairman Bernanke stated, "the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good", however warning that lending-a key driver of U.S. economic activity for businesses and consumers alike-has not yet returned to normal.

Indeed, looking to the future Mr. Bernanke said, "Looking forward, we must urgently address structural weaknesses in the financial system, in particular in the regulatory framework, to ensure that the enormous costs of the past two years will not be borne again."

The Dow as trading at 9,479, up 129 points; the Nasdaq was at 2,011, up 22 points; and the S&P 500 was up 15 points, trading at 1,022.

The Russell 2000, a composite of leading small-cap stocks like 3Com (Nasdaq:COMS), Oilsands Quest (Amex:BQI), Palm (Nasdaq:PALM), and Scholastic (Nasdaq:SCHL), was 12 points to 580.

Advances were leading declines by a margin of 4 to 1 on the NYSE and 7 to 3 on both the Nasdaq and Amex exchanges.

Leading price movers in the small-cap space include Sinclair Broadcast Group (Nasdaq:SBGI), up 42%; Wireless Ronin Technologies (Nasdaq:RNIN), up 40%; and Rentech (Amex:RTK), up 21%.

*****We all know that it's news that moves the stock market. But it's also true that not all news is created equal...

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