STOCKS FINALLY RALLY: Here's What You Need To Know

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 15,438.1 (+65.3, +0.4%)
• S&P 500: 1,755.7 (+13.9, +0.8%)
• Nasdaq: 4,034.1 (+37.1, +0.9%)

And now the top stories:

• The U.S. markets didn't recover their more than 2% losses from Monday. And they're still down 5% for the year. But today's rally was nevertheless a welcome rally.
• JP Morgan's Tom Lee remains optimistic about stocks. "There are a multitude of factors that have contributed to this slow start (including EM stress, position squaring, and a recent softness in the economic data), but ultimately the key question is whether stocks face further weakness or whether this relatively weak start presents a buying opportunity," said Lee in a new note to clients. He sees six reasons why investor may want to buy stocks now: 1) interest rates are down, 2) hedge funds have already de-risked, 3) Q4 earnings have been stronger than expected, 4) individual investors are close to capitulation according to AAII data, 5) gas prices are down, and 6) high yield bonds - a leading market indicator - are outperforming. Lee has a 2,075 year-end target for the S&P 500.
• According to new Census data, U.S. factory orders declined by 1.5% in December, which wasn't as bad as the 1.8% drop expected by economists. Excluding transportation, order increased 0.2%.
• The Congressional Budget Office published their new 10-year outlook for the budget and the economy. "[T]he deficit will total $514 billion in fiscal year 2014, compared with $1.4 trillion in 2009," they wrote. "At that level, this year's deficit would equal 3.0% of the nation's economic output, or gross domestic product (GDP)-close to the average percentage of GDP seen during the past 40 years."
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