The Market Just Took Off

Today's quiet stock market rally just got interesting.

The Dow just jumped 70 points and is now up 150 points.

It's unclear what's behind the move.

The beginning of this afternoon's rally coincided with Bloomberg headlines citing Interfax, which reported that "Russia ends exercises for air defenses; Russian warplanes end drills in Astrakhan region."

Perhaps this is a sign that Russia is scaling back its presence in Ukraine. Perhaps it isn't.

There's been little other notable news to move markets today.

This week, it's been particularly quiet on the economic calendar, which has allowed everyone to focus on the geopolitical turmoil. The S&P is down almost 1% in the past four days.

"Risk aversion rules," Societe Generale's Kit Juckes said. "The Ukraine conflict shows no sign of being resolved (rather, there's far too high a chance of escalation for comfort). Overnight, the U.S. has approved limited airstrikes in Northern Iraq. The conflict on Gaza, too, is in danger of re-escalation. Investors have plenty of reasons to take risk off the table and are doing so across the board."

While stocks have been in the green all day, Treasury securities have also been rallying reflecting this risk-off sentiment. Earlier today, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note touched 2.37% earlier on Friday, the lowest level since June 2013.