A hiccup at the Federal Reserve led the central bank to release their latest meeting minutes at 9am EST. Despite several members favoring tapering the money printing operation by mid-year the market took off. Leading the charge was the NASDAQ, but on the Russell 3000 it was the most heavily shorted stocks boosting stock market gains. The Dow and S&P 500 closed at historic highs while the NASDAQ was only able to muster multi-year new highs. We are a ways off from the all-time highs set in the dot com era. Price direction has been spot on here even faced with two slight sell-offs. Stick with the trend and for now it remains up! It is clear the market favors more QE than less. Last Friday’s job report shows this economy just can’t muster enough jobs. Will the QE program work remains to be seen. Again, we have put faith in the Federal Reserve will be able to allocate capital properly to ignite the economy. At least for now a few members within the Fed are keen on curtailing the program. For now our stock market likes it giving us an uptrend to work with and when/how this will end will be something to see. Technology stocks led the way today as seen by the NASDAQ Composite gaining 1.83%. Russell 2000 was right on the NASDAQ’s heels gaining 1.8%. Small cap stocks had been lagging as of late, but finally saw a bit of reprieve from underperformance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finally lagged as we have seen the Blue Chip index lead over the past few sessions. It is good to see the NASDAQ and Small Cap stocks lead and we’ll like it even more if they continue to stand in front. Earnings season will ramp higher with $JPM and $WFC reporting earnings on Friday. Financial stocks have been the bread winner when it has come to earnings growth for the S&P 500. Bank earnings are particularly difficult due to how much or little the bank decides to release its loan loss reserves. Of course it is a big game and more importantly price will tell us everything we need to know. However, if bank earnings can’t sustain its recent pace the S&P 500 will need to find earnings growth from another group. We continue to operate in an uptrend and cut our laggards as we move forward.