On a different note, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced that a private-public program to aid banks is expected to begin in six weeks. The program is a partnership which will help banks shed their bad assets and will combine $100 billion in government funds with private investments hoping to build a pool of nearly $1 trillion. Additionally, Geithner states that preliminary approval will be sent to applicants over the next few weeks, report Rebecca Christie and Robert Schmidt of Bloomberg.
On a negative note, the U.S. dollar has fallen to its lowest level vs. the euro since January. As things start to normalize, the combination of falling currency and stock volatility spurred speculation that investors will will seek higher yielding assets. This sent the PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bearish (UDN) up nearly 1% in morning trading and is up about 0.1% for the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq added nearly 1%, whereas the S&P 500 added nearly 2% in morning trading.
Kevin Grewal contributed to this post.