In a press conference yesterday Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the Fed will keep its benchmark interest rate near zero for a year or possibly much longer "...until the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals."

However, Mr. Powell added that "It will take some time to reach anything that resembles maximum employment."

On a combination of Mr. Powell's message and promising news on Gilead's COVID-19 drug, at close yesterday the Dow was up 2.2%, the S&P 500 up 2.7%, Nasdaq composite up 3.6%.