Yesterday Yellen spoke with the Senate Banking Committee and reported slight optimism. At this point, the Fed still has a monthly bond-buying program at $35B. In discussing when and the possibility of raising interest rates, Yellen noted, “There's no formula and there's no mechanical answer that I can give you about when the first rate increase will occur… It will depend on the progress of our economy and how we assess it based on a variety of indicators.”

“Next week will be the heart of earnings announcement season for the NASDAQ-100, with 36 companies representing 52% of the index reporting,” said David Krein, Head of Research, NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes.

INDEX MOVES THIS WEEK

• NASDAQ BIOTECHNOLOGY INDEX (NBI) is down 3.25% since Friday’s close. Year-to-date performance for the index is up 10% after being up above 20% at the end of February.
• NASDAQ-100 (NDX) was up 0.69% as of noon on Wednesday. Intel beat earnings and is up 8% this week. As well, eight of the other top 10 largest companies have had positive returns with Amazon and Microsoft having positive returns north of 2.5%.
• PHLX OIL SERVICE SECTOR (OSX) was up 1.23% as of noon on Wednesday. The price of crude oil is $100.91 per barrel, down $6 in the past month.

INDEX TO WATCH

• The NASDAQ US Multi-Asset Diversified Income Index (NQMAUS) includes five asset classes with the basket including 126 securities. The five asset classes are equities, REITs, preferreds, MLPs and fixed income. Year-to-date, the index has outperformed major US equity benchmarks including the NASDAQ Composite, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average.