Stocks soared today after President Bush and Secretary Paulson announced that the Bush Administration has reached a deal to freeze mortgage rates. Even before the announcement stocks were showing some strength, but this afternoon after the announcement stocks jumped higher. The Dow finished the day higher by 175 points. The Nasdaq finished higher by 43. The broader S&P 500 rose by 22 points, or 1.5%. 
All the major sectors finished higher on the day as the rally truly was a broad one today.
Energy stocks were particularly strong today. Transocean (NYSE:RIG), which just recently acquired GlobalSantaFe, charged higher by 5.38% on huge volume today. Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE:DO) jumped by 6.25% on slightly higher than average volume. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) gained 3.55% on the day. Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) declared a 10 cent dividend and hit a new 52 week high today, gaining 5.68%. XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO) shares rose by 5.02% today as natural gas stocks gained significant ground.
The capital goods sector, which doesn't often jump by large amounts, was very strong today, showing up as the second strongest sector behind energy today. Infrastructure and construction plays were particularly strong. Fluor (NYSE:FLR) shares rose by 4.98% and Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE:JEC) jumped 4.15% on the day. Terex Corporation (NYSE:TEX) climbed higher by 5.58%. Defense companies also moved broadly higher by a large percentage today. Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) gained 3.32% on strong volume and Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) gained 2.09%.
Most notable in today's rally was the tremendous strength in those stocks that have been absolutely crushed over the last few quarters. Homebuilders jumped an amazing amount today after the mortgage freeze announcement. Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) soared by 15.26% on double its average volume. KB Home (NYSE:KBH) rallied 16.14% on twice its normal volume as well. Pulte Homes (NYSE:PHM) and D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI) jumped 12.73% and 11.80% respectively in what can only be described as an extremely positive day for the group. Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) gained 7.01% on the heels of the announcement today. Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) gained 7.22% today.
Though Democrats and several on wall street questioned the mortgage rate freeze and labeled it as a "government bailout", the market clearly cheered the news, at least for today. The fact that many believe today's action will help mortgage lending is what boosted those industries that had been hurt the most recently.
Notable today was the fact that the volume was quite light. The Nasdaq didn't reach 2 billion shares traded for the first time in quite some time, finishing at 1.9 billion. New highs narrowly bested new lows on the NYSE, but still lagged a little behind new lows on the Nasdaq. Up volume was about 80% of the total volume on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq today.
Please pay attention tommorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. eastern as the employment report will be released. Tommorrow's trading action will be dependent on this number, and more importantly the FOMC and its monetary policy decision may well be riding on this economic data.
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