Stocks soared yesterday with all of the major indexes closing sharply higher. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way with an outsized gain of 2.78%, followed by the S&P 500 with 1.66%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 with 1.37%.

Semiconductors and memory-chip makers, which have been under pressure lately, saw big gains yesterday with NVIDIA up 2.65%, Applied Materials up 14.9%, Advanced Micro Devices up 13.0%, Sandisk up 25.9%, and Micron up 18.3%, to name a handful.

With the Fed decision in the books (no change on rates), and the next meeting not until mid-September, the market can put that behind them.

Yesterday's Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index (which is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge) came in as expected, which means an easing from the previous outing. That too lifted stocks.

The headline rate came in at -0.1% m/m vs. last month's 0.5% and views for -0.1%. The y/y rate was at 3.7% vs. last month's 4.1% and estimates for 3.7%. The core rate (ex-food & energy) was at 0.1% m/m vs. last month's 0.3% and forecast for 0.2%. The annual rate was at 3.3% vs. last month's 3.4% and consensus for 3.3%. All in all, the report came in as expected, and in some cases a bit better. And showed mostly an easing from last month's readings. And the market cheered the news.

Given the rough stretch for tech lately amid impressive sales and earnings, it's possible that tech might finally have become oversold. Today's gains would certainly suggest that.

Speaking of tech, after the close yesterday we got earnings from two big Magnificent 7 stocks.

Apple reported earnings and posted a positive EPS surprise of 1.60%, and a positive sales surprise of 0.62%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 21.7% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 16.4%. It was their "strongest June quarter ever." Service revenue grew by 12.1%, but did miss expectations by -1.54%. iPhone sales grew by 21.7%, and Mac grew by 28.7%. Gross margins were strong at 50.1% vs. 47.9% expectations. But guidance for next quarter was for 9%-11% vs. the consensus for 12%. And CEO Tim Cook, who will be retiring on September 1, noted the memory shortage and rising costs with "limited flexibility" to fix supply issues. He likened the shortage to a "hundred-year flood." They were off -1.41% in the regular session before earnings, and were down another -7% in after-hours following earnings. For context, Apple is up 22.6% YTD.

We also heard from Amazon, and they posted a positive EPS surprise of 2.73%, and a positive sales surprise of 1.77%. That equated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 11.9%, and a sales growth of 19.6%. AWS (Amazon Web Services) revs were up 64%. Although, Amazon guided Q3 total revs lower to a midpoint of $199.5B vs. estimates for $203.9B. But for context, if hit, that would still represent a growth rate of 10.7%. They were up 3.90% in the regular session, and jumped another 10% in after-hours trade.

Today we'll hear from another 65 companies, including AbbVie, Exxon Mobile, and Colgate-Palmolive to name a few.

With one more day to go, most of the major indexes are on pace to close higher for the week. And if we can get another day like yesterday, even better.

Best,