It was yet another day when all the scared rabbits in the crowd were hedging their bets against bad news from the Fed, thus driving the Dow down a hundred points right out the gate.  Then you saw it happening like magic -- right around noon, as Yellen was telling the world that, contrary to fears incited earlier, the Fed would continue to exercise caution in the wake of global uncertainty (exactly what the world wanted to hear) that the Dow went soaring ... and kept soaring until close, bringing the Dow up 97 points for the session.  So if all the hedgers weren't being such nervous Nellies, the index would have been up almost 200 points.  Yesterday, it was reported the S&P was almost in the black for the year after a very bad winter.  As of today, it is officially now back in the black, all this despite an additional 2.5 percent drop in crude.  Because of the "good news" on interest rates, banking stocks like BofA were the ones to take the hit, down one percent.  Trading overall got a little bit back to normal today with 7.0 billion against a one-month average of 7.8 billion shares.

Markets | Tue Mar 29, 2016 4:34pm EDT

Wall Street hits 2016 high after Yellen delivers

BY NOEL RANDEWICH

DJ:  17,633.11  +97.72        NAS: 4,846.62  +79.84        S&P:  2,055.01  +17.96               

REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID

The S&P 500 closed at its highest in 2016 on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen called for caution on raising interest rates - music to Wall Street's ears.  In her first comments since the Fed held steady on rates earlier this month, Yellen said global risks remained, including uncertainty over China and low oil prices.  That was enough to reverse an earlier dip in stocks and leave the S&P 500 0.88 percent higher, its biggest one-day gain in 12 sessions.

After its worst January since 2009, the S&P 500 has fully recovered and is now up 0.55 percent for 2016, although investors remain concerned about a slow global economy, a strong dollar, volatile oil prices and lackluster top-line growth at U.S. companies.

Yellen's cautious tone contrasted with recent comments from other policymakers, including the chiefs of the Philadelphia and Atlanta Federal Reserves, who had expressed support for a more aggressive approach to raising interest rates this year.

Fed funds futures implied that traders now see a 46-percent chance the Fed will raise rates by a quarter point at its July policy meeting, below the 51 percent chance seen on Monday, according to CME Group's FedWatch program.

"Given the much less dovish-than-expected commentary we got from a number of Fed speakers last week, many were looking for a shift in tone from Ms. Yellen and we didn't get that,” said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange.

Economic and financial troubles in countries around the world have led policymakers to project slower path of rate hikes than initially expected in December.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 0.56 percent to end at 17,633.11 points and the S&P 500 .SPX gained 17.96 points to 2,055.01.  The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rallied 1.67 percent to 4,846.62.

All 10 major S&P sectors rose, led by tech stocks .SPLRCT, up 1.58 percent.

The energy index .SPNY added 0.35 percent despite a 2.5 percent drop in Brent crude oil. U.S. stocks and the price of oil have often moved in lockstep in recent months but that was not the case Tuesday.

Shares of some banks, which stand to gain from higher interest rates, were the biggest drags on the S&P 500. Bank of America (BAC.N) and Wells Fargo (WFC.N) each declined over 1 percent.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,448 to 594. On the Nasdaq, 2,109 issues rose and 735 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 50 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 63 new highs and 47 new lows.

About 7.0 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 7.8 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.