?The words that market participants wanted to hear were that he?ll respect Ukraine?s sovereignty and will be satisfied with Crimea, and won?t go for more,? said Benno Galliker, a trader at Luzerner Kantonalbank AG in Lucerne, Switzerland. These ?words were heard, and we?re seeing a relief nudge up,? he said.
Putin supported a request from Ukraine?s separatist region of Crimea to join Russia, defying U.S. and European Union sanctions. Crimea voted on March 16 to leave Ukraine and become a part of Russia. The regional parliament called the plebiscite after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country following protests against his rule.
?Don?t Believe?
?We don?t want to split up Ukraine, we don?t need that,? the Russian president said in a speech to parliament. ?Don?t believe those who scare you with Russia, who yell that Crimea will be followed by other regions.?
The S& P 500 rallied 1 percent yesterday for its biggest increase in almost two weeks as a measure of industrial production grew more than forecast.
A Commerce Department report showed starts were little changed in February after declining less than previously estimated a month earlier, indicating the home-building industry is stabilizing after bad winter weather curbed construction. Permits filed for future projects increased 7.7 percent to a 1.02 million pace in February, the most since October.
The Federal Open Market Committee will announce a $10 billion cut to its monthly bond purchases at the end of its two-day meeting tomorrow, according to the median of responses in a survey. The Federal Reserve will continue to slow the asset-buying program at that pace at every meeting before ending the program at its Oct. 28-29 gathering, the survey showed.
 
| Stocks | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Futures | 16,218.00 |   +52.00 | +0.32% |
| Nasdaq Futures | 3,663.00 | +11.50 | +0.31% |
| S& P Futures | 1,857.10 | +6.40 | +0.35%   |



  