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Stock rally: Three days and counting - CNNMoney.com -- Stocks rallied Thursday, ending higher for the third-straight session, as investors continued to dig back in after a month long retreat that left the Dow and other major indexes at three-month lows.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 84 points, or 0.8%. The S&P 500 index added 7 points, or 0.7%. The Nasdaq composite added 15 points or 0.7%.

After the close, the Federal Reserve said it is raising the discount rate, the emergency rate it charges banks seeking loans, by a quarter-percentage point, to 0.75%. The Fed said the move reflects improvements in the economy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated a move was coming late last week, however, such changes typically don't occur between Fed meetings.

The move does not reflect a change in policy, the central bank said, and won't impact consumer or corporate borrowing costs. The more widely used fed funds rate, the overnight rate banks charge each other, is expected to remain at historic lows near zero for the foreseeable future.

Bonds pare losses - Bond prices pared losses Thursday after the Federal Reserve raised the rate it charges banks that borrow from the central bank when they run short of funds.

What prices are doing: The benchmark 10-year note lost 1/32 to 98-12/32, pushing the yield up to 3.81% from 3.73% late Wednesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The 30-year bond fell 1/32 to trade at 98-10/32 and its yield was 4.73%. The 2-year note ticked down 1/32 to 100.

Home Owner Perceptions of Property Value "Overly Cynical" – Zillow, the Seattle-based company that collects data on home values throughout the country, has released results of it's homeowner confidence survey conducted during the 4th quarter of 2009. Zillow found that only 20 percent of the 2200 homeowners surveyed felt that their home's value had increased during 2009 while, based on its own data, Zillow believes that 28 percent of homes nationally had appreciated in value during the year.