ETF'S Rallying Today (XLF, QQQQ)

Shares of the Financial Select Sector SPDR XLF are strongly higher today, as concerns of the Basel III capital requirements have been eased. Basel III, which was a conference set in Basel, Switzerland set the common equity requirements for international banks to be expanded over eight years, higher than many were anticipating. As a result, shares of the XLF are up 26 cents this afternoon to trade at $14.78. Shares of PowerShares QQQ ETF QQQQ are up 1.2% on strong gains in tech stocks, such as Apple AAPL, and more mergers and acquisition in the tech sector. Earlier this morning, Hewlett-Packard HPQ announced it was buying ArcSight ARST for $43.50 per share in cash, making the deal worth $1.5 billion.