In pre-market trading today, the markets are up after the second quarter gross domestic product numbers came in better than expected. The annual rate of increase in GDP in the second quarter of 2010 came in at 1.6%. Most economists were predicting a rate of about 1.4%. This turns out to be a pleasant surprise considering all the negative housing numbers we have had in the beginning of this week. The markets needed some positive news after the dow fell below 10,000 yesterday.

The market is also eagerly awaiting the words that come from the mouth of Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke at 10 am EST today. If his statement is relatively upbeat we could see a nice bounce back in the market for the week. If the undertone seems negative, than it is likely that the GDP numbers won’t do a whole lot to keep the dow over 10,000.

At the time of this article the S&P 500 was up 7 points, the Dow was up almost 56 points, and the Nasdaq100 was up 13 points.