Stocks Rise Again

"Absolutely nothing in that mix is good for stocks other than the belief that they're going higher," he said.

The 10-year note sank 20/32 in price to yield 4.08%, and the 30-year bond tumbled a full point to lift the yield to 4.76%.

Gold futures also fell hard, shedding $23.30 to $881.70 an ounce. The U.S. dollar firmed by 0.8% against both the euro and the yen as the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, spiked 0.7%.

One of the early points of focus was the Commerce Department's second report on U.S. gross domestic product for the first quarter. The initial reading indicated that GDP grew 0.6% from January through March, but the revision showed a 0.9% increase, matching analysts' forecast.

The report will undergo another possible revision before it's finalized, but so far it seems to indicate that the economy managed to avoid contraction in the beginning of the year -- which, if accurate, would run contrary to what many economists have predicted.

"It's pretty hard to have a recession when the economy is expanding by almost a percent," said Richard Yamarone, chief economist with Argus Research. "I don't think we'll knock the cover off the ball in the second quarter, but there are a lot of signs that the economy is actually gathering some footing."

"It defies what everybody's saying out there," said Hennessy. "The economy grew." He also believes that even if the U.S. is still headed for two quarters' worth of contraction -- the generally accepted definition of a recession -- such a recession would be a mild one.