Basic Materials and Energy sectors returned to a leadership role today as the stock market looked to bounce from its recent doldrums. Both sectors advanced about 2%. However, it is Healthcare that has remained consistently strong. And in fact, it is Healthcare that has maintained a steadily strong score in Sabrient’s quantitative SectorCast model.

For the first time in the 98-year history of the Federal Reserve, its chairman held a news conference after its FOMC policy meeting. So, what was the big news? QE2 will end in June as planned, but as I speculated last week, they will keep the balance sheet steady by continuing to reinvest maturing assets into the debt markets. They will also keep the Fed Feds Rate in the 0.00-0.25% range. Both of these are stimulative to the economy.

Market bulls found support at the right time and pulled another rabbit out of their hat. It’s good to have friends in high places, as the Fed’s POMO money continues to flow, including another $6+ billion today for the purchase of Treasuries (which tends to find its way into equities). Last Wednesday, I suggested that the extreme weakness might have been a selling climax, and it turns out that is was – at least for the short term.

Last week I wrote about the market’s impressive run off the March 2009 V-bottom. But since then, the bottom has fallen out, led by the Technology sector. Those of you who read this column regularly know that I have been opining that the rally has been pretty much manufactured by the Fed and their quantitative easing initiatives, but more recently the signs of economic recovery have been taking shape without much inflation.