TRADER: Here are 8 reasons stocks exploded today (SPY, SPX, QQQ, IWIM, AAPL, AMZN, FB, NFLX, GOOGL, USO, WTI, OIL, BNO, VDE)

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Stocks surged today. 

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose to a seven-week high while the Dow closed up 348 points, and the Nasdaq clocked a triple-digit gain for its best day of the year.

In an afternoon note to clients, Dave Lutz at JonesTrading sent out this brief on why stocks rallied:

• After speaking to Chinese officials, Treasury secretary Jack Lew said they assured him there'll be no need or plans to devalue the yuan further.
• Weak US and Chinese manufacturing PMI data are leading traders to bet that central banks may keep monetary policy dovish.
• European Central Bank president Mario Draghi sounded dovish in a letter to a member of parliament dated today saying that the bank will review its stimulus program next week due to weaker-than-expected inflation and higher economic uncertainty.
• Today's US economic data, which beat forecasts, are sparking a "risk-on" move to stocks and away from treasuries.
• Crude oil is rallying after President Vladimir Putin said Russian companies agreed not to increase output this year. 
• Mega caps are surging, with the FANG basket (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google i.e. Alphabet) up more than 3%, and Apple shares up above $100.
• The first day of the month brings some "allocation shenanigans".
• There's a heavy volatility unwind, with the CBOE volatility index (VIX) down 11% for stocks, and oil's VIX down 5%. 

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