Once welcomed with open arms in Egypt, many of the tens of thousands of Syrians who took refuge here from the civil war at home have now found themselves targets of hate speech and intimidation. Their dramatic change in fortune is one of the unexpected consequences of the Egyptian military's ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, whose Islamist-dominated government offered them favorable conditions.

The shift could have a profound impact on the lives of Syrians in Egypt as they currently find themselves in a sort of legal limbo, waiting to see where the political winds will drop them. In what many see as a hint of what lies ahead, Egypt's new military-backed interim government already has imposed new travel restrictions.

That has spooked many Syrians who fear their current visas won't be renewed and they could be forced to leave Egypt. Many have invested their savings in businesses or simply cannot return to their war-ravaged cities.

"Our biggest fear now is that we get deported," said Azzam Ayed, a 32-year-old Syrian who refused to give his hometown out of fears for his security.

The backlash stems from support of the mainly Sunni Syrian opposition by Morsi during his year in office, and the Muslim Brotherhood, which offered cheap housing and food aid to Syrians who fled the violence in their homeland.

With the country divided, Morsi's critics accused Syrians of participating in the protests calling for him to be reinstated.

International human rights groups have urged Egypt to rescind the measures.

"Egypt may be going through tumultuous times, but it must not return anyone, including Syrians, to somewhere threatening their life or freedom," Nadim Houry, the deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement last week. "While Egypt is going through a very difficult period, it simply should not strand Syrians this way, especially those who have fled such a devastating conflict at home.

The U.N. says some 70,000 Syrians are registered in Egypt, although officials estimate the actual number may be twice that since many have opted not to register. That would make Egypt home to the fourth-largest community of Syrian refugees after Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

Those who came to Egypt received a warm welcome. Morsi's government supported the rebels' cause, and kept in place a decades-old open-door policy that allowed Syrians to come and go without prior visas. They were eligible to receive medical care at state hospitals, while their children could enroll in government schools.

Over the past few months, Syrians redefined some parts of Cairo, opening their own restaurants and cafes in areas where many of them settled.

But the warm welcome quickly evaporated after the military toppled Morsi on July 3 after four days of mass protests calling for the Islamist leader's removal.

Television networks critical of Morsi aired allegations that the Muslim Brotherhood was paying Syrian refugees to take part in pro-Morsi protests. The arrest of at least six Syrians taking part in violent street clashes only fanned the flames.

"Syrians are facing a defamation campaign," said Syrian activist Salma Gazayerli. "Yes, some of the Syrians support Morsi, but how many? The majority of Syrians know that they are guests in Egypt and they behave accordingly."

Gazayerli, co-founder of the nonprofit Union of Syrian Women, said the Brotherhood has "manipulated the needs of some Syrians," offering them cheap housing from Islamic relief groups in return for participating in protests supporting Morsi. Those who refused, she claimed, were cut off from the aid.

Senior Brotherhood official Saad Emara rejected the allegations. "There were millions in the streets. Can we give them all money?" he said after mass rallies on Friday by Morsi supporters.

Morsi made supporting the Syrian opposition in its fight against President Bashar Assad a cornerstone of his foreign policy, and Cairo is the official headquarters of the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group.

On June 15, Morsi attended a rally organized by some of his hard-line allies in a show of solidarity with the Syrian rebellion. Some of the speakers at the rally called for jihad, or holy war, in Syria, and a senior official in Morsi's office earlier said authorities would not prevent Egyptians from traveling to Syria to join the rebel cause.

Syrians say they noted a shift in the public mood against them following the speech, but that the honeymoon in Egypt ultimately came to an abrupt end when Morsi was swept aside.

Last week, popular TV presenter Youssef el-Husseini warned Syrians taking part in pro-Morsi protests they would be beaten with shoes if caught.

"If you are a man, you return to your country and solve your problem there," he said on his night talk show on private ONTV. "If you interfere in Egypt, you will beaten by 30 shoes."

His comments triggered uproar on social networking sites, prompting the network to apologize. But the damage was done.

"All of a sudden, Egyptians started hating us because of the media. Before June 30, they would welcome us on the streets and greet us as guests. Now Syrians are harassed on the streets with a tone of 'why don't you go back home?'" Gazayerli, the activist, said.

Alaa Soqair, a 45-year-old Syrian, said his four children have been refused admission to a state school. He declined to say where in Syria he was from because of fears for his security.

"They didn't even as much as look at the documents," he said. "They just said Syrians will not be admitted to state schools anymore."

Five days after Morsi was pushed from office, Egyptian authorities implemented new entry rules for Syrians, requiring them to obtain a visa prior to arrival. Those already in the country with no valid visa or resident permit are at risk of arrest.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry said the measures were temporary and urged Syrians to stay away from protests by the Muslim Brotherhood against the new political order. The move, which exempted those with valid Egyptian visas, caught Syrians by surprise and, in once incident, an entire planeload of 200 passengers arriving from Syria was denied entry and sent back.

"We recognize the legitimate right of the country to put its own measures in place," said Syrian activist Sima Diab, who is based in Egypt. "But what was shocking is that it all happened so quickly, in a blink of an eye."

"Recent FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) decisions have met with a substantial rise in Treasury yields, and I have suggested that a possible justification for the rise in yields is increased optimism concerning future U.S. macroeconomic performance," said St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard in prepared remarks.

"However, given recent forecasting performance, we should be careful in using an optimistic forecast to justify current policy decisions. A more prudent approach would be to wait to see if better macroeconomic outcomes materialize in the months and quarters ahead," he told a monetary policy conference here.

Bullard voted against the Fed's decision after a meeting of the FOMC on June 18-19 to deputize Chairman Ben Bernanke to explain during a post-meeting press conference that the policy-setting committee expects to begin scaling back bond buying later this year, if the economy grows as expected.

Yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note have risen by almost a full percentage point since then, to around 2.60 percent, even though the Fed decided in the meeting to keep buying bonds at an $85 billion monthly pace.

Bullard, who also dissented in June because he was concerned that inflation had fallen further beneath the Fed's 2 percent target, emphasized the sizeable nature of the market move "even though the Committee has not actually changed any policy settings at this point."

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer, writing by Alister Bull; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

The iconic version of the Guy Fawkes mask owes its popularity to the graphic novel and film V for Vendetta, which centers on a vigilante's efforts to destroy an authoritarian government in a dystopian future United Kingdom. Although he didn't predict the mask's role in popular protest, David Lloyd, the artist who illustrated the comic, , "It's a great symbol of protest for anyone who sees tyranny."

Before V for Vendetta (which was published in serial form throughout the 1980s before being made into a 2005 film), Guy Fawkes costumes and effigies were only popular in the U.K. on Halloween and , a November 5 celebration that, by the 20th century, had been largely divorced from Fawkes' violent plot.

But as you've likely noticed, over the past few years the stylized mask has evolved into a global symbol of dissent, employed by everyone from shadowy computer hackers to Turkish airline workers. And although the masks are often used in anti-establishment demonstrations, one of the largest media corporations in the country gains the most from the masks' rising popularity. Time Warner , and at over 100,000 masks a year, it is by far the company's best-selling facial costume.

Here, a brief history of the mask's unlikely rise:

AnonymousThe hacktivist collective Anonymous popularized these masks in 2008 when it launched , a movement targeting the Church of Scientology after the church tried to censor an interview with Tom Cruise on the web. Members of the collective agreed to come out from behind their computer screens , but needed a way to conceal their identities. The Guy Fawkes mask was their chosen disguise. Although the collective has never officially stated the reasoning behind this choice, it's likely an homage to an eerie scene in V for Vendetta in which a group of masked protesters marches on the British Parliament. When asked why the mask was selected, one protester , "I can't say, not having contact with the inner circle — wherever they are, but I can say the image of people marching towards Parliament in the spirit of protest, that wall of masks, had a certain resonance amongst those who held negative feelings about organizations such as Scientology but also towards the government." The project grew into a national movement with demonstrations in Florida, Michigan, Boston, and Los Angeles. Since then, the masks have become a go-to symbol of the collective and anti-establishment movements worldwide.

After Anonymous' first major political demonstration in 2008, the collective began cleverly aligning itself with a variety of anti-establishment movements fromIt is, in part, due to these loose affiliations that the adopted emblem of one movement evolved into a global symbol of resistance.

It's logical that OWS would appropriate the disguise of the faceless anti-establishment crusader from Lloyd's franchise. Still, the mask doesn't carry such weight for everyone who dons it. Sid Hiltunen, an unemployed stockbroker who joined the OWS movement, , "If you want to show your support but are afraid you'll lose your job, just wear a mask — any mask."

Protesters around the world were spotted wearing the anti-authoritarian vigilante's trademark disguise. Even Julian Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks, wore one to an Occupy rally in London.

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NASA plans tosometime in the next quarter-century. Such a mission will push the boundaries of teamwork for the handful of astronauts selected, as they will have to spend as long as three years isolated together in a tiny capsule traveling through the harsh dangers of space toward the Red Planet and back. Any problems in teamwork could jeopardize the mission.

To help maintain teamwork during a mission to , scientists are developing devices aimed at monitoring astronauts in real time to learn how and why cooperation fluctuates over the course of a mission. []

"The intended purpose of the technology and analytics we are developing is to help the team be more aware and attuned so team members can effectively regulate their teamwork," said Steve Kozlowski, lead investigator on the project and an organizational psychologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing. "Good teamwork will be essential to the success of . We are developing tools so the team can manage their interactions well, identify potential problems, and resolve them before they become problematic."

Kozlowski and his colleagues have for years investigated how scientific teams get along when serving for long periods in isolated, confined and extreme conditions similar to what astronauts encounter. For example, in , they ask team members to write diaries for five to 10 minutes every day for anywhere from six weeks to nine months, documenting events that spur teamwork or conflict.

"For example, in one study, negative spikes in team cohesion were associated with a couple of team members not wanting to share the workload; positive spikes were associated with celebration," Kozlowski said. "It's not rocket science, but it shows how small, even trivial things can influence the ability of a team to be effective. Mere rudeness can inhibit performance."

Ideally, however, Kozlowski and his collaborators would like automated ways to see how teams are doing in real-time. []

"One of the key limitations of social science is its heavy reliance on self-reported questionnaires where people retrospect and report on what they perceived or felt about a target person or event," Kozlowski said. This method is obtrusive, relies on memory, which can be fallible, and is vulnerable to what questions are asked and how those questions are asked, he explained.

The researchers are now developing badgelike devices for astronauts that researchers aim to shrink down to the size of a smartphone. The badges would unobtrusively measure a number of factors about the astronauts, such as heart rate, body motion, what they say and how they say it, their proximity to other crew members and the amount of face time between crew members.

"These new technologies will revolutionize the very nature of social science, how it is conducted, and what insights it can offer with respect to human interaction," Kozlowski said.

For instance, the devices could tell if a team member gets loud or turns away from a conversation suddenly, activity that, when done repeatedly, could signal a problem. Once the badges help identify a concern, they would then wirelessly relay that data to, for example, the crew member, the crew leader, or the entire team.

"The intent is to make the technology part of good teamwork, not to create a 'Big Brother' that is watching from the outside," Kozlowski said.

Scientists have worked on developing these devices for three years now. NASA recently awarded the project $1.2 million for another three years. This brings total funding from the space agency for the project to $2.5 million.

A rudimentary version of these badges can now run for a few hours and has proved effective at accurately and consistently collecting data in a lab setting. The researchers now want to make sure its packaging and power system are robust enough for use in simulations of space missions.

"One such analog, HERA, is housed at the it is a habitat that simulates a capsule for flight or remote work on Mars. One- to two-week simulations are planned, and we intend to evaluate the badges in that setting," Kozlowski said. "Another habitat is calledthat runs simulated Mars exploration missions. We intend to evaluate in that setting as well. Ultimately, we may be able to do some evaluation in the Antarctic, but that is further off."

These badges could help advance science outside of space research.

"Organizations may be interested in how knowledge is shared, how innovation emerges; the badges could help illuminate that process," Kozlowski said. "They could also be used for more mundane but no less important tasks like monitoring the elderly at home how's grandma doing?"

This story was provided by , a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA .

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The biggest operator of Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans is teaming up with the largest U.S. Spanish-language media network to explain Obamacare to Hispanics in California, New York, Colorado and Georgia.

A partnership announced on Thursday by WellPoint Inc, Univision Communications Inc and healthcare marketer HolaDoctor Inc will include 70 town hall meetings in the four states, 30-second TV and radio ads, regular newscast segments devoted to subject and an online insurance center to guide consumers through the intricacies of coverage.

The initiative, one of many outreach efforts expected in the coming months to help explain President Barack Obama's healthcare law, will begin next month and run through March.

America's 52 million Hispanics are a main audience for the roll-out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which will offer health coverage to millions of uninsured people through new online insurance exchanges in all 50 states and expanded Medicare coverage in about half the country.

U.S. Census data show that about one in three Hispanics lacks health coverage, while many have low-to-moderate incomes that could qualify for Medicaid or federal subsidies to help pay for private insurance. In California alone, about half of the 2.6 million people with incomes low enough to qualify for subsidies are Hispanic, according to the administration.

But experts say most Hispanics are unfamiliar with the health benefits under Obamacare, which comes into full force on January 1.

"You really have to start at that square one. People need to first understand what the value of health insurance is and then what's coming under healthcare reform," said Robyn Gilson, WellPoint's staff vice president for multicultural marketing.

WellPoint is expected to become one of the biggest participants in the new insurance marketplaces, which are slated to begin enrolling consumers on October 1. The Indianapolis-based insurer currently sells health plans under the Blue Cross Blue Shield license in 14 states.

Gilson said WellPoint turned to Univision's television and radio operations as a trusted voice in the Hispanic community. New York-based Univision has two broadcast TV networks, 10 cable networks, 62 local TV stations and 69 radio stations.

California, Colorado, New York and Georgia are all WellPoint markets with large Hispanic populations.

Depending on the success of the initiative, Gilson said the outreach effort could be expanded to more areas.

(Reporting by David Morgan.; Editing by Caroline Humer and Andre Grenon)

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver said the Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain, along with Mardel bookstores, not only can proceed with their lawsuit seeking to overturn a portion of the Affordable Care Act, but can probably win.

The judges unanimously sent the case back to a lower court in Oklahoma, which had rejected the companies' request for an injunction to prevent full enforcement of the new law.

"Hobby Lobby and Mardel have drawn a line at providing coverage for drugs or devices they consider to induce abortions, and it is not for us to question whether the line is reasonable," the judges wrote. "The question here is not whether the reasonable observer would consider the plaintiffs complicit in an immoral act, but rather how the plaintiffs themselves measure their degree of complicity."

Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., Mardel Inc. and their owners, the Green family, argue for-profit businesses not just religious groups should be allowed to seek an exception if the law violates their religious beliefs. The owners approve of most forms of artificial birth control, but not those that prevent implantation of a fertilized egg such as an IUD or the morning-after pill.

Hobby Lobby is the largest and best-known of more than 30 businesses in several states that have challenged the contraception mandate. A number of Catholic-affiliated institutions have filed separate lawsuits, and the court suggested faith-based organizations can follow for-profit objectives in the secular world.

"A religious individual may enter the for-profit realm intending to demonstrate to the marketplace that a corporation can succeed financially while adhering to religious values. As a court, we do not see how we can distinguish this form of evangelism from any other," they wrote.

A majority of judges couldn't decide whether the Oklahoma court had sufficiently addressed two parts of Hobby Lobby's initial complaint and sent them back for further review at the local level.

Throughout a ruling that covered more than 160 pages, the judges noted Hobby Lobby faced a difficult choice violate its religious beliefs, pay $475 million in fines for failing to comply with the law (a $100 fine per day for each of its 13,000 workers), or pay $26 million to the government if it dropped its health care plan altogether.

Hobby Lobby and Mardel won expedited federal review because the stores would have faced fines starting Monday for not covering the required forms of contraception. The 10th Circuit judges said the Oklahoma court was wrong to not grant the companies an injunction in the face of serious financial penalties.

Hobby Lobby and other companies challenging the contraception mandate say the morning-after pill is tantamount to abortion because it can prevent a fertilized egg from becoming implanted in a woman's womb. The 10th Circuit heard the case before eight active judges instead of the typical three-judge panel, indicating the case's importance.

The U.S. Department of Justice argued that allowing for-profit corporations to exempt themselves from requirements that violate their religious beliefs would be in effect allowing the business to impose its religious beliefs on employees. In its ruling, the 10th Circuit cited a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court conclusion that for-profit corporations have rights to political expression.

"We see no reason the Supreme Court would recognize constitutional protection for a corporation's political expression but not its religious expression," the judges wrote.

One judge went even further in a concurring opinion.

"No one suggests that organizations, in contrast to their members, have souls," Judge Harris Hartz wrote. "But it does not follow that people must sacrifice their souls to engage in group activities through an organization."

Hobby Lobby calls itself a "biblically founded business" and is closed on Sundays. Founded in 1972, the company now operates more than 500 stores in 41 states and employs more than 13,000 full-time employees who are eligible for health insurance.

Emily Hardman, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Hobby Lobby, called the ruling a "resounding victory for religious freedom."

But Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the judges were wrong.

"This isn't religious freedom; it's the worst kind of religious oppression," executive director Barry Lynn said in a statement.

___

Kristen Wyatt is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt

Nina E. Olson, who runs the independent office within the IRS, said in her annual report to Congress that culture continues today, despite the scandal that has rocked the tax agency for more than a month.

Olson recommended that Congress authorize her to make "apology payments" of up to $1,000 to groups in cases in which "the IRS has caused excessive expense or undue burden to the taxpayer, and the taxpayer has experienced a significant hardship."

She said her office first approached the IRS about a backlog of applications for tax-exempt status in 2007. Olson has the authority to intervene in cases in which IRS actions are causing a "significant hardship" for taxpayers.

But the report said the agency's Exempt Organizations division resisted Olson's efforts, contending that she had no authority to intervene in such cases.

"The attitude that (Exempt Organizations) does not have to be responsive to (the taxpayer advocate) permeated the organization and persists to this day, with one EO employee recently complaining about being 'so tired of you calling,'" the report said.

The IRS has been under siege since the agency revealed last month that agents had improperly targeted tea party and other conservative groups for additional, often burdensome scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

This week, the IRS released documents showing that progressive and liberal groups may have been improperly singled out as well.

The taxpayer advocate does not have the authority to investigate the IRS, so the new report doesn't shed any light on who ordered agents to target the groups.

The report does, however, provide more details about an IRS division that shunned outside scrutiny even as agents engaged in conduct that has been condemned by the president, members of Congress and the public.

The IRS' acting commissioner, Danny Werfel, promised to work with Olson's office "to improve education inside and outside the IRS about taxpayer rights."

Werfel, who took over the agency last month, added, "We also agree on other areas, including the need to do a better job of reducing the backlog of (tax-exempt) applications."

The IRS was screening the groups' applications because agents were trying to determine their level of political activity. IRS regulations say tax-exempt social welfare organizations may engage in some political activity but the activity may not be their primary mission.

The additional scrutiny caused hundreds of applications for tax-exempt status to languish for more than a year, with some waiting more than three years for a decision.

The report said IRS agents are supposed to report taxpayer inquiries to the taxpayer advocate's office if a case has been delayed more than 30 days beyond the normal processing time. Despite the directive, the Exempt Organizations division did not refer any cases to the taxpayer advocate, even though nearly 300 applications were delayed much longer than 30 days, the report said.

From 2010 to 2013, the taxpayer advocate's office said it received 19 referrals about cases that may have involved groups that were targeted for additional scrutiny, the report said. Most of the referrals came from congressional offices.

The office didn't recognize a pattern because of the volume of cases it handles. During the same period, the taxpayer advocate's office received a total of 915,000 referrals, according to the report.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

I found her letters and read them. They described how she missed my husband and "couldn't wait to feel" his arms around her and his lips on hers again. She said he had shown her what real true love can be. She is 12 years younger than he is.

My husband says they never had sex, but did kiss on several occasions, and he enjoyed their deep, open conversations. Because my husband is not a big conversationalist, that has been very hard for me. The idea that he had meaningful conversations with this woman hurts me more than the physical things they admit to.

He says it's not actually cheating if they never slept together. I say, with everything he has admitted to and the fact he has opened up to her in ways I have begged him to with me, he has definitely cheated!

This is the second time in our 16-year marriage this kind of thing has happened. Obviously, his definition of cheating is not the same as mine. I say an emotional affair is almost worse than a physical one. He sees cheating as sex only. -- HURT AND LONELY IN NEW ENGLAND

DEAR HURT AND LONELY: When someone gets a post office box so that he or she can carry on a furtive romantic correspondence, it is cheating. When he kisses and embraces someone in a romantic fashion, that's cheating too. When he confides his deepest feelings to a woman other than his wife, what he does is widen the gulf between them.

On the deepest levels, your husband has been unfaithful to you. It appears he has perfected the "art" of lying to himself in order to justify his behavior. My heart goes out to you.

DEAR ABBY: I was seeing a therapist for several years. I began going because of abandonment and trust issues. Over time we became friends outside of therapy, talking to each other several times a week. I trusted her completely. During our therapy sessions she shared her life and problems with me to the point that I feel I know as much about her as she knows about me.

A couple of months ago, she suddenly decided that ethics had been breached and she was setting new boundaries. She said there would be no contact outside our sessions, but during the sessions she would say how much she missed me and thought of me as a daughter, and she would cry.

Now she has decided that she can no longer be my therapist. She has blocked my number and expects me to respect her demands. I know you can't speak for her, but is this normal behavior for a mental health therapist? I no longer trust therapists. -- CONFUSED IN TEXAS

DEAR CONFUSED: No, it is not normal behavior; it is highly inappropriate. Your therapist appears to have had as many or more unresolved emotional issues than you did. By ending your sessions together, she has done you an enormous favor.

While you may not trust "therapists," it may require the efforts of another one to help you work through this. When you go for your initial interview, be sure to tell the therapist what was done to you.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To receive a collection of Abby's most memorable -- and most frequently requested -- poems and essays, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Keepers Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Ruben Studdard won big on the second season of "American Idol." Now he's hoping to lose big on another television venture.

Studdard has been tapped to compete on the upcoming 15th season of NBC's weight-loss competition "The Biggest Loser," a network spokeswoman told TheWrap on Monday.

The 34-year-old singer, who bears the nickname The Velvet Teddy Bear, has struggled with his weight throughout the years, though in 2006 Studdard dropped almost 100 pounds after seeking help from a weight-management center and becoming a vegetarian.

Studdard's most recent album, "Letters from Birmingham," was released in March 2012.

Even the release of minutes from the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve didn't jolt stocks.

Two major U.S. stock indexes were barely changed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose a fraction of a point to 1,652.62. The Dow Jones industrial average eased 8.68 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,291.66.

Every move the Fed has made in recent months has been analyzed. Wednesday's minutes from the June policy meeting were no exception.

But the minutes offered no surprises. The report showed many Fed members want to see further job gains before cutting back on the central bank's stimulus measures. It also showed some divisions among officials over when the Fed should slow that stimulus.

"I don't think the minutes offered anything that would change (my) view of the market's direction or the Fed's intentions," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist for Prudential Annuities.

The small gain in the S&P 500 kept alive its winning streak. The index has now risen five days, its best streak in two months. Investors have become more confident about the economy after the strong June jobs report. The index is up 2.9 percent in July after falling 1.5 percent in June, its first monthly decline since October.

In another sign of confidence, small-company stocks continued their surge. The Russell 2000, which represents 2,000 publicly traded companies with small market valuations, rose 2.4 points, or 0.2 percent, to a record 1,020.42.

The Nasdaq, meanwhile, is at its highest level since October 2000. The Nasdaq gained 16.5 points, or 0.5 percent, to 3,520.76. Despite its rise, the index would still have to rise 43 percent to match its all-time high of 5,048 reached March 10, 2000, the peak of the dot-com bubble.

Investors are watching earnings results for the second quarter, which ended 10 days ago. Analysts expect earnings growth to average 2.8 percent for companies in the S&P 500, according to data from S&P Capital IQ.

The expected growth isn't spectacular and that makes it more likely that companies could beat analysts' estimates, said Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

"We have very low expectations," Wiegand said.

Family Dollar Stores was a case in point. The discount retailer said Wednesday that its quarterly earnings fell 3 percent. But the earnings topped analysts' estimates, and the stock surged $4.55, or 7.1 percent, to $68.50, making it the biggest gainer in the S&P 500.

Dollar General was the second-biggest gainer in the index, rising $2.98, or 5.75 percent, to $54.78.

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.68 percent from 2.64 percent late Tuesday. As recently as early May, the yield was 1.63 percent.

The price of crude oil jumped almost 3 percent to the highest level in 16 months after the U.S. government reported another steep decline in the nation's supplies. Oil rose $2.99 to $105.71 a barrel in New York.

The price of gold rose $1.5, or 0.1 percent, to $1,247.40 an ounce.

Among stocks making big moves:

Hewlett-Packard rose 46 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $25.93 after a Citigroup analyst raised his rating on the company. The analyst doubled his price target for the stock, saying the PC maker's turnaround efforts are taking hold.

Fastenal, an industrial and construction supplies distributor, fell $1.33, or 2.8 percent, to $45.77 after the company reported that its second-quarter revenue fell short of analysts' estimates.