Federal Reserve System  Why stocks soared on the taper  December
18, 2013: 4:22 PM ET  On Wednesday, the thing that investors
have been worrying about for months happened, and it was
awesome.   FORTUNE -- The Federal Reserve's taper may turn out
to be a lot less terrible than we thought.  For more than a
year, investors have been bracing for the beginning of the end
of the Fed's stimulus program. So on Wednesday when the Fed
finally announced it would pull back a little, how far did
stocks fall?  They didn't.  Instead, they rose, a lot, by nearly
300 points. Bonds were down slightly. What gives?   MORE: Why
home builders are still cautious  One of the main concerns about
the Fed pulling back on its bond buying program is that it would
cause interest rates to rise. But that was bound to happen
anyway. Interest rates tend to rise when the economy improves.
And the economy has been improving. So interest rates are up.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds has risen to just
under 3% from around 2% at the b