At 12:35 p.m.: DJIA: +1.01%, S&P 500: +0.90%, NASDAQ: +1.21%.

Here are three stories moving markets on Wednesday afternoon:

1) Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday morning. The 10-second takeaway, similar to the results of Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, was that Bernanke remains a champion of quantitative easing. Rolling with the blows dealt by those who disagree with his policies (there are many), Bernanke dug a trench around the idea that the benefits of the Fed’s policy outweigh the risks.

Bernanke’s take is of the glass-half-full variety, describing the labor market as “improving gradually” though “generally weak.” Some early focus was given to the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate — which states that the FOMC will try to maximize employment and maintain moderate long-term interest rates — and the Fed’s decision to link its policy to these metrics…

2) Even though mortgage rates eased slightly and remain near record lows, applications for home mortgages declined for the third straight week. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Wednesday that loan application volume declined 3.8 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, loan application volume declined 3 percent. These figures include both refinancing and home purchase demand, and cover over 75 percent of all domestic retail residential mortgage applications… (Read more.)

3) The National Association of Realtors announced on Wednesday that its Pending Home Sales Index for the month of January increased to its highest reading since April 2010. The number of pending sales grew 4.5 percent to 105.9 in January from a downwardly revised 101.3 in December.

Delving further into the data provided by the Realtors Association showed that this index has been making steady gains for close to two years, providing further evidence that the housing recovery is on stable footing. Pending home sales have remained above year-ago levels for the past 21 months… (Read more.)

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