YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Broad-based
buying in thin volume helped stocks score strong gains this session. The action
precedes a pivotal vote by Greece's parliament tomorrow.
There weren't many headlines
to act as cues for traders this morning. Participants even dismissed the day's
only data, which featured news that personal income for May increased by 0.3%,
but spending was flat. The consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com
had called for a 0.4% increase in income and a 0.1% increase in spending.
However, core personal consumption expenditures for the month increased by
0.3%, which is greater than the 0.2% increase that had been broadly
anticipated.
After hovering near the
neutral line for the first few minutes of trade, stocks began to stage a strong
climb. Financials led the early effort with a quick sprint up to a gain of more
than 1%. The sector spent the rest of the session sporting that gain.
Tech stocks eventually rallied
to replace financials as the top performing sector. Tech, which is also the
largest sector by market weight, settled with a 1.4% gain. Tech's strength
helped give the Nasdaq an added lift.
Gains weren't limited to
cyclical plays, though. Instead, all 10 major sectors ended the day in positive
territory. Half of them had gains of nearly 1% or more.
The breadth and size of the
move was partly made possible by the lack of share volume, which gave each
trade greater relative weight than it would have had during a day of even
average share volume. At just 835 million shares on the NYSE, total volume
today was among the lightest of the year. Such paltry participation will likely
persist ahead of the long, holiday weekend (U.S. markets will be closed next
Monday for the observance of Independence Day).
Even though vacation plans are
expected to pull many off of their trading in coming days, plenty of attention
will be paid to Greece's progress in putting its fiscal house in order. Another
step comes tomorrow, when the country's parliament votes on whether or not to
accept the austerity plan that country officials agreed upon last week with the
European Union and International Monetary Fund.
It was a quiet start to the
week for commodities, with no real news out of Greece to create volatility in
currencies or commodities... August gold finished lower by 0.3% to $1496.30 per
ounce. It traded to its lowest levels in over a month, at $1490.80, but managed
to bounce off those levels heading into the close. July silver shed 3.3% to end
at $33.50 per ounce, a more drastic sell-off than its counterpart. Silver also
traded to its lowest levels in a round a month, at $33.38. Both metals extended
their respective sell-offs to a third consecutive session.
August crude oil finished the
day lower by 0.6% to $90.61 per barrel. Crude oil did break back below the $90
level to trade to lows at $89.61, a fresh ~4 month low. Crude oil's losses mark
a third consecutive session of declines. July natural gas finished higher by
0.4% to $4.25 per MMBtu.
Advancing Sectors: Tech (+1.4%), Consumer Discretionary
(+1.2%), Financials (+1.1%), Telecom (+1.1%), Industrials (+0.9%), Utilities
(+0.8%), Energy (+0.7%), Health Care (+0.6%), Consumer Staples (+0.4%),
Materials (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: (None)DJ30 +137.48 NASDAQ +36.45 NQ100
+1.8% R2K +0.4% SP400 +0.6% SP500 +13.35 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1613/1.72 bln/973
NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2089/835 mln/914