Stocks are up again this morning, with markets still bullish after the long Memorial Day weekend.
S&P 500 futures are climbing almost 0.4 percent, while the Nasdaq is indicated higher by about 0.5 percent and the Russell 2000 small-cap index is up 0.6 percent. That continues a recent trend of capital streaming back into former high flyers that fell sharply in recent months.
Europe is posting fractional gains this morning, while Asia was mostly lower overnight. Equities rallied on both continents yesterday, when markets were closed in the United States. Investors are also happy that a nationalist victory in Ukraine elections didn't trigger conflict with Russia.
Attention now turns to durable-goods orders at 8:30 a.m. ET, house-price indexes at 9 a.m. ET, and consumer-confidence data at 10 a.m. ET. Revised first-quarter gross-domestic product figures will probably also loom large on Thursday morning, and biotechnology will be in focus all week with the American Society of Clinical Oncologists starting their annual meeting on Friday.
The S&P 500 closed above 1900 for the first time ever on Friday and has been grinding higher all year. But the real story has been a constant rotation of bullishness from one sector to another. Health-care, technology, small-cap, and consumer-discretionary stocks led the market through early March, only to pull back sharply. Energy, consumer staples, utilities, materials, and international picked up the slack for about two months, but now momentum is shifting back to the old leaders. Transports have remained bullish the entire time.
In particular, our researchLAB market-analysis tool shows strength among solar energy, real-estate services, hospital operators, 3-D printers, television broadcasters, Chinese Internet companies, and cruise-ship lines in the last week. Coal, steel, iron ore, specialty retailers, silver miners, telecom, and utilities have lagged.
Food stock Hillshire Brands is surging 22 percent before the opening bell after receiving a $45-per-share takeover offer from Pilgrim's Pride. ( October 39 calls cited on our InsideOptions Pro service on Thursday will more than quadruple on the news.) In other merger-related news, Pfizer inched higher and AstraZeneca declined slightly after the New York-based drug giant abandoned a bid for the British firm.
Bank of America is also up more than 1 percent after announcing a third-party review of its capital plan was completed with little harmful impact on the company's books.
Commodities are mostly lower: Oil is off fractionally, gold and silver are down 0.8 percent, and agricultural products are lower by more than 1 percent. Copper has eked out a small gain. Currencies are little-changed.
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