Overbought Wall Street Looks For Breather

(RTTNews) - Early indications suggest that Wall Street stocks may open Monday's session modestly lower after two of the three major averages ended session after session at record highs last week. That said, catalysts continue to be supportive, with China churning out encouraging export growth and Japanese first quarter GDP surprising to the upside. With little domestic economic and corporate news to digest, save some Fed speeches, a lack of direction may be the order of the day unless the markets choose to focus on the Asian data.

At 6:15 am ET, the Dow futures are down 11 points, the S&P 500 futures are slipping 1.75 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures are slipping 2 points.

U.S. stocks extended their gains in the week ended June 6th, with the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 Index setting record closing highs, helped by positive domestic economic data and the European Central Bank's monetary policy action.

On the economic front, the unfolding week's economic calendar is light, with only a few data scheduled for the week having the potential to move the markets. Traders may closely watch the Commerce Department's retail sales report for May, the jobless claims report and the preliminary reading of the consumer sentiment survey for June by Reuters and the University of Michigan. The markets may also evince interest in a few Fed speeches scheduled for the week.

The Commerce Department's wholesale and business inventories reports for April, the Treasury Budget for May, a Labor Department report on import and export prices report for May, a separate report on May producer price inflation for final goods and the results of the Treasury auctions of 3-year and 10-year notes and 30-year bonds round up the economic events of the week.

St Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard is scheduled to speak on the economy and monetary policy in Palm Beach, Florida at 9:10 am ET. Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Trollop wills speech on corporate governance in Washington at 12:45 pm ET. Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Roentgen is due to speak on monetary policy at a Bank of Guatemala conference in Guatemala City at 1:30 pm ET.

In corporate news, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers (JOSB), which is to be acquired by Men's Warehouse (MW), reported first quarter adjusted earnings of 32 cents per share on revenues of $217.422 million, up from the year-ago quarter's $196.055 million.

Reports suggest that Tyson Foods (TSN) may have run the race to acquire Hillshire Brands (HSH) for about $63 per share in cash, piping Pilgrim's Pride (PPC) in the takeover battle.

Family Dollar (FDO) announced that it has taken note of a Schedule 13D filing by billionaire investor Carl Icon, which showed that Icon has acquired a 9.4 percent stake in the discount store.

Bygone Idec (BIIB) announced that the U.S. FDA has approved its first Hemophilia a therapy to extend the interval between prophylactic infusions for both adults and children.

Most Asian markets moved to the upside, with some positive economic data from the region lending support. China reported strong trade data, Japanese first quarter GDP was upwardly revised and last Friday's U.S. jobs data was robust- three reasons that served to generate positive sentiment. The Australian market was closed for a public holiday.

The Japanese market benefited from the yen's weakness following the increase in risk appetite. The Nikkei 225 average ended up 46.76 points or 0.31 percent at 15,124. Hong Kong's Hang Sang Index ended at 23,118, up 166.47 points or 0.73 percent, and China's Shanghai Composite Index added 0.55 points or 0.03 percent before closing at 2,031. Meanwhile, South Korea's Kopi retreated modestly.

On the economic front, a report released by China's General Administration of Customs showed that exports rose 7 percent year-over-year in May, accelerating from the 0.9 percent rate in April. Imports fell 1.6 percent, sending the trade surplus higher to $35.9 billion from $18.5 billion in April.

Second estimates released by Japan's Cabinet Office Monday showed that the nation's GDP rose1.6 percent quarter-over-quarter, bigger than the 1.5 percent growth estimated initially and the consensus estimate of 1.4 percent growth. This followed a 0.1 percent rise in the fourth quarter and marked the fastest increase since the 2.6 percent increase in the third quarter of 2011.

The trade balance report released by Japan's Ministry of Finance showed that the deficit on trade in goods widened in April. The goods trade deficit widened to 780.4 billion yen in April from 708.2 billion yen in the year-ago period. The current account surplus was at 187.4 billion yen, less than the 287.7 billion yen surplus estimated by economists and the 784.4 billion surplus recorded for April last year.

European stocks are showing some volatility in early trading and are currently mixed amid scanty data and earnings news flow.

In corporate news, O.K. Lloyds announced that it has priced its offering of TSB Banking Group at 2.20 pounds to 2.90 pounds, considered by some analysts as below-par.

On the economic front, Eurozone investor confidence weakened for the second straight month in June, to its lowest level since December 2013, survey results from the think tank Sentix showed.The investor sentiment index fell unexpectedly to 8.5 from 12.8 in May. The score was forecast to rise to 13.