Stocks Move To The Upside, Nasdaq Reaches Record High - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved mostly higher in early trading on Tuesday as the markets reopen following the long holiday weekend. With the upward move on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has reached a new record intraday high.

Currently, the major averages are hovering in positive territory. The Dow is up 38.51 points or 0.2 percent at 19,972.32, the Nasdaq is up 40.21 points or 0.7 percent at 5,502.90 and the S&P 500 is up 8.70 points or 0.4 percent at 2,272.49.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflects recent upward momentum, with analysts suggesting the path of least resistance remains to the upside.

Some buying interest may also have been generated by traders looking to do some "window dressing" in the final trading days of the year.

Trading activity has remained somewhat subdued, however, with some traders still away from their desks ahead of another three-day weekend in celebration of New Year's Day.

On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board released a report showing a continued improvement in consumer confidence in the month of December.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 113.7 in December from an upwardly revised 109.4 in November.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to rise to 108.5 from the 107.1 originally reported for the previous month.

"Consumer Confidence improved further in December, due solely to increasing Expectations which hit a 13-year high," said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board.

She added, "Looking ahead to 2017, consumers' continued optimism will depend on whether or not their expectations are realized."

Gold stocks have shown a significant move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 1.6 percent. The strength in the sector comes as gold for February is climbing $5.40 to $1,139 an ounce.

Oil service, steel, and semiconductor stocks are also seeing notable strength, while most of the other major sectors are showing more modest moves.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday, with several markets closed for holidays. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index closed just above the unchanged line, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets are seeing modest strength on the day, although the U.K. markets remain closed. The French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are both up by 0.2 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved back to the downside after seeing modest strength last Friday. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 2.6 basis points at 2.569 percent.