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Following the mixed performance seen last Friday, stocks have moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have climbed into positive territory, although the narrower Dow has spent the day lingering near the unchanged line.<\/p>\n
Currently, the Nasdaq is off its highs of the session but still up 83.38 points or 0.6 percent at 13,827.23. The S&P 500 is also up 14.56 points or 0.3 percent at 4,478.61, but the Dow is down 15.60 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 35,265.80.<\/p>\n
The strength on Wall Street may partly reflect bargain hunting after the Nasdaq and S&P 500 ended the previous session at their lowest closing levels in a month.<\/p>\n
Overall trading activity has remained somewhat subdued, however, with a lack of major U.S. economic data keeping some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of some key data in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Reports on import and export prices, retail sales, industrial production and housing starts are likely to attract attention along with the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting.<\/p>\n
Despite the upward move by the broader markets<\/span>, gold stocks are seeing considerable weakness on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 1.8 percent.<\/p>\n The weakness among gold stocks comes amid a modest decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery slipping $6.30 to $1,940.30 an ounce.<\/p>\n Banking stocks have also shown a significant move to the downside, as reflected by the 1.7 percent drop by the KBW Bank Index.<\/p>\n Oil service, natural gas and utilities stocks are also seeing notable weakness, while semiconductor stocks have moved substantially higher, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 1.7 percent.<\/p>\n In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 1.3 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dove by 1.6 percent.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the major European markets are turning in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.1 percent and the German DAX Index is up by 0.4 percent.<\/p>\n In the bond market, treasuries have climbed off their worst levels of the day but remain modestly lower. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.4 basis points at 4.182 percent. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Business News<\/p>\n<\/div>\n