U.S. stocks rallied overnight with the Dow, S&P500 and Nasdaq reaching fresh highs with financial stocks and commodity shares leading the gains.
The Dow Jones industrial gained 51 points to 9,830. The S&P500 Index added 7 points to 1,072 and the NASDAQ rose 8 points to 2,146.
On the economic news front: according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency home prices rose 0.3 per cent in July. Forecasts were for a rise of 0.5 per cent.
In company news: Shares in global diversified financial services holding company Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) rose 4.97 per cent to $4.65. Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC has halved its stake in Citigroup. GIC decided to cash in on the recent market rally to sell its stake for $1.6 billion.
Shares in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) advanced 2.09 per cent to $17.61. According to Reuters on Monday the bank said it will pay $425 million to buy its way out of a program to share losses on bad assets and derivatives with the U.S. Government. Shares in home improvement retailer Lowe’s Companies Inc (NYSE:LOW) fell 4.01 per cent to $21.07. Lowe’s affirmed its full year earnings outlook and announced that it may have to incur some impairment charges in relation to operating stores in the second half of the year.
And shares in pay TV provider Dish Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) added 2.65 per cent to $19. Wells Fargo upgraded the company’s stock from ‘market perform’ to ‘outperform’. Wells Fargo says it appears that the company is on the road to recovery.
Checking the NASDAQ Top 100: The best performer overnight was Wynn Resorts, adding 6.2 per cent to $72.94, followed by Applied Materials and Joy Global. On the downside, Apollo Group was the worst performer, shares fell 4.58 per cent to $71.32. Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Sears Holdings also closed lower.
