U.S. Stocks Seeing Modest Strength In Morning Trading

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved modestly higher in morning trading on Tuesday, extending the upward move seen in the previous session. With the continued advance, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have reached new record intraday highs.

Currently, the major averages are all in positive territory. The Dow is up 51.51 points or 0.2 percent at 35,387.22, the Nasdaq is up 74.34 points or 0.5 percent at 15,017.00 and the S&P 500 is up 10.15 points or 0.2 percent at 4,489.68.

The continued strength on Wall Street comes as traders have seemingly shrugged off concerns about the Federal Reserve tapering its asset purchases amid continued optimism about the economic outlook.

On the economic front, the Commerce Department released a report this morning showing a rebound in U.S. new home sales in the month of July.

The report showed new home sales increased by 1.0 percent to an annual rate of 708,000 in July after slumping by 2.6 percent to an upwardly revised rate of 701,000 in June.

Economists had expected new home sales to jump by 3.6 percent to a rate of 700,000 from the 676,000 originally reported for the previous month.

Steel stocks have shown a substantial move to the upside in morning trading, driving the NYSE Arca Steel Index up by 3.7 percent.

Considerable strength is also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 3 percent spike by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.

Oil service stocks are also seeing significant strength on the day, resulting in a 2.6 percent jump by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index.

Networking and oil producer stocks have also moved notably higher in morning trading, while some weakness is visible among utilities and pharmaceutical stocks.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 0.9 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index soared by 2.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets are turning in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index is up by 0.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.3 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved to the downside after ending the previous session nearly unchanged. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.5 basis points at 1.270 percent.