US stocks bounce back after Memorial Weekend
US stock markets opened today after a long Memorial Day weekend and resumed its recent trend of advances. The backend of last week saw the regions indices fall by significant amounts across the board on the back of comments made by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, suggesting that monetary stimulus may be pulled if the US economy shows signs of recovery.
It was not the worlds largest economy’s central bank that grabbed the headlines in early trading this week however, with the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank filling that particular role. The two central banks were quick to reaffirm their position regarding their monetary easing after witnessing the impact around confusion in the US had caused.
Japan itself fell victim to similar uncertainty on Monday when the Nikkei 225 declined by 3.2 percent as investors failed to decypher the mixed messages coming from the nation’s central bank.
The solidarity shown by the central banks encouraged investors to hunt better yields from riskier assets, namely stocks, instead of placing their wealth in US debt and other so called investor “safe-havens”.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, or DJIA, closed the session with advances of 106.29 points, an advance of just under 0.7 percent. Meanwhile the broader S&P 500 advanced by 10.46 points, or 0.63 percent. The NASDAQ however boasted the largest gains with a 0.86 percent rise to 3,488.89.
Intuitive Surgical Inc lead the S&P 500 with an advance of 23.18, or 4.84 percent. The gains came on the back of the company winning a trial in which they were accused of not properly training a doctor in the use of their robotic surgery system. Intuitive Surgical Inc currently have more than 20 other similar cases either pending or at trial.
State Street Corp saw an advance of 2.66 percent, or 4.12 percent, while high-end jewellery retailer Tiffany & Co made gains of 3.01, or 3.95 percent. Tenet Healthcare Corp and Delphi Automotive PLC completed the top 1 percent of performers on the index with gains of 3.90 percent and 3.68 percent respectively.
Exelon Corp registered the biggest decline of S&P 500 constituents, falling by 2.61, or 7.53 percent. The decline came on the back of Exelon announcing that former executive vice president Kenneth Cornew had returned to his former role, as well as assuming the role of President and CEO of Exelon Generation.
