Stocks are churning today as investors await key data and worry about European politics.
S&P 500 futures are off less than 0.1 percent, while indexes across the Atlantic were mixed. Asia continued to rally, led by a 2 percent gain in Shanghai. The U.S. dollar is higher across the board, and commodities are weak.
Traders return from the Memorial Day holiday to a busy agenda of economic news. Durable-goods orders at 8:30 a.m. ET and consumer confidence at 10 a.m. ET are the most important, but the Case-Shiller and FHFA house-price indexes are also due at 9 a.m. ET and new-home sales follow at 10 a.m. ET. Revised gross domestic product numbers and a key pharmaceutical conference come later in the week as well. (See researchLAB's interactive calendar for a complete rundown.)
Greece returns to the news news with Athens at risk of defaulting on $1.75 billion it must repay the International Monetary Fund over the next month. Spain, which had been on the mend, is back in focus as well after the pro-austerity government suffered big losses in municipal elections.
The S&P 500 traded in a tight range last week after pushing above its February peaks. It's consolidated in a tight for most of the year as investors digested slowing economic growth and the possibility of higher interest rates.
researchLAB, our proprietary relative-strength tool, shows banks, agriculture, Chinese-Internet stocks, television broadcasters and construction firms coming to life recently. Health-care stocks like hospital operators, biotechnology and HMOs have also remained strong.
Another major factor has been renewed mergers and acquisitions, which are running at their strongest pace in at least eight years, according to Dealogic. That continues today with Charter Communications gobbling up Time Warner Cable for $56 million. TWC rose 8 percent on the news and CHTR is up 4 percent. Ctrip.com advanced almost 5 percent after Priceline invested another $250 million in the Chinese company.
Oil fell half a percent, while gold, silver and copper slid about 1 percent. The U.S. dollar is up across the board and rose to its highest level against the Japanese yen in almost eight years.
