The financial markets opened the day higher, and have gained throughout the morning as investors bid up stocks across the board. The Dow currently sits in the green by 111 points, the Nasdaq by 21, and the S&P 500 by 11.
The basic materials sector leads the way higher this morning, with the metal mining group at the forefront. Freeport McMoran (NYSE:FCX) is higher by 2.55%, while Cameco Corporation (NYSE:CCJ) is higher by 4% on the day so far.
The embattled financials are also showing signs of strength so far today. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) is higher by 2.33% today. Wachovia Corporation (NYSE:WB) shares are higher by 2.18% as the major banks are receiving a nice lift today.
On the technology side, most major tech companies are higher so far today. Baidu.com (Nasdaq:BIDU), the Chinese ADR, is higher by 3.25% and hitting a new 52 week high on strong volume today. Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:JAVA) shares received a nice bid up of 2.83% after the company released a new model of storage virtualization platform this morning.
Investors who were watching Ben Bernanke's speech this morning to get clues about the future of interest rates. The FOMC chair mainly spoke about international trade and the balance of payments and offered no clues to the future direction of monetary policy in the United States.
Today's is another day with not terribly strong volume, with most investors still waiting on the sidelines to see what the next move from the FOMC is. The only thing that might cause more movement from traders this week are the important retail sales and consumer sentiment numbers out Friday morning.
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