Financial stocks saw a late surge as an executive from Bank of America said that capital-market conditions in the second half of this year are shaping up to be better than last year. Both Bank of America and JPMorgan rose 2.9%.
Markets continue to take their cues from Europe, and investors said to expect volatile trading ahead of a key election in Greece this weekend. The vote could determine the country’s future in the 17-nation euro currency bloc.
In the rest of the World, the Stoxx Europe added 0.6%, after briefly turning negative after Fitch Ratings downgraded the credit ratings on a host of Spanish banks. Japan’s Nikkei Average lost near -1% and the China Shanghai Composite dropped -0.7%.
Crude-oil futures rose 0.8% to $83.32 a barrel, while gold futures gained 1.1% to $1612.70 a troy ounce. The U.S. dollar lost ground against the euro but rose against the yen. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 1.661% as demand fell.
In corporate news, Apple (AAPL) gained 0.9% after failing Monday with their disappointing announcements on their new product lines. While an iPhone 5 was not expected, an improved MacBook line does little to Apple’s total revenue and as such, their stock price dropped. Facebook (FB) rose 1.5% as they defended assertions that their ads were ineffective and have little influence over users. On the other end of the social media stocks, Zynga (ZNGA) skidded 10% to a new all-time low as reports surfaced that their daily users have declined significantly over the last few months. Finally, Michael Kors (KORS) rose 7.7% after they announced that quarterly earnings had doubled, beating Wall Street analyst expectations.
Looking forward to tomorrow, retail sales reports and PPI data are released at 8:30 AM and should have a fairly significant move on the market. Korn/Ferry International lists as the only major company scheduled for earnings tomorrow, June 13.
Thomas Doherty is a Villanova University student majoring in Finance and Economics. Questions and comments at Thomas@KeeneOnTheMarket.com