Stocks looked set in pre-market trading for a big bounce back after a steep selloff yesterday and opened with big gains. The dip-buying advance moderated a bit as the morning went on, though the S&P remains up about 1.75% near noon and the Dow has gained over 2% after yesterday was the worst day for the market in about 3 months.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., import prices rose 1.0% in May, while export prices rose 0.5%. The preliminary June print for the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey pointed to a jump of 6.6 points to 78.9 from a 72.3 reading in May.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 7.5M confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including 2M in the U.S., and 422,452 deaths due to the disease.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Adobe (ADBE) are 4.5% higher near noon after the company's quarterly earnings report prompted a number of target hikes around Wall Street. Among those who raised their targets, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill said Adobe software is proving critical for online content, paperless workflows, and digital customer experiences in the current work-from-home and shelter-in-place environment.
Shares of Lululemon (LULU) are not reacting as well to the company's earnings report, sliding 5% at midday. MKM Partners analyst Roxanne Meyer is among those who keeps her Buy rating on Lululemon after its Q1 results, saying she remains confident in its recovery and recommends investors buy shares on the pullback.
President Donald Trump retweeted a comment from Richard Grenell that Microsoft "should now be barred from federal government contracts - there should be consequences for not selling technology to police departments." Yesterday, Microsoft (MSFT) President Brad Smith confirmed at a Washington Post Live event that the company plans to await federal regulation before selling facial recognition technology to police. Microsoft's position is in line with similar decisions by Amazon (AMZN) and IBM (IBM).
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers were a number of the "reopening" plays that suffered pullbacks yesterday, including American Airlines (AAL), United Airlines (UAL), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) and Royal Caribbean (RCL).
Among the notable losers was PVH Corp. (PVH), which slid 8% after its first quarter earnings report.
Also lower was Oneok (OKE), which fell 5% after pricing a 26M share secondary offering at $32 per share, below the last closing price of $35.33.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 531.67, or 2.12%, to 25,659.84 , the Nasdaq was up 140.09, or 1.48%, to 9,632.82 , and the S&P 500 was up 52.77, or 1.76%, to 3,054.87 .
