US blue-chips have pulled out of their slump after underwhelming private sector payrolls data eased fears over an early interest rate rise.
Data from payrolls processing firm ADP – not always a reliable indicator to official non-farm payrolls figures out later in the week – said 185,000 jobs were added in the private sector in July, comfortably below the 229,000 added in June.
In other economic data, US trade showed a deficit of US$43.8bn (seasonally adjusted) in June, up 7% from the previous reading.
The Dow Jones average was up 97 points, or 0.55%, at 17,647, while the broader-based S&P 500 climbed 16 points (0.74%) to 2,109.
The Nasdaq Composite, weighed down of late by aggressive selling of shares in index heavyweight Apple, recovered to 5,168, up 64 points, or 1.25%, as the tech giant perked up, despite Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgrading the shares to neutral.
“ Apple is one of the top positions for many institutional investors so after only a 10% correction, the inclination for fund managers could be to add to holdings,” correctly predicted Jasper Lawler, a market analyst at spread betting firm CMC Markets.
Apple may have roused itself but theme parks and film studios operator Disney (Walt) is still getting a duffing over after revenue figures released last night missed forecasts.
On the upside, renewable energy specialist First Solar is a very bright spot, after beating expectations with its quarterly figures, while online travel broker Priceline was in a happy place after its quarterly profit was better than the market had anticipated.
After the bell tonight electric car maker Tesla is expected to release numbers, with some analysts expecting the company to raise full-year profits guidance.
Back in the UK, the FTSE 100 is having a solid day, up 53 at 6,739, with mining giants BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) leading the charge.
“The sector has been heavily sold down so there looks to be an element of short-covering off the back of a broker upgrade and ahead of Rio Tinto’s Q2 results on Thursday,” suggest CMC analyst Jasper Lawler.