Ahead of the historic EU referendum vote in the UK tomorrow, Wall Street shares climbed higher midweek.
The S&P 500 was up just under 4 points at 2,092 and the Dow Jones industrial average was around 50 points higher at 17,879. On the Dow Jones, McDonald's corp was the surprise big loser, down 1.5% to US$120 a share. Fed chair Janet Yellen later today gives her semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress after yesterday testifying on banking, housing and urban affairs. On NASDAQ, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) founder Elon Musk failed to ease investors as shares in the electric car company tanked almost 10% after revealing he plans to buy out his own SolarCity. Solar City (NASDAQ:SCTY) shares climbed higher on the news however, reaching US$23, up 9%.
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Wall Street shares are seen higher midweek after stocks solidified gains on Tuesday and ahead of the historic UK referendum tomorrow on whether to stay in or leave the EU. The benchmark Dow closed 24 higher at 17,829 yesterday, while the S&P500 added 5.65 at 2,088 and the tech heavy Nasdaq exchange was flat at 4,843. Today Dow futures are 24 higher, the Nasdaq is up 9.25 and the S&P500 is 2.75 ahead. Traders will be looking out for any comments on monetary policy clues later, as Janet Yellen continues her policy report to Congress. In focus globally is the vote on Thursday by the UK on whether to brexit (leave the EU) or not and apparently, the result may well be too close to call, but investors appear in fairly upbeat mood, with Footsie up over 37 points at the time of writing at 6,264. On the US corporate front today, it's a relatively slow day for corporate results. Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) and Bed Bath & Beyond (NYSE: BBBY) are two firms reporting quarterly earnings after the bell. The big story is from electric vehicle superfirm Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), whose shares crashed over 11% in pre-market, as it emerged Elon Musk's Tesla had made an offer for his solar panel specialist SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ: SCTY)in a stock deal worth as much as US$2.8 billion. Shares of SolarCity, however, beamed around 18% higher to US$25.02 each.