By Carla Mozee and Anora Mahmudova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. stock market started the
second half of 2014 on a positive note, with investors looking at
auto sales, manufacturing activity and construction spending on
Tuesday morning.
The S&P 500 (SPX) opened 6 points, or 0.3%, higher at
1,967.07. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) began the session
up 87 points, or 0.5%, at 16,911.10. The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF)
added 21 points, or 0.5%, at 4.428.85 at the start of the day.
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action.
Investors await two separate reports on the manufacturing
sector, with the first scheduled for release at 9:45 a.m. Eastern.
Data firm Markit will issue the final reading of its U.S.
manufacturing purchasing managers index for June. Its preliminary
figure, reported last week, was 57.5, up from 56.4 in May.
Ahead of the U.S. reports, two separate manufacturing PMIs from
China showed improvement in June, but manufacturing activity in the
euro zone slowed.
At 10 a.m. Eastern, the Institute for Supply Management's June
manufacturing report is forecast to come in at 55.7%, edging from
55.4% in May. "Overall, the ISM continues to point to an expansion
in the manufacturing sector, which has been one of the
better-performing sectors in the U.S. economy," said Mizuho
strategist Sireen Harajli in a Monday note.
A report on construction spending in May from the Commerce
Department is expected at 10 a.m. Eastern. Outlays for projects are
likely to rise 0.7%, according to economists polled by
MarketWatch.
Investors will also pay attention to June car sales figures to
assess the health of U.S. consumers. Analysts expect, on average,
stronger sales than in the same month a year ago, which would place
the industry on track for a more than 3% sales increase this year
to 16.4 million cars.
Shares of General Motors Co. (GM.XX) were 1% higher, while
shares of Ford Motor Co. (F) inched up 0.4%.
Shares of Netflix Inc.(NFLX) rose 3.6% after Goldman Sachs
equity analysts upgraded the stock to a buy, from neutral.
Shares of Urban Outfitters Inc. (URBN) were down 2.7% after
analysts at Wedbush downgraded the stock to neutral from
outperform, citing risks of a slowdown in the retailer's
Anthropologie unit.
Oracle Corp. (ORCL)on Tuesday said it priced $10 billion in
notes and plans to use the proceeds from the offering for general
corporate purposes. This may involve stock buybacks, paying cash
dividends, repaying debt and funding future takeovers, including
its pending acquisition of Micros Systems Inc. (MCRS) Oracle's bond
pricing is among the largest corporate-bond deals of the year,
according to a Wall Street Journal calculation.
Also in Silicon Valley news, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ)reached a
settlement in three shareholder lawsuits related to its purchase of
software firm Autonomy in 2011. Shares edged up 0.3%.
In other markets, Japan's Nikkei Average rose 1.1% and Europe's
Stoxx 600 was higher, with BNP Paribas SA gaining after the French
bank agreed to pay a record $8.8 billion settlement to U.S.
authorities for violating U.S. sanctions.
U.S. benchmark crude-oil futures (CLQ4)rose 31 cents to $105.68
a barrel and gold futures (GCQ4)climbed $4.90 to $1,326.90 an
ounce.
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