U.S. Stocks Remain Mostly Positive In Mid-Day Trading

After showing a strong move to the upside early in the session, socks remain mostly positive in mid-day trading on Tuesday. With the upward move, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has reached a new record intraday high.

In recent trading, the Nasdaq reached a new high for the session. The Nasdaq is currently up 133.17 points or 1.3 percent at 10,189.65, the Dow is up 247.84 points or 1 percent at 26,272.80 and the S&P 500 is up 31.44 points or 1 percent at 3,149.30.

The continued strength on Wall Street has widely been attributed to White House trade adviser Peter Navarro clarifying remarks about the U.S.-China trade deal.

"It's over," Navarro said in response to a question about the trade deal in an interview on Fox News on Monday, adding that the "turning point" was China's failure to warn the United States about the coronavirus outbreak.

However, Navarro subsequently released a statement attempting to clarify his remarks, claiming his initial comments were "taken wildly out of context."

"They had nothing at all to do with the Phase I trade deal, which continues in place," Navarro said. "I was simply speaking to the lack of trust we now have of the Chinese Communist Party after they lied about the origins of the China virus and foisted a pandemic upon the world."

Trump also sought to reassure investors with a post on Twitter declaring the trade deal is "fully intact" and saying he hopes China will "continue to live up to the terms of the Agreement!"

Navarro's initial comments contributed to an overnight nosedive by stock futures but were clarified before impacting regular trading.

Stocks are also benefiting from upbeat economic data out of Europe, with a reading on private sector activity jumping to 47.5 in June from 31.9 in May.

A reading below 50 still indicates contraction, but Simon MacAdam, Senior Global Economist at Capital Economics, noted the readings on activity in developed markets have "come back a long way from their April lows."

"While activity is still considerably below normal levels, the surprising speed of the recovery poses an upside risk to some of our Q2 forecasts," MacAdam said.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing a substantial increase in new home sales in the month of May.

The report said new home sales spiked by 16.6 percent to an annual rate of 676,000 in May from a significantly downwardly revised rate of 580,000 in April.

Economists had expected new home sales to jump 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 640,000 from the 623,000 originally reported for the previous month.

Sector News

Steel stocks continue to see considerable strength amid optimism about a global economic recovery, with the NYSE Arca Steel Index surging up by 2.5 percent.

Significant strength also remains visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. Earlier in the session, the index reached its best intraday level in a month.

The strength in the gold sector comes amid a continued increase by the price of the precious metal, as gold for August delivery is surging up $16.10 to $1,782.50 an ounce.

Oil stocks have also shown a strong move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Oil Index up by 1.8 percent.

Biotechnology, retail and financial stocks are also seeing notable strength in mid-day trading, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged up by 1.6 percent.

The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index spiked by 2.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries are seeing modest weakness after closing nearly flat for two straight sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.9 basis points at 0.723 percent.