Good times continue at Wall Street

Pleasing global economic reports take US stocks higher

US stocks ended with huge gains on Monday, 01 June, 2009. Couple of encouraging economic reports on Wall Street together with encouraging manufacturing data from China helped US stocks rally right out of the gate today morning. Energy prices also ended considerably higher. General Motors remained in the headlines today for most part of the day today due to its bankruptcy news.

After starting the day 123 points higher earlier during the day, The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 221 points at 8,721. The Nasdaq Composite Index, ended higher by 54 points at 1,828. S&P 500 ended higher by 24 points at 942.

Nine of the ten sectors ended in the green led by industrials and consumer discretionary sectors. Telecom was the only sector to end in the red.

General Motors lent good support to the Dow despite news that the company is filing for bankruptcy. According to GM CEO Fritz Henderson, GM believes it can complete bankruptcy in 60 to 90 days.

Though GM remains a Dow component for now, Cisco is expected to replace GM in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 8 June. As per latest reports, Citigroup will also get replaced by Travelers.

The Commerce Department reported on Monday, 01 June, 2009 that the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing Index for May came in at 42.8. The data indicated that that manufacturing activity is contracting, but that activity continues to improve since earlier this year. Additionally, construction spending for April showed a surprise 0.8% month-over-month increase, making for two consecutive monthly increases.

In other economic news, personal income for April increased 0.5%, despite continued layoffs and loose labor market conditions. The figure came against an expected 0.2% decrease. Personal spending for April showed another decrease, though the 0.1% decline wasn't as bad as expected and was an improvement from the previous month.

Yesterday, it was reported that , China's manufacturing PMI came in at 53.1 in May, slightly below April's 53.5 but stayed above 50 for the third consecutive month, suggesting that the manufacturing sector is maintaining its modest pace of expansion.

After an astounding finish for May, 2009, crude prices kicked off June 2009 on a sharp note with oil prices rising for the sixth consecutive session on Monday, 01 June, 2009. Prices rose as China's economy continued to witness moderate expansion and also as the dollar slid further. On Monday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for June delivery closed at $68.58/barrel (higher by $2.27 or 3.4%). Last week, crude ended higher by 7.5%.

While U.S. stocks have been trading with impressive gains since the opening bell, the U.S. dollar remained under continued pressure. In the currency market on Monday, the U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the greenback against six major currencies, slid as much as 0.7%, following a 6.1% drop in May.

May auto and truck sales and pending home sales are the only items on the economic calendar for tomorrow