Stocks have moved mostly higher in early trading on Tuesday, adding to the gains posted in the previous session and climbing further off their recent lows. The major averages have all moved higher, with the Dow and the S&P 500 advancing for the fourth straight session.
The major averages have seen some further upside in the past few minutes, reaching new highs for the young session. The Dow is up 52.68 points or 0.4 percent at 12,133.06, the Nasdaq is up 23.44 points or 0.9 percent at 2,653.10 and the S&P 500 is up 8.28 points or 0.7 percent at 1,286.64.
The early strength on Wall Street is partly due to optimism about the debt crisis in Greece, where Prime Minister George Papandreou is facing a crucial parliamentary vote of confidence on the reshuffled cabinet he unveiled last week.
The confidence vote is a key step in Papandreou's efforts to win support for additional austerity measures. The vote is expected to pass, as Papandreou's socialist party holds a five-seat majority in the 300-member Greek parliament.
Miller Tabak equity strategist Peter Boockvar said, "We all hope that Papandreou gets a thumbs up tonight within the Greek government to continue on with the budget cuts that must be followed in order for the country to avoid an outright default by receiving the next round of money from the EU and IMF."
Networking stocks have shown a notable move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 2.2 percent. With the gain, the index is climbing further off the six-month closing low that it set last Friday.
Steel, railroad, and health insurance stocks are also seeing significant strength, moving higher along with most of the major sectors. Commercial Metals (CMC) is leading the steel sector higher after reporting better than expected third quarter earnings.
Among individual stocks, Best Buy (BBY) is seeing early strength after the consumer electronics retailer said its board has authorized a new $5 billion share repurchase program. The board also approved a 7 percent increase in Best Buy's quarterly cash dividend to $0.16 per share.
Meanwhile, shares of Walgreen (WAG) are under pressure even though the drug store operator reported third quarter earnings of $0.65 per share, up from $0.47 per share a year ago and above analyst estimates for $0.62 per share. The company said its sales for the quarter rose 6.8 percent to $18.37 billion.
Walgreen also announced that contract renewal negotiations with pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts (ESRX) have been unsuccessful. As a result, the company is not planning to be a part of Express Scripts' pharmacy provider network as of January 1, 2012.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Tuesday. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 1.1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 1.2 percent.
The major European markets are also moving to the upside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index is up by 1.2 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are both up by 0.8 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries are seeing modest weakness, pulling back further off their highs. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.3 basis points at 2.976 percent.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.