Wall Street opens mostly higher

The main indices on Wall Street were mostly higher on Tuesday morning as traders digested US trade data and awaited job openings figures.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.01% at 34,627 while the S&P 500 climbed 0.15% to 4,232 and the Nasdaq rose 0.44% to 13,943.

Sentiment appeared to have been shred up by a narrowing of the US trade deficit in April to US$68.9bn from US$75bn the previous month.

Meanwhile, shares in cloud computing firm Fastly Inc (NYSE:FSLY) jumped 1.6% to US$51.49 as traders seemed to shrug off the firm’s role in a major internet outage earlier this morning.

8:00am: Wall Street expected to start on a mixed note

Wall Street is heading for a mixed but frankly undramatic open despite the major but short-lived internet outage earlier today.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is looking at a barely perceptible 0.07% or 17 point dip. The S&P 500 is set to edge up 0.11% and the Nasdaq Composite – shrugging off the outage and the weekend’s G7 agreement on taxing (mostly) tech companies – is expected to add 0.38%.

Investors still seem to be focused on inflationary pressures, and are perhaps being cautious ahead of Thursday’s US CPI figures.

There is also some US data due, with trade figures and job opening numbers.

Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said: “The latest JOLTs survey is expected to see another increase in job openings to 8.2mln in April, up from 8.12mln in March, as US businesses struggle to fill a growing number of vacancies at a time when US consumers have seen two big fiscal handouts in the first quarter of this year.”

Three things to watch for on Tuesday:

• Companies in the earnings diary today include robotic automation specialist UiPath Inc (NYSE:PATH), convenience store chain Casey’s General Stores Inc (NASDAQ:CASY) and RV maker Thor Industries Inc (NYSE:THO)
• Shares in cloud computing firm Fastly Inc (NYSE:FSLY) will be in focus after it was ascertained to have been the source of the internet outage
• Bitcoin could also draw attention as the digital currency dropped nearly 10% amid renewed fears of Chinese regulation and a shift in US monetary policy

Story by ProactiveInvestors