Stocks Move Mostly Higher In Morning Trading - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After initially showing a lack of direction, stocks have moved mostly higher over the course of morning trading on Wednesday. The major averages have all climbed into positive territory after closing lower in the two previous sessions.

In recent trading, the major averages have seen some further upside, reaching new highs for the session. The Dow is up 47.43 points or 0.3 percent at 17,650.75, the Nasdaq is up 32.80 points or 0.7 percent at 4,876.74 and the S&P 500 is up 9.44 points or 0.5 percent at 2,054.61.

The strength that has emerged on Wall Street is partly due to a notable increase by the price of crude oil, with crude for May delivery jumping $1.43 to $37.32 a barrel.

The sharp increase by the price of oil comes after a report from the Energy Information Administration showed that crude oil inventories fell by 4.9 million barrels last week.

Meanwhile, traders are also looking ahead to the release of the minutes of the most recent Federal Reserve meeting.

The minutes of the March Fed meeting, which are due to be released at 2 pm ET, may shed some additional light on the outlook for interest rates.

At the meeting, the Fed once again decided to leave interest rates unchanged in a range from 0.25 to 0.50 percent.

Kansas City Fed President Esther George voted against the action, preferring to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 0.50 to 0.75 percent.

Biotechnology stocks have shown a strong move to the upside on the day. The NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index has surged up by 2.8 percent to its best intraday level in well over two months.

Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO), Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS), and Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX) are turning in some of the biotech sector's best performances.

Pharmaceutical, oil service, and brokerage stocks are also seeing notable strength, while considerable weakness is visible among transportation stocks.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index crept up by 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index has inched up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.6 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are giving back some ground after moving notably higher in the previous session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.9 basis points at 1.746 percent.