Upbeat Chinese Data Leads To Early Strength On Wall Street - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved modestly higher in early trading on Monday, adding to the strong gains posted last Friday. The major averages have all climbed into positive territory, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq reaching its best levels since 2000.

The major averages have seen some further upside in the past few minutes, reaching new highs for the young session. The Dow is up 29.16 points or 0.2 percent at 16,049.36, the Nasdaq is up 17.98 points or 0.4 percent at 4,080.50 and the S&P 500 is up 6.01 points or 0.3 percent at 1,811.10.

The early strength on Wall Street is partly due to the release of a report showing that the Chinese trade surplus rose to its highest level in nearly five years in the month of November.

The report from China's General Administration of Customs said the trade surplus widened to $33.8 billion in November from $31.1 billion in October.

Chinese export growth accelerated to 12.7 percent year-over-year from 5.6 percent in October, while imports rose 5.3 percent, slower than the 7.6 percent growth seen in the previous month.

A separate report from China's National Bureau of Statistics showed that Chinese consumer prices rose less than expected in November amid a slowdown in food price inflation.

Nonetheless, traders seem somewhat reluctant to make any significant moves amid a quiet day in terms of major U.S. economic news.

Following the slew of key economic data released last week, the economic calendar is relatively light throughout the upcoming week.

Gold stocks have shown a strong upward move in early trading, however, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 1.7 percent. An increase by the price of gold is helping gold stocks recover from recent weakness.

Airline, housing, and steel stocks are also seeing early strength, while most of the other major sectors are showing more modest moves.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index surged up by 2.3 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended the day up by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets are turning in a mixed performance. While the German DAX Index has risen by 0.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index are both down by 0.1 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved back to the upside after trending lower in recent sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 3.9 basis points at 2.844 percent.