Stock markets are zeroed in on the vote later this week happening in U.K. with regards to what is termed the “Brexit.” This would be the exit of Great Britain out of the European Union.
Europe’s major markets were all moving higher on word that the latest polls were showing that British voters were leaning towards remaining in the EU. That rally was followed by the U.S. stock market.
The S&P 500 is higher by 23 points to trade at 2,094, the Dow Jones Industrial average is higher by 207 points to 17,882 and the Nasdaq is rising by 62 points to 4,863. The S&P Retail ETF is higher by 68 cents to sell at $42.13.
Nike Inc. is rising by over 1 percent to $54.45 following the win by the Cleveland Cavaliers over the Golden State warriors for the NBA Championship. LeBron James is one of Nike’s biggest stars and there has been a lot of talk about the quickly ascending Under Armour Inc. star Steph Curry, who plays for Golden State. But in the series, Curry struggled to shine and James managed to bring the Cavs back from a three-game deficit, which had never been done before in the NBA, to win it all. He was also named the series’ Most Valuable Player. The last game was decided in the final seconds and gave Cleveland a championship, something it hasn’t had since 1964.
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Under Armour did see an upgrade to a buy rating from Buckingham Research this morning. The stock doesn’t seem to be fazed by Golden State’s loss to Cleveland and is up over 2 percent to $38.24.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is up slightly by 1 percent to $71.69 following market chatter that it is selling its Chinese e-commerce business to JD.com Inc. JD is second only to Alibaba when it comes to online retailing in China. The Wal-Mart site is called Yihaodian and the deal was reported by the Wall Street Journal. Yihaodian is mostly grocery sales and JD.com is known for its brand-name electronic sales. Neither companies have confirmed the deal.
Jefferies initiated coverage of Procter & Gamble with a Buy rating and gave the giant consumer brand a $95 price target. That gave the stock a lift and it was higher by 53 cents to sell at $83.66.
Elsewhere, Asian market all closed higher with Japan leading the way. The Nikkei closed up 2.3 percent, while Hong Kong rallied 1.7 percent and China tacked on 0.1 percent.